SocraticGadfly: "Spiritual healing"? How about "egotistic bullshit"?

January 25, 2005

"Spiritual healing"? How about "egotistic bullshit"?

So now Philadelphia Eagle hotshot wide receiver and egomaniac par excellence Terrell Owens is claiming he has been "spiritually healed".

What BS.

First, I think any true Christian ought to take offense at this, the latest and most over-the-top example of athletes believing a god, if he existed, actually cares about who wins a stinking football/baseball/basketball game.

Second, traditional Christians should see this as Exhibit A for what is wrong with the "God and greed" mentality of "success theology" Christianity and its ego-stroking.

Third, I as a secularist am warming up the interior schadenfreude motor, just waiting for T.O. to be a big fricking flop.

Finally, T.O.’s claims of "spiritual healing" always beg back to the issue of theodicy and the problem of evil. Hey, T.O., if you love your God so much, and you think he cares about your football success so much, why don’t you ask him why he let your leg get broken in the first place?

Update, Feb. 6: Unfortunately, Owens played in the Super Bowl as if he had gotten some sort of healing. Nine catches for 122 yards is very good. At least the Eagles lost, so he wasn't able to shoot his mouth off too much, let alone thank God for an Eagles' victory, as so many athletes are wont to do, as if a divinity actually would put an athletic contest on that high of a scale.
Now, the ancient Greeks, for whom the Olympic Games were soaked with religion, might well disagree. But, Athens didn't have everything right, either.

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