Leo Durocher once wrote, “Baseball is like church. Many attend, few understand.” I would add that baseball, like church, involves a community that you have to be a part of in order to gain understanding. To appreciate the beauty of the game of baseball, you have to learn to sit with it. You have to learn patience. You must learn its intricacies and be able to appreciate the subtlety of the techniques deployed by coaches and managers. You have to listen to other people as they talk about the game and begin to see things you didn’t see before. Likewise, to begin to understand our faith, you have to sit in God’s presence in prayer. You have to learn patience. You must begin to read scripture, attend worship, and learn the intricacies of our faith. You have to listen to other people as they talk about their experience with God, and begin to understand the mysteries of the Bible, prayer, worship, and the sacraments.

Unfortunately, it is often the case that neither baseball nor church plays out in this way.

Both of my sons are now baseball players. My older son, Luke, plays on a select team called the Dirtbags. My younger son, Sean, began playing today in the “Miracle League,” a league for children with disabilities. (Sean has Down Syndrome.) Luke loves baseball. It is the only sport he’s interested in playing. Sean, come to find out, loves it too, though this may be because it affords him the opportunity to be like his big brother.

Baseball can bring out the best in people. The coaches of Luke’s team are a great bunch of guys. Even though he plays in a competitive select league, the coaches put the kids first. They care about them. They ride them pretty hard, but with the idea of pushing them on to their full potential. These kids are learning character. They’re learning grit, the kind of grit that gets you through the hard times in life. They’re learning teamwork and how important it is for other people to be able to depend on you. And they’re playing a game that they love, enjoying life and building friendships.

In Sean’s league, the Miracle League, baseball is simply a manifestation of the best that has already come out in these people. Those who run the league are people who are willing to give of themselves. They care about others. They’re kind. The local high school baseball team was out today, and as I watched them work with these kids with disabilities, I was encouraged by the kind of character that must be developing in the high-school kids. The organizers of the Miracle League are not only engaging in acts of loving kindness, but teaching others to do the same.

Baseball can also bring out the worst in people. I’ve seen coaches (not my son’s coaches, thankfully) throw temper tantrums–in front of the kids–that could rival even the most aggrieved of two-year-olds. One would think the prophets of Baal were trying to call down fire from heaven. I’ve witnessed attempts to cheat. I’ve seen parents who clearly can’t distinguish between their own egos and their kids’ performance in sports. Win at all costs. Never mind the rules. The other guy can go to hell. You’d better win, or you’re nothing but a loser.

Can’t church be like this as well? Have you seen the church bring out the worst in people? I certainly have. There are people for whom the church is simply a means to an end. It is a way to gain influence and control. Its structures are tools in the political toolbox. Win at all costs. Never mind the rules. The other guy can go to hell. You’d better win, or you might lose control.

I have to give credit to Jason Vickers for this insight: the aspect of evolutionary science that is most offensive to Christians isn’t the idea that the biblical creation stories are not to be taken literally. It is rