In case you haven't seen the clip of Lebron announcing his decision last week, here it is. The Carell-Rudd clip will make much more sense.

By: R.J. Moeller

“For over a thousand years Roman conquerors returning from the wars enjoyed the honor of triumph, a tumultuous parade. The conqueror rode in a triumphal chariot, the dazed prisoners walking in chains before him. And a slave stood behind the conqueror holding a golden crown and whispering in his ear a warning: that all glory is fleeting.”   -General George S. Patton

Humility is the rarest of all human characteristics, and pride is the most abundant.  How do I know this?  Because I am one – a pride-ridden human, that is.  As the great Christian thinker C.S. Lewis put it, we are most certain of the specific faults and flaws in others that we ourselves possess.  There is a self-identification with the pride that resides in my own heart when I see my neighbor, or, for example, a 25 year-old NBA basketball player who recently switched NBA teams to play in Miami, indulge in a public exhibition of prideful, immature showboating.

I identify with it and resent it in large part because I know deep down that I am capable of making the same type of mistake (and likely have already at some point in my life).

For those of you living abroad or under a rock with poor cable and cell reception, (arguably) the best basketball player in the world, Lebron James, held the basketball world “hostage” the past month as he deliberated over which NBA team he would play for starting in the 2010-2011 season.  James had been a member of the Cleveland Cavaliers his entire career since being drafted straight out of high school in 2003.  Last Thursday night, in what can only be described as a classless move, Lebron agreed to announce his career intentions on live television.  His decision was to leave Cleveland for the sandier pastures of Miami, FL where two other mega-stars, Chris Bosh and Dwayne Wade, had already signed.

There are three basic reasons why so many people and sports media pundits have reacted negatively to Lebron’s antics over the past 4-6 weeks.  The first is that James did not show the respect to his former employer, the owner of the Cavs, to call and let him know that he was bolting for Miami.  Instead he, his ego, and the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network (ESPN) colluded to produce an hour-long special where King James would announce his intentions on live television.  The hype surrounding the announcement suddenly became more important than the integrity of anyone involved.  You could see it in his eyes and hear it in his voice that night that Lebron was uncomfortable with the format and execution of the televised interview – probably because it was ridiculously lame and dishonorable.

The second reason this story has generated the backlash it has is that with Bosh and Wade, Lebron James has instantly created an All Star-caliber squad that most objective observers would agree instantly has the best chance to win the NBA championship title next year.  But while Americans love a winner, we rarely enjoy a lop-sided winner.  People don’t like to see Andre the Giant wrestle Jackie Chan.  We want competition, and we love stories of home-grown talent that overcome great odds and foil old foes on their path to victory.  Say what you will, but sports do matter in this country and Americans instinctively sense the moral and ethical dilemmas and lessons inherent to athletic competition (especially on a such a prominent, national stage, as the NBA).  Teams like the Miami Heat and New York Yankees may be within their legal rights to purchase a title, but that doesn’t mean sports consumers have to applaud it.

The third and final disappointing aspect of the Lebron-to-Miami saga came the following day after his infamous press conference.  Last Friday, in a spectacle I imagine was akin to the Roman parades for returning conquerors General Patton spoke of in the quote I opened with, the Miami Heat held a sold-out welcome rally and extravaganza in their arena.

There were roofs raised, high-steps taken, fist-pumps pumped, and shimmy-shakes aplenty as James, Wade, and Bosh strutted their stuff on stage in front of thousands of rabid fans.  Fireworks exploded and confetti fell.  It was out of control, over the top, and unsettling to behold.  The “Big Three” embarrassed themselves and came off as immature and petty.

A celebration such as the one witnessed in Miami last week ought to be reserved for teams that have actually won something, like my Chicago Blackhawks did in winning the 2010 Stanley Cup in hockey.

These young men enjoyed their day in the sun after defeating four different teams in four different grueling best-of-seven series.  The Blackhawks defenseman Duncan Keith, the NHL’s eventual winner of the Defensive Player of the Year award, lost seven teeth early in the 3rd round of the playoffs after taking a puck to the mouth and not only played later in that same game, but played every one of the remaining eight.  That’s sacrifice and effort worthy of the 3 million Chicagoans who came out for the victory parade and rally in Grant Park.

