I know I promised that last year would be the last time I'd run my "March Madness" comics where I run a basketball themed gag every week for the three weeks that correspond to the NCAA Tournament, but do you really think I could let it go during the year of The Jimmer?I'm really hoping that The Jimmer leads BYU to the promised land and that two weeks from now we'll find out if Jimmer Fredette really is a religion with a Final Four game conflicting with General Conference and a Championship game conflicting with Family Home Evening. Come on, Jimmer, I believe in you!
I really do wish all the adulation poured out on athletes, entertainers, etc., were being directed toward God, the prophets, the Scriptures, and so on. Can you imagine the impact that could have on the world, with all that love and energy going toward service, spiritual growth, etc.?
ReplyDeleteSaiba mais sobre a históriada Sociedade de Socorro no Blog www.murilovisck.blogspot.com
ReplyDeleteGo Jimmer! Wahoo! What a ball player and what a great PR rep for the church and BYU!
ReplyDeleteGreat cartoon! I love the stack of chairs in the corner. Nice touch! I also like the "religion" link to the FB message in your post.
ReplyDeleteGo Cougs!
I'm still waiting for a Jimmer comic to make it's appearance here.
ReplyDeleteIt seems like you may have had some experience with over-the-back fouls by members of the third ward. How much truth is there to this comic?
ReplyDeleteCan you do a comic where Jimmer is competing in the pinewood derby?
I think we need a Jimmer comic as well. There are just so many possibilities. I was just thinking that the other day... assuming we win this week... how many references to BYU basketball might be made during that historic conference session?
ReplyDeleteJennie, are you saying you honestly think basketball is a doctrine of the Church?
ReplyDeletePersonally, I'd feel even more excluded from the Church than I now do if being a basketball fan were now a requirement for membership or being preached from the pulpit. As it is, I predict there are going to be testimonies borne of basketball with MAYBE, if we're lucky, a perfunctory sentence or two having to do with anything spiritual tacked on as an obvious insincere rote afterthought (the "oh yeah, by the way, I'd better throw in something about the Gospel after that thankimony and/or autobiography I just rambled through" afterthought is standard in my stake as it is).
Am I the only person in the Church who wishes for more interest in things that will actually matter in eternity? Maybe I'd better just turn in my Temple recommend and give up, since I cannot muster any interest in sports, which to hear most of the LDS online community tell it means I'm not really LDS anyway. Bad enough I'm a convert, not descended from umpteenth-generation pioneer stock. Worse that I did not have opportunity to attend BYU (that whole converted at 24, married the next year, thing). What seems to have so many thinking I pretty much qualify for outer darkness is that I really don't have an interest in sports, and would rather use that time on things that are going to matter long-term.
FelixAndAva,
ReplyDeleteI'm sure that Jennie doesn't equate basketball with the gospel (at least I never heard her teach that to the people of Slovenia).
I readily acknowledge that sports play too big a role in our culture (LDS and beyond), I've even seen sports divide a ward (it's a BYU/Utah thing); but I'd hope you'd give BYU basketball fans a little leeway, their team is enjoying its best basketball season in 30 years and Jimmer Fredette is a once-in-a-lifetime talent. Nevertheless, you won't have to endure it much longer. The season is guaranteed to end within the next two weeks and it could end as soon as tonight.
I really hope you don't feel too persecuted for you lack of interest in sports. I, for one, wish I could be as levelheaded as the non-fandom population. (In fact, I probable swear off sports a half dozen times a year--pretty much every time any one of my teams loss a big game.)
President Hinckley spoke of the need to keep sports (and other distractions) from taking up too much of our lives. Consider yourself lucky for overcoming this particular vice that the rest of us are still struggling with.