Do No Harm

In these theistic debates, we often see the argument over who killed more people. How atheist leaders killed this many millions in the 20th Century, or Christians killed that many millions in the Crusades and so on. As if “who killed more” is some indication of truth…

Rather than focus on these huge numbers, and the grandiose crime of murder, I thought I would look at something more here-and-now. More relevant.

Dallas Academy is a school for kids with some learning problems. They have about 20 girls, most of whom have never played basketball. Not surprisingly, their team is not very good. They haven’t won a game in four years.

But on January 13 2009, they played a north Dallas Christian school called “The Covenant” losing the game 100-0.

Think about that. 100-0.

The Coach for Dallas said “They are really good. Their point guard is terrific. This is what it came down to in the second half: steal at half court and layup. Steal and layup. Steal and layup. It was a layup drill. They finally eased up when they got to 100 with about four minutes left."

The score at 1st quarter was 35-0, at half 59-0 and at 3rd quarter 88-0. One player obtained 48 points.

The Coach for The Covenant said, "It just happened, and we are not happy about that. Please know Covenant intended no harm against them. I see this as a real learning opportunity, so we can prevent this from happening in the future.”

Excuse me? “It just happened…”???

No, you let it happen. You wanted it to happen. You have a program where other teams are struggling and you deliberately pounded them into the ground. Were there “Boo’s” from The Covenant’s home crowd as score after score were made? Did the coach tell the players to stop shooting baskets, and start working together?

There are complaints in public schools of “running up the scores”—and this Christian school couldn’t figure out what they were doing?

No—they knew exactly what they were doing.

Then the story broke out in the newspapers. Dallas Academy has pulled out of the league after this game. Dallas Academy was proud of how well the girls held up under this beating. Now the world looked at the Christian school The Covenant as a monster. What does it do?

AFTER the story broke, it offers up a formal apology and a formal offer to forfeit. (Here’s the thing—you don’t need to do a “formal forfeit” through an administrative process. All one has to do is forfeit. A bit of trumpeting one’s own horn.)

Not before. Not on the 14th. Nor the 15th.

What is the difference between a secular school and a Christian one?

In the secular school we have:

1. Runs up the score.
2. Gets caught.
3. Makes formal apology.
4. Moves on with no change.

Whereas in the Christian School there is:

1. Runs up the score.
2. Gets caught.
3. Makes formal apology.
4. Moves on with no change.

However, there is one subtle difference. The secular school is left shouldering the responsibility. It did what it did. No blaming others, no absolution. The Christian school, however, is considered “good” for making an apology. “Isn’t it great it stepped forward and so kindly offered to forfeit the game?” [After it got caught, of course.]

The Christian school doesn’t have to live with what it did—because it is “forgiven.” It asked for forgiveness and Jesus washed away all its sin. Forgiven and forgotten. The Christian is better for getting forgiveness from its God; while the poor non-Christian is doomed to a hotter hell when performing the same deed..

In all this bickering about who is better than whom—I find it odd the Christian is satisfied with only being “as good as” the non-Christian.

It isn’t “who killed more?” It is that both killed.