Contrast the earned achievements and displayed class of the Chicago Blackhawks with the self-indulgent, premature, and overstated hootenanny held in Southern Florida last week.  The Miami Heat would have done well to provide Lebron, Dwayne Wade, and Chris Bosh each with their own personal assistant who was required to walk alongside them during the festivities surrounding their arrival and whisper in their ear, “All glory is fleeting.”  But they didn’t.  And as a result, all three players, but Lebron in particular, are experiencing a less-than-positive backlash from fans, journalists, and former NBA players.

Almost overnight, “King James” has become the least popular thing associated with South Beach since Will Smith’s “Welcome to Miami (Bienvenido A Miami)” music video dropped some ten years prior.

So what is it that drove Lebron James, an otherwise controversy-free athlete, to make such a spectacle of himself?  What led to his fall from grace with millions of adoring fans and respectful peers?  And what do his recent, unfortunate actions say about modern American culture?  What does our reaction to those actions say about us?

Pride, not money, is the root of all evil.  Pride is also the root of most selfish, silly actions; especially among men.  We are competitive creatures.  In his chapter on pride in Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis writes:

“Pride is essentially competitive - is competitive by its very nature - while the other vices are competitive only, so to speak, by accident. Pride gets no pleasure out of having something, only out of having more of it than the next man. We say that people are proud of being rich, or clever, or good-looking, but they are not. They are proud of being richer, or cleverer, or better-looking than others. If everyone else became equally rich, or clever, or good-looking there would be nothing to be proud about. It is the comparison that makes you proud: the pleasure of being above the rest…

Power is what Pride really enjoys: there is nothing makes a man feel so superior to others as being able to move them about like toy soldiers.”

Throughout this entire free agency process, we have heard many times from Lebron James that he is simply “all about winning.”  He is a competitor and a tremendously gifted athlete, but I believe his pride has been hurt over the past seven years as many have criticized him for failing to win an NBA championship.  The combination of prideful ambition, in conjunction with a ceaseless chorus of naysayers regarding his value as a player if he never wins a title, compromised James’ better judgment and led him down a path that resulted in the bizarre, unpopular decisions we witnessed as of late.

It wasn’t the glamour, the women, or the tropical climate that brought him to Miami.  It wasn’t the cash-money, “dolla’, dolla’ bills ya’ll” that guided his decision to flaunt his free agent status and to force NBA teams to grovel at his feet for his considerable services.  It was pride.  It was the superior feeling he got from making others move about like toy soldiers.

But Lebron is not alone in terms of who can learn a valuable life lesson or two from the events of the past month.  The owners of the Miami Heat are largely responsible for the disgusting display of hasty, gratuitous celebration that took place at last Friday’s rally.  My problem is not with the fact that an NBA franchise is so excited about their new team that they want to gin-up some enthusiasm among the local fan-base, but that they poured out such extravagant honor for three players who have yet to complete a single practice together.  This is the same problem I had with the entire coverage of the Barack Obama presidential campaign and election (and presidency, thus far).

The man had impressive academic credentials, had an adoring base of supporters in the media, and generated large crowds around the country when he spoke.  But he hadn’t accomplished anything of note when Oprah wept, Chris Matthews swooned, and the Nobel Peace Prize committee went ga-ga for Barack after only a couple of weeks in office.  Perhaps he will accomplish something grand by the end of his one-term in office, but save the misty eyes and tingling legs for after a president displays greatness.  To do so before says much more about the desperation of one’s supporters than it does about the man himself.

Which brings me to my final thought on the matter: the Lebron James saga is really all about us.  It is about the consumers that lap up the drivel 24-hour-a-day entertainment networks like ESPN present us to sell advertising time on the air.  We buy the tabloids in the grocery store, we (myself included) tune in when Tiger Woods has a press conference to confess his infidelities, and we create the cultural environment within which young people like Lebron James grow up.  That environment is one that promotes fame and stardom over good character and sound judgment.  It is one that promotes academic knowledge and “a good job” over moral wisdom and personal contentment.  It is one that promotes financial wealth over economic stability and personal responsibility.

