I know what you're thinking ... Frank freakin' Pastore? Aren't you supposed to be at least a halfway decent pitcher, and not some 48-58 journeyman, before we pretend to care about your politics?
If you examine his stats, you will see Frank Pastore was an above average pitcher until his injury during the 1980 season. He led the Reds in wins the 1980 season.
Frank Pastore is writing as a Christian, a political conservative (he has a radio show here in L.A.), a Ph.D. candidate at the Claremont Graduate University, and NOT as a former baseball player. I'll admit that ad hominem attacks are easy, but just show how little Matt Welch or Reason magazine knows about the man.
By the way, Mr. Welch uses Curt Schilling as an example of a decent baseball pitcher. Isn't Curt a conservative? Didn't he endorse President Bush on national television? Does his opinion matter more because he is better at throwing a piece of twine wrapped in cow skin sixty feet 6 inches?
From a biography of Frank detailing his move from jock to Christian:
It happened after I had been hit in my arm by a line drive. I thought my career was over.
In that season of 1984, I had been pitching well until the injury, thinking that I finally was going to reach my potential.
If you had met me before the injury, you'd have thought that I had everything going for me. I had all the material things that defined success. But it wasn't until my career seemed over that I realized how wrongly I'd been leading my life. I had to be taken down in order to look up, to look up to God; to have everything stripped away so that I could see the real me, and ask myself some life-changing questions. You know the typical questions like, "Who am I?" and "Why am I here?"
Who are you trying to be?
I challenge you to think about your life and about God. Are you striving to attain things and to be somebody? That was my goal. It was also King Solomon's goal, 3,000 years ago. In Ecclesiasties Chapter 2, King Solomon had become the wealthiest man in the world. His search for happiness in alcohol, sex, wealth and even knowledge left him unfulfilled and unsatisfied. He came to see that only a personal relationship with God would fulfill him, and that is the only thing that will ever fulfill you.
Your reason for becoming a Christian shouldn't be merely to get into Heaven. You can accept Jesus on your deathbed and do that (John 11:25). You can't earn your way into Heaven either, no matter how "good" you are (Eph. 2:8-10). I want you to be a Christian for another reason: Something wonderful will happen when you dedicate your life to Christ.
A changed life
First, when you become a Christian, the Holy Spirit will not leave you alone (John 14:16-26). God wants you to celebrate His creation. He said you must be like a little child. (Matt. 18:3). Have you ever taken a little child to something really neat like the Grand Canyon? He'll look for a few seconds and then say "Lets go home." And you can say, "Look, it's the Grand Canyon, the GRAND CANYON!" and he says "Yeah, I see, let's go." You can't seem to get across the magnitude of it's beauty. Well, God is like that. Every day He shows you His creation and says "Look at that!" and He won't leave you alone until you really see it.
My life has really changed since I've come to know Him. I no longer want to attain things and to be somebody . My joy comes from pleasing Him, not pleasing myself.
It's your choice
I also take great comfort in knowing that God, not man, is in control of the world. The tragedies in this world come from man turning from God. God created you in His image (Gen. 1:26) and gives you the option of choosing your way or His way. that's called free will (Gen. 3).
God will not interfere with your choice (Gal. 6:7), for if He did you'd be nothing more than a robot programmed to do His will. If you built a robot to "love you no matter what" then it wouldn't be love as much as obedience. God wants good works stemming from a fear of punishment. He wants a personal relationship with you in which your good works will be based on love for Him. So when I think of all the awful tragedies in this world. I don't blame God, I pray for mankind to come to know Him.
I pray that you come to know Him. If you surrender your life to Jesus Christ, you'll experience the truth of John 10:10, "I came that they might have life, and might have it abundantly."
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