As we celebrate the lives of Bill Russell and Jackie Robinson, whose museum opened last week in New York City, let us remember not only their impressive athletic accomplishments but also their major contributions to the civil rights movement.
Robinson’s faith clearly helped sustain him as he faced the taunts, insults, and the immense pressure involved in integrating MLB.
Ironically, a man so wracked with guilt, so tormented by loss, so preoccupied with human foibles, so pessimistic about human nature and so angry with God wrote some of the world’s wittiest prose and evoked laughter in countless people. Strikingly, a man who loved his family and friends so deeply did not during his final decades feel the love of God. Nevertheless, Twain gave us much to contemplate.
The NFL has been ambivalent about Christians testifying to their faith.