I can identify and recognize these societal flaws so readily because I harbor them in my own heart.  Lebron James’ mistakes are so abundantly clear to so many of us because we can spot unbridled pride from all the years we ourselves have indulged in it.  While we must never cease to call reckless or silly public behavior what it is, we do not have to write-off those who engage in it.

"Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.  Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?  How can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye.” Matthew 7:1-5

URBANA, Ill. -- The University of Illinois has fired an adjunct professor who taught courses on Catholicism after a student accused the instructor of engaging in hate speech by saying he agrees with the church's teaching that homosexual sex is immoral.

The professor, Ken Howell of Champaign, said his firing violates his academic freedom. He also lost his job at an on-campus Catholic center.

Howell, who taught Introduction to Catholicism and Modern Catholic Thought, says he was fired at the end of the spring semester after sending an e-mail explaining some Catholic beliefs to his students preparing for an exam.

This story from my home state is disappointing, but by no means surprising. I hope that the skeptical conservatives among us, specifically the religious ones, will see in a news report like this the true nature of the Left.  They are disinterested in the unity and they raise young people to think that their emotional reaction to something they disagree with is not only the most appropriate reaction, but the "true" one.

An unidentified student sent an e-mail to religion department head Robert McKim on May 13, calling Howell's e-mail "hate speech." The student claimed to be a friend of the offended student. The writer said in the e-mail that his friend wanted to remain anonymous.

"Teaching a student about the tenets of a religion is one thing," the student wrote. "Declaring that homosexual acts violate the natural laws of man is another."

Howell said he was teaching his students about the Catholic understanding of natural moral law.

An "unidentified" college kid, a "friend" of the student who was actually in the class no less, certainly wanted his views heard and for the professor to be punished...but wasn't courageous enough to put his John Hancock to his own words.  Perfect.  Maybe he is the person who always leaves provocative comments on conservative websites under the name "Anonymous"?

Now I've been led to believe that the liberal-dominated university (i.e. every public institution of higher learning in the United States) is a magical land of academic inquiry and investigation.  So it would make sense that the University of Illinois wanted a class that teaches what it is that Catholics believe.  They hired a man, one Ken Howell, to teach what Catholics believe.  As soon as he taught what Catholics believe, he was fired for hate speech.

I could be wrong, but I'm fairly certain that the Catholic church has been crystal clear regarding its position on gay marriage and abortion.  For those who get their updates on traditional and current Catholic doctrine from Nancy Pelosi, let me catch you up a couple of thousand years: the Christian bible teaches that marriage is a one man-one woman institution, and protecting innocent life that is being snuffed out for the personal convenience of someone else is a non-negotiable in the bible's eyes.

University Leftists are caught between The Rock of Ages and a hard place when they attempt to interact with orthodox religious teachings.  On one hand, they want to keep up the well-intentioned image of being pro-tolerance, pro-multiculturalism and politically correct.  One the other, however, when they run up against people who believe in objective, eternal, supernatural Truth, such as bible-believing Protestants and Catholics, they are certain that such people are not intolerable and "haters."

G.K. Chesterton once wrote: "There is a thought that stops thought, and that is the only thought that ought to be stopped."  He was speaking of the militant secularism that typified early 20th century England, and certainly applies to our modern purveyors of secular-progressive ideology in the media, academia, and politics.  Christians raising their kids in America today are subjected to propaganda supporting moral and ethical issues that are in direct conflict with their own convictions from all corners of the entertainment world and education system.  We are told to shut up and sit down.  We are told to accept everything we hear, and dare not voice any opposition, or risk being called a bigot, homophobe, or racist.

Yet when one Catholic professor, teaching a class called "Modern Catholic Thought", simply states the bible's position on gay marriage, he is fired for unforgivably breaking the secular commandment "Thou shalt not offend anyone on the Left."

