Tiger

When news of the Tiger Woods scandal first broke, my initial thoughts were akin to those of Jon Acuff regarding the Kanye West VMA incident: Tiger deserves grace. In the midst of everybody in the media piling on him right now, with him being the butt of every late night joke, with his marriage in shambles and his career on hold, with everything in his life falling apart, the one thing he needs more than anything right now is grace. And when the story first broke, I thought (and wrote) that none of us could say we would have done any better had we been in his shoes. It’s not a story of the fall of Tiger – it’s the story of the fall of man. And we can all relate.

That was at the beginning.

Then it came out that it was more than one woman. Then it was 3. Then half a dozen. Then a dozen. Now, the tally is up to 14 different women that Tiger had affairs with.

It really made me stop and question: what is the fullest extent of grace? How many women can Tiger have cheated on his wife with and still deserve grace?

And that’s when the obvious hit me – he doesn’t deserve grace. None of us do. That’s the scandalous and uncomfortable nature of grace, and what makes it so incredibly and deeply powerful. And the higher the number of women goes, the more scandalous and powerful that grace becomes. Which is why I wrote the following letter to Tiger Woods and sent it to him via his website:

Dear Tiger,

You don’t know me. To be honest, I’m not much of a golf fan, and I’ve only watched you play on TV once or twice. So it doesn’t make much sense for me to be writing you, I suppose. But I wanted you to know that I am for you. And more than that, God is for you.

You’ve been taking a beating in the media and the press lately. Late night comics have been having a field day with your mistakes. You’re probably getting letters from people condemning you, and even some from folks claiming to be Christians or writing in the name of their God. For those that fall in that last category, I’d like to sincerely apologize. Sometimes those of us who are trying our best to follow Jesus get our heads stuck in our hind quarters and fail miserably in living out the values that run deep in our souls.

I’ve never cheated on my wife, Tiger, but I know all too well the temptation to do so. And I don’t think any of us can say with any modicum of honesty that we wouldn’t have done the same things you did had we been in your position. I know what it’s like to do the things you don’t want to do (even if at the time, you really want to do them). I know what it’s like to carry the immensely heavy burden of secrets, and then to feel the bizarre mix of relief, shame, and anger when those secrets are uncovered. To some extent, if we’re honest, every one of us can relate to your story.

And since I would guess there’s not a whole lot of folks who are saying this right now, I want to say it again: I am for you. I am for you as a fellow human being journeying through this life trying to figure it out. I am for you because I know that as humans created in God’s image, we all are – and you are – infinitely more than the sum of our mistakes and indiscretions. I am for you because I’ve tasted and experienced the powerful and scandalous and undeserved grace of God, and because I long for you to experience it now as well. I am for you because while your actions may deserve a degree of the judgment you are now receiving from all sides, I believe there is a better way to live than one filled with judgment.

This is undoubtedly going to be an incredibly difficult holiday season for you and your family. I don’t even know if you will spend it together or not. And I know you and I do not believe the same things when it comes to religious matters. But this holiday season, I hope that you would give some thought to the millennia-old story of God pouring himself into human form to declare that he was here with us. Feeling our pain. Willing to erase our shame and take the weight of our guilt. Because in that story, there is peace. In that story, there is a God saying, “I am for you.”

You are valued and loved as a human created in the image of God, Tiger Woods. May the attacks and judgment that you are receiving right now never cause you to forget that.

With grace and peace,
Matt Coulter

Pepsi To Forgo Superbowl Ads

How big of an influence is Web 2.0?

Enough that Pepsi has decided - for the first time in 23 years! - to not air any ads in the Superbowl this February. Instead, their new ad campaign will be targeted to... wait for it... the internet.

ESPN has more details on this move that is sure to send shockwaves through the advertising world:

Pepsi's Super Bowl streak is over after a 23-year run.

Ads for the drinks won't appear in next year's Super Bowl on CBS. Instead, the company plans to shift ad dollars to a new marketing effort that's mostly online.

The company, which is based in Purchase, N.Y., spent $33 million in advertising... last year during the Super Bowl.

Pepsi had been a major advertiser during the Super Bowl. According to TNS, the company spent $142.8 million on the 10 Super Bowl ads from 1999 to 2008, second only to Anheuser-Busch, which spent $216 million.

