Daily Archives: September 29, 2006

One of the risks of the modern church

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church.state.jpgIt’s trendy these days for megachurches to provide all sorts of special services for their members. One of the most popular of such services is marriage counseling, which this NY Times article reports placed a Texas church squarely in the crosshairs of a defamation lawsuit when the minister providing the service went and blabbed confidential information about one of the church members to the church elders.
The leaders of the churches providing these services better recognize that such lawsuits are part of the risk of providing such a service and that it is not at all clear that the traditional separation between church and state is going to insulate the church from liability. Pastors who are leading their churches down this course need to ask themselves how their flocks will react when the church must raise money to pay a damages award from such a lawsuit or even just to pay the considerable cost of defending one. That’s not the type of sacrificial atonement that Christ had in mind.
Speaking of risks for megachurches, Victoria Osteen — wife of Lakewood Church’s Joel Osteen — has resolved her little Christmas season snit with the FAA, but that apparently is not the end of the story:

The Federal Aviation Administration has fined Victoria Osteen, wife of Lakewood pastor Joel Osteen, $3,000 after determining she had interfered with a Continental Airlines crew member aboard a flight late last year.
And this week, a flight attendant filed suit claiming she was assaulted by Victoria Osteen during that flight to Vail, Colo., for the Christmas holidays.
Osteen has paid the penalty, which is not an admission of guilt

Mrs. Osteen is well-represented by none other than the ubiquitous Rusty Hardin.

The most uncomfortable place right now in the United States?

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Roy Oswalt31.jpgAnswer: The St. Louis Cardinals clubhouse.
Let’s put this in perspective. 10 days ago, the Cardinals won their game that day and the Stros lost theirs. At that time, the Cards were 79-69 and the Stros were 72-77. The Stros were trailing the Redbirds by a seemingly insurmountable 8.5 games.
After completing a sweep of the Pirates yesterday afternoon, the Stros are now 81-78 and a mere half game behind the 81- 77 Cards, who got creamed by the Brewers last night. So, in a week and a half, the Stros have gone from less than a five percent chance of making the playoffs to being a legitimate contender. You gotta love baseball.
Although there is a element of luck in what has happened, it’s really not that surprising when you look at the statistics. The Stros stellar pitching has continued to improve — as it usually does over the 2nd half of the season — and the hitting, although still well below Naitional League average, has improved enough so as not to undermine the excellent pitching. On the other hand, the Cardinals’ pitching — which has been deteriorating for over a season now — has gone into the tank while their hitting has been pretty much relegated to an occasional Pujols tater.
The Stros have three games against the Braves in Atlanta and the Cards have three more games at home against the Brewers and a make-up game, if necessary, against the Giants on Monday in St. Louis. If the Stros and Cards tie, the one-game playoff is on Tuesday at Minute Maid Park in Houston.