 |
Today is Thursday, Sep 2, 2010 |
| Home | BPNews | Subscribe to BP | Tell A Friend | Contact Us |
|
FIRST PERSON: Of preseason polls and prejudicial Christians by Brett Maragni Date: Oct 17, 2009 |
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (BP)--I strongly dislike preseason polls. They are meaningless and end up causing more damage than they are worth. Early season polls are not worth much either. Until a team has played four or five games, it is arrogant to assume where a team deserves to be ranked.Early this season top five teams are losing at a record pace. Last year, the preseason favorite, Georgia, ended up No. 13 in the final AP poll while the Utah Utes went from unranked to No. 2. In 2007, 12 top five teams had lost to unranked opponents by the end of November. In 2006 … well, three words: Boise State Broncos. The problem is that a team that starts the season unranked has a lot more to overcome to get into a BCS bowl game than a team that was ranked in the top five in the preseason. If polls were not taken until five, or even better, six weeks into the season, the bowl assignments would be fairer because the polls would be based more upon performance on the field than preseason prognostications. Even the BCS rankings, which do not begin until later in the season, are affected because they use the polls that started in the preseason, thus making them skewed by the prejudgment of the polls. But before I get too sanctimonious in my denunciation of the current ranking system, the reality is that we Christians can be even worse about prejudging people. We sometimes prejudge new people coming into our churches by the version of the Bible that they use or the kind of church they came from. If someone is not in our theological “camp” we assume that they are either naïve or close-minded to the truth. Sometimes our prejudice works the other way as well. Sometimes we are too quick to favor those who dress the way we do and look the way we look. Leaders say to one another, “They seem like a sharp couple,” meaning, “They look like us.” So the sharp-looking couple starts the season off in our church ranked higher than the single lady who is currently without a job. The reality is that Miss Unemployed might be more spiritually mature and ready to lead a ministry than Mr. or Mrs. Sharp. God’s word addresses our tendency toward prejudicial favoritism: “My brothers, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory. For if a man wearing a gold ring and fine clothing comes into your assembly, and a poor man in shabby clothing also comes in, and if you pay attention to the one who wears the fine clothing and say, ‘You sit here in a good place,’ while you say to the poor man, ‘You stand over there,’ or, ‘Sit down at my feet,’ have you not then made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?” (James 2:1-4) Bottom line for sports: wait until later in the season to start up the polls. Bottom line for us: get to know a person for who they are instead of making early assumptions. --30-- Brett Maragni is senior pastor of Harvest Bible Chapel of Jacksonville, Fla. His Web site is www.pastorbrett.com.
|
 |
|
| Recent Columns by Author | |
|
FIRST PERSON: The big decision -7/12/2010 FIRST PERSON: March Madness, fathers and sons -3/31/2010 FIRST PERSON: Urban Meyer: The case for balance -2/4/2010 FIRST PERSON: Praying for Tiger -12/23/2009 FIRST PERSON: Coaching men to worship the true God -11/13/2009 FIRST PERSON: Of preseason polls and prejudicial Christians -10/17/2009 FIRST PERSON: The gold standard for college coaches -9/12/2009 FIRST PERSON: He autographs our hearts -7/17/2009 FIRST PERSON: The curious case of Michael Vick -5/5/2009 FIRST PERSON: Learning leadership from little league -4/3/2009 | |
|
WWW.BPSPORTS.NET
Copyright (c) 2001 - 2010 Southern Baptist Convention Terms of Use |
901 Commerce Street Nashville, TN 37203 Tel: 615.782.8615 Fax: 615.782.8736 |