Instead, Pepsi is focusing an interactive internet campaign dedicated to creating a "movement" rather than an "event". How well will it work? Will other companies follow in their footsteps?

Advertising online is certainly less expensive than through traditional media, and now it will be interesting to see if it pays off for Pepsi. Of course, if you took Pepsi and Coke and asked which one would think of doing this, you'd expect it to be Pepsi. Coke is way too risk-averse to ever be this experimental and forward-thinking.

2009 According to YouTube

YouTube today released a list of the most searched-for terms on its site for 2009, broken down by month – and as the tech blog Mashable notes, reading the list is like taking a trip down 2009 memory lane:

January – inauguration
February – Christian Bale
March – The Climb
April – Susan Boyle
May - Pacquiao vs Hatton
June – Michael Jackson Thriller
July – Michael Jackson
August – Usain Bolt
September – Kanye West
October – Paranormal Activity
November – Bad Romance
December – Tiger Woods

The most watched video of 2009, by far, was Susan Boyle’s audition on Britain’s Got Talent. If you haven’t seen that yet, get out from under the rock and go watch it right now!

So if you want to get caught up on pop culture 2 or 3 minutes at a time, there’s your list. Three music videos (can I admit here that I actually really like “The Climb”? I had no idea Miley Cyrus sang it until I watched the video just now) plus three musicians, four athletes, a politician, and an actor and a movie. Sounds about right.

Top Toys of 2009

Still looking for a last minute Christmas gift? Well, as is TWM tradition ("tradition" meaning I did this last year and am doing it again now), here are the top 10 Christmas gifts for 2009 according to the National Retail Federation (with last year's ranking in parentheses):

Boys
1. Video Games (1)
2. Transformers (5)
3. LEGOs (3)
4. Cars (generic) (4)
5. Nintendo Wii (2)
6. Trucks (-)
7. Bakugan (-)
8. Hotwheels (8)
9. Nintendo DS (-)
10. Fisher Price toys (-)

Girls
1. Barbie (1)
2. Dolls (generic) (3)
3. Hannah Montana (2)
4. Video Games (6)
5. Disney Princesses (9)
6. Dora the Explorer (-)
7. American Girl dolls (10)
8. Nintendo DS (-)
9. Nintendo Wii (5)
10. Zhu Zhu Pets (-)

Some notes: Elmo dropped off both the boys and girls lists this year; Dora leaped up the charts for girls; this may mark the first year that the girls' list contains three video game-related items; Bakugan is a cartoon and Zhu Zhu pets are electronic hamster looking things.

But again, just like last year, girls still love their dolls and boys still love their video games and cars. It's nice to be able to count on some things never changing.

Red Zone: Nearing the End of Football Season (Already?!)

Thought I'd jot a few notes about football here. It's one of my favorite things and there just has not been enough space in this blog devoted to it. (Sorry, Sandra! :)

First, an update on my fantasy league: I am red hot right now! After starting the season 0-7, I completely redid my team, adding 7 new players to my 9 man lineup. Since that change, I have won 6 straight games and earned the 5th seed in the playoffs! Woo hoo! The farthest I've ever made it in a fantasy league is the second round of the playoffs, so here's hoping this is the year I break through that glass ceiling.

As far as "real" football, here's some updates on my preseason questions from this post:

The Cutler/Orton Controversy
Who benefited from the Cutler/Orton trade? On the flipside of this question, we can say the deal was clearly a losing proposition for the Bears. Orton has tossed a league-leading 20 INTs this season and has a poor 75.3 passer rating. On the other hand, Orton has tossed only 7 picks and twice as many TDs, with a passer rating 13 points higher than Cutler. Denver's 8-4 record also looks a lot better than Chicago's 5-7 record. Denver also still gets two first round and a third round draft pick from Chicago as part of the deal as well. Kudos to you, Coach McDaniels.

Vick in Philly
Would Vick help Philly over the hump and make them a solid playoff team? Well, the Eagles appear to be a playoff-destined team, but it is no thanks to Michael Vick who has taken much more of a backseat role than anyone expected. The Eagles have rarely put Vick on the field, and he's thrown the ball only 11 times all year. It looks like the Vick story may have been the most over-hyped story of the pre-season.

