Rainout ramblings

So they split a two-game series with the defending champs, losing a game they should have won despite the starter not getting out of the fourth inning and walking the opposing 59-year old pitcher...

Speaking of that pitcher, Oli Perez is Oli Perez. I still stick with I would rather overpay him for his talent and youth than overpay for Derek Lowe for four years. If he goes to the minors (and that's a real possibility), then pitches OK for the rest of the season, you might be able to find a taker...

Yes, he's streaky and all that but midway through 2010, he would only have one more year to eat. God forbid he actually turns it around, then he's a bargain at $12 million. I still don't think Lowe and Scott Boras would have taken a four year, $12 million dollar deal. They wanted more cash and that was something Omar and the Wilpons clearly didn't have.

If they did, Daniel Murphy would be in the minors working on his first base skills to take over for Delgado next year and Manny would be wearing out the gaps of Citi Field.

I'll get to watch every one of these upcoming Mets-Braves games since I'm here, so I can complain about something else...

How do i approach this subject? Well, since I've got a readership of two, I'll just put it out there.

I've been attending church every Sunday with my wife and family, which is the first time in my life I've ever done that. Never in Teaneck, certainly not since I moved out and even when we were dating in Mississippi, I found reasons not to spend my Sunday morning/afternoon in church.

But I really wasn't given a choice this time around and I've been thinking. I never considered myself anything more than human. Not a Christian or religious or anything. I believe there is a higher power, but I never really put a name to it.

I haven't read the Bible, but I want to. Which means to say, I haven't dedicated the time to sit down and pound out a couple of pages a night. I say that and realize that I also wanted to read the other holy books but pastor Dennis Rouse had a very interesting sermon last week.

Here's a link to it if you want to watch/listen, but the gist of it is the other faiths have serious faults.

According to Rouse, Islam was founded by Mohammed, a child molester. Although Hindus have reincarnation, something I kinda feel, they also have a caste system. Buddism is all about achieving Nirvana and there's too much yoga and meditation for that to truly make sense.

Then there's all the New Age crap, like scienetology, that make sense to whoever it wants to make sense of it. If that's the case, I could go with George Carlin's Church of Joe Pesci.

Interesting enough, they didn't mention the Jews at all. In fact, Rouse routinely says that we, as Christians, must pray for Isreal and its people. So take that and do with it what you will.

I will continue this more later, but my main question is this: If I accept that Jesus Christ is the one true savior and the only way to reach God, then what happened to all the souls of people, past and present, that didn't have the chance to hear this gospel?

From ancient African tribes before European invasion and the Greeks, all of whom had their own ways of worship and to explain the mysteries of the world we inhabit, to those now who either aren't able to hear or just haven't.

I watched this show, Last One Standing, on Discovery. They took these six athletes and shipped them around the world to face against remote tribes in real competition (Thanks for the tag line Discovery).

Point is, these people they faced had their own culture that didn't have any Western influence. I'm willing to bet none of them, and they were in Mexico, Brazil, Senegal and the Pacific Rim Islands. I'm willing to bet none of them had been pastored to, none of them had heard the proverbs and prose of the Good Book or learned about the sacrifice of Jesus. What happens to them when they die?

I know that I'm not in that boat. That I have been given the opportunity to declare my belief in the one true Lord. However, I'm a journalist and skeptic at heart. Maybe that's why I've ordered Letters from a Skeptic from my local library. The point is, I would like that question answered before I take the next step.

I hope John Maine takes the next step against the Braves Monday night.