As many of you know, I enjoy watching sporting events and most particularly football. I have for years appreciated the athleticism, skill and teamwork displayed at all levels of the game. I have appreciated the game of football until this past week. "Deflate-gate" has lessened my enthusiasm for now and maybe from now on. This is the controversy about footballs that did not meet the rule for required air pressure in a recent NFL playoff game.

It isn't the alleged facts of this incident that have prompted this email but some of the commentary on these facts and many other incidences in the world of sports. Many voices have given approval to doing whatever you need to do to gain an advantage in the game. Many have chided that it is naïve to deny this "ends justify the means" reality. Many have stated that these sorts of tactics actually represent laudable traits like trying your hardest.

And all of us who love children might respond in this way: Are you kidding?

Are we really expected to give our approval to cheating in order to win? If so, how? I guess we would have to make honesty and integrity conditional. We would have to tell our children that these qualities could be put aside on the playing field and maybe, eventually, in the classroom, the office, the board room. We would probably need to make it clear to our children that their "wins" would define them and that they must do whatever it takes not to lose and thus become a loser in the eyes of the world. I guess we would have to let them know that whatever it takes could include hurting others, taking advantage of others, de-valuing others along the way. I guess we would have to tell them that treating others as you want to be treated is incorrect or ineffective or naïve. Jesus just had it wrong when he said, "In everything do to others as you would have them do to you..." Matthew 7:12

Are you kidding?