Olympic Boycott | Does it Matter?
I like sports. I like the Olympics too.
I like to think that I care about the big things especially on issues of justice. It’s easy for us to care about starving kids and all out genocide, but where is the standard for caring? At what point should we show up and and do something?
Should we care about the Chinese occupation of Tibet? It’s not like they are killing people left and right.
Maybe we don’t need to go on a hunger strike or riot in the streets, but we should at least educate ourselves. Which when I think about it, sounds like a weak effort.
Maybe we don’t care about the little things because it doesn’t seem like it matters; it’s not like I can point to a picture of a kid on my fridge that I am supporting if I boycott the Olympics.
But maybe I should learn to care when it doesn’t get ME anything
Not disagreeing with you at all, but as I finished reading this, my mind turned to that oft-overused phrase “What Would Jesus Do”…and it occurred to me that I really don’t know what he would do. The Romans were probably 10x worse than the Chinese, and were not above an atrocity or two to get the day started, but you never hear about Jesus picketing Pilate or anything. Was his method (surely more effective) to work from the other side in, by sharing his promise of eternity with the people and letting them provide the pressure?
Interesting…
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Yeah, it’s a tough question. I want to care and i want people to know that I care.
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As a swimmer I have friends who had to miss 80 because of Jimmy Carter’s boycott. My question is why do we put pressure on the athletes to boycott but allow the business-persons to go on with zero pressure? Why don’t we ask them to boycott? Hmmmmmm. Oh yeah, because of billions of dollars in money. I just wish people would be consistent. If Phelps or Tyson Gay should boycott so should McDonald’s.
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@jordan….i am more concerned about the money people boycotting
at one end there is the thought that Christians have more important things to care about that the olympics and at the other, we have to figure out at what point to we jump in and care about injustice?
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Yes, I read that you were consistent in that. Some people are not. They’ll be a Christian business person who says we should boycott the Olympics while they put the label on the cargo crate they are shipping there. We work in Vietnam and have found out sometimes it is better to partner with government and show them the love of Christ in serving their people rather than grandstanding. We just signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Vietnamese government for freedom of religion.
(You can read more about it here… http://mynorthwood.northwoodchurch.org/?p=27 )
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http://www.globalengage.org/media/release.aspx?id=720
Sorry they moved the link.
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One more…not trying to pound you…promise.
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/city/tarrant/stories/DN-newnorthwood_26met.ART.North.Edition1.4262fb2.html
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great links jordan, there is so much going on in the world that we need to be educated on.
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