Wake up, religious Americans (especially those of you who are parents).  The fight isn't simply over gay marriage or abortion or gun control.  It isn't all about Obama's pastor and Sarah Palin's accent.  The truth of our faith is at stake.  The ability to freely communicate that truth to those who so desperately need to hear it is at stake.  We have a part to play in defending the truth, in promoting liberty, and in looking after the least among us.

The hearts and minds of millions of Americans are on the line.

What are we doing about it?

A perfect example is the obsession Democrats have with expanding the federal employee workforce.  The Left knows that the more people working for the government, the more votes they can count on as they promise more and more increases in salary and benefits.  Liberals pose this as a "political" issue, pitting their compassionate benevolence against the miserliness of cold-hearted conservatives and Republicans. but it is actually an ideological (and common sense) one more than anything else.

The Left believes in bigger government and redistributing wealth.  The Right believes in economic freedom, the superiority of the private sector in creating jobs and generating wealth, and personal responsibility.  The government cannot create jobs without taking money from people already working.  Everyone agrees we need a certain number of public sector employees to guard our streets and maintain public utilities, but there is a limit to what any economy can fund.  For the Obama administration to claim that they are "creating jobs" by putting more workers on the government's payroll is disingenuous at best.

The Heritage Foundation has an interesting new study on the whole matter of "public vs. private sector" workers and job creation.  Here's an excerpt:

Salaries and benefits—for identical jobs—are 30 percent to 40 percent higher in the federal government than in the private sector. Claims that this dramatic discrepancy in compensation is warranted because of government workers’ high skills are unjustified, as this study shows. Equally unjustified is the fact that federal workers can rarely be fired, no matter how poor their job performance. Congress should align federal salaries and benefits with market rates—a simple, and fair, move that could save taxpayers nearly $47 billion in 2011. Heritage Foundation labor policy analyst James Sherk provides detailed data on why Congress should not overtax all Americans to overpay the privileged workers in the civil service.

Read the full report here, and please send it to 10 friends or family members.  This isn't some peripheral issue: it gets to the heart of the differences between Right and Left in this country.  It involves the economic solubility and future of our economy (and way of life).

An excerpt:

You will be the first American president that lied to the Jewish people, and the American people as well, when you said that you would defend Israel, the only Democratic state in the Middle East, against all their enemies. You have done just the opposite. You have propagandized Israel, until they look like they are everyone's enemy — and it has resonated throughout the world.

I do not wish to be inconsistent in my treatment of Hollywood celebrities that speak out on cultural, political, and economic issues.  I've given the likes of Sean Penn and Matt Damon a hard time on this blog for their misguided progressive-liberal views.  I've stated that we must not assume that because someone has the platform to speak that they are therefore worth listening to.

So I am not posting Jon Voight's editorial simply because he is a well-known commodity in the entertainment industry.  I happen to agree with his sentiments, and happy to highlight that the thinking in Hollywood is not monolithic.

"Even if we're unsure exactly what that looks like. Even if we don't yet know precisely how we're going to get there. We know we'll get there."

This week, in reference to yet another gargantuan 2,000-page piece of legislation, this one to give the federal government unprecedented levels of oversight on the financial industry, Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT) offered this gem from a Capitol Hill press conference:

"No one will know until this is actually in place how it works. But we believe we've done something that has been needed for a long time. It took a crisis to bring us to the point where we could actually get this job done."

I suppose in the minds of progressive Democrats, such remarks as these are received as inspirational and courageous.  I hear empty, meaningless rhetoric that is meant to placate the angry mob.  With such consistent ambiguity coming from the Left these days, one must wonder if they aren't trying to conceal as much of their increasingly unpopular agenda as possible.

All of these people were living by faith...they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them. Hebrews 11

On the whole, and to their own detriment, my generation holds the wisdom of their elders in contempt.  Our culture is obsessed with living longer and longer, but seemingly unimpressed with (and indifferent to) what those blessed with long life have to say about it.  Where in our society are there institutions or organizations which serve to facilitate inter-generational interaction?  Where are the opportunities, even at American churches, for the young to learn at the feet of the old?

I met Jim Healey (pictured below) in October of 2009 at the annual dinner for the free-market think-tank The Acton Institute in Grand Rapids, MI.  Other than the fact that we are both from the Chicago-land area, and if the way most of my generation treat people their parents' age or older is appropriate, we should have had little else in common.  I am under 30, and Jim is over 70.  Jim is Catholic, and I am an Evangelical Protestant.  I am involved in ministry and teaching, Jim is a "retired" businessman.  Jim still wears a suit-and-tie most days, and I wear Chicago Bulls mesh shorts.

But since that initial meeting in Michigan some 8 months ago, Mr. Healey and R.J. Moeller have become fast friends.  What brings us together is our faith in the God of the bible.  What unites us is our appreciation for the institution of the family, and our devotion to our own.  What bridges the gap between decades of life lived is our mutual and relentless pursuit of the truth.

Jim is a patriotic citizen, loving husband, doting father, and seemingly tireless advocate for The Acton Institute and its own worthy goal of doing what it can to help foster a "free and virtuous society."  Whether it is personally making calls to invite people from local parishes to a screening of Acton's Birth of Freedom documentary, or driving up on a Tuesday afternoon to eat lunch and talk strategy for the promotion of upcoming Acton events with a seminary student (like me), Jim Healey's motor never stops running.  His faith is lived and worked out with each prayer he prays, with each phone call he makes, and with each smile he shares with those lucky enough to make his acquaintance.

The great American evangelist and publisher D.L. Moody once said, "If you convince a man you truly love him, you've won him."  Jim Healey wins people over every day of the week.  You can see his love for people in his eyes and hear it in his voice.  You know that the discovery of real, biblical truth is paramount in his life by the way he protects, defends, and promotes it.  Jim is able to fearlessly advance his economic and political worldview because he long ago learned what my generation desperately must: If Christ is Lord, He is Lord of all.  All of it matters to Him, so it must matter to us.

I am grateful for the Acton Institute and all the tremendously important work it does in training the next generation of religious leaders in the West.  But I am more thankful for the friendships and relationships that have begun because of my involvement with Acton.  Friendships like the one Jim and I have begun do not happen in other sectors of society, but they do happen at Acton.  Their commitment to, and honoring of, the wisdom of the ages isn't reserved only for the written words of dead guys like Alexis de Tocqueville, or Lord Acton himself.  The Acton Institute honors and cherishes the wisdom of those still living who have forged a life of faith, hard work, and compassion.

Jim Healey is my friend, and a man we can (and should) all learn a lot from.

All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth. People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them. Hebrews 11:13-16

Some snake-oil salesman named "Reverend Billy" made a documentary called "What Would Jesus Buy?" that encouraged Christians to stop buying stuff around Christmas time.  Why?  Good question.

With a lot of heart, and very little head, Reverend Billy made his way to the Fox Business Channel to make his thoroughly naive and under-informed case to the world.

Unfortunately for Billy, and fortunately for us, Father Robert Sirico, founder of the free-market think-tank The Acton Institute, was on-hand to bring Rev. B's fantasy land a healthy dose of reality.

Now, of course Billy is right to say that American consumers spend way too much on far too many pointless, wasteful, indulgent items each year...but that's where his being right and the truth part company.  As Father Sirico astutely points out, the stores Billy Boy is protesting against employ millions of Americans.  Lives move from government dependency to personal liberty, freedom and dignity when someone can find a job on their own, even if it is at Starbucks or Wal-Mart or any other mega-chain that religious liberals decide to rail against.

The Mall of America being filled with workers and consumers isn't the problem in this country; its churches and parishes being increasingly empty of thoughtful, well-informed, passionate proponents of the truth Scripture teaches about everything from private property to the priority of culture is the problem.

Say what you will about him, but Glenn Beck is willing to go deeper with his audience than chalk-boards and heated rhetoric.  Last week, Beck did an entire hour on the impact Road to Serfdom has had on the West since it was first published nearly 70 years ago.  Watch these clips and learn something.

Honestly, after doing an hour on my favorite book, one of the most important books of the past century, Beck could do a week of juggling on a unicycle on his show and I'd still defend him for this.