The New Guys in Indy
What would happen to the Colts with an entirely new coaching staff, and without their star wide receiver Marvin Harrison? Answer: they would be one of the three most dominating teams, going 12-0 so far and clinching their division in November. Amazing. Every other team looking to undergo coaching changes: study the way Dungy did it in Indy. And getting yourself a QB named Peyton Manning wouldn't hurt, either.

Brady's Back in Town
Everyone expected the Pats to blow the other AFC East contenders out of the water this season with the return of Tom Brady. Instead, it was their young defense devoid of the star players of years past that has taken the spotlight from a still-rusty Brady and led the Pats to a mediocre 7-6 record - just one game ahead of the Dolphins and Jets. Belichick has to worried now not about how far they'll make it in the playoffs, but how much they'll have to fight just to make the playoffs.

Wildcat
How many teams would use the Wildcat formation, and to what degree of success? Answer: not many, not very often, and not very well. The Dolphins are the only team to base their offense around the formation, and to their credit they win games they're not supposed to win with this gimmick. But while other teams have taken a snap or two in the Wildcat, it hasn't caught on with any other teams the way it has in Miami.

KC's Cassel
Would Cassel excel in KC like he did in NE? Short answer: nope. Longer answer: Bill Belichick again proves his genius by making an average QB look stellar in his system at NE. Of course, Cassell is not surrounded by the quality of players he was in NE, but I don't think a 3-9 record was quite what the Chiefs were looking for out of their new "star".

Favre in Purple
I don't think anyone except the diehard fans expected Favre to be this good, leading the Vikings to a 10-2 record so far. But last game against the Cardinals, the rust started coming back again as Favre threw 2 picks and scored a 79 passer rating. Now the question is: can Favre turn it around against teams like the Bengals and the Giants, or will this season look like a repeat of the end of last year?

Misc.
Matt Stafford is playing well in Detroit, and I wish he was on a better team. Ochocinco has lived up to all the hype and has been fun to watch. And the QB controversy in Tennessee has surpassed everyone's expectations with Kerry Collins leading the team to an 0-7 start and Vince Young turning it around with a 5-1 record in the next 6 games.

Only 4 games remain until the playoffs... it's hard to believe the season in so close to being over already! It seems like it just started.

War and Peace

I am one of the 75% of Americans who think Barack Obama does not deserve the Nobel Peace Prize he accepted today. But there have been a lot of headlines and commentators today mentioning that statistic in conjunction with the fact that Barack Obama is a "wartime President" - that he is accepting the Peace Prize at the same time he is ramping up a war in Afghanistan.

This line of thinking reveals a drastic misunderstanding of what "peace" is, and so in a highly unusual move, I am going to defend President Barack Obama.

As I have written here before, peace is not simply the absence of war. Ending a military engagement does not automatically equal peace. It is a simpleton's mindset and worldview that holds that to be the case.

Here is what, for some reason, is so difficult for some people to grasp: war does not stand opposed to peace. Sometimes, war is a means to peace.

War is a horrid thing. But sometimes, it is a necessary thing.

If President Obama had chosen to withdraw all our troops from Afghanistan rather than sending more over, peace would not have been the result. The Taliban would still be in control and growing in their oppressive power. The country would still be destabilized.

Let's take this one step farther. Former President Bush was called a war-monger and an enemy of peace for beginning military action in Iraq - as if Iraq was at peace before the Americans declared war there! But there was no peace in Iraq, even prior to the U.S. invasion. People were murdered and intimidated and tortured by their own government. Mass graves were filled with political dissenters. There was no peace. The goal of the invasion of Iraq was to bring peace to that country - for our sake and for theirs. (The question that still remains now is: has that goal been achieved, or can it still be achieved?)

The ancient Hebrew people had one of the best definitions of peace I've come across. They called it shalom, and to them it meant wholeness, harmony, safety, rest. Life put back the way it was intended to be.

During this Advent season, as we wait expectantly for God's coming to earth, we remember the words of the angels: "And on earth, peace to men on whom his favor rests." Should we suppose that the angels' message of peace on earth simply portends the absence of conflict?

Or, perhaps, should we recognize that conflict is the road upon which men travel towards the destination of peace?

Barack Obama doesn't deserve his Peace Prize because he hasn't accomplished anything yet. Who knows - by the end of his four or eight year stint as President, he may very well deserve it. Time will tell. But let's stop saying he's not a man of peace simply because it appears he wants to win a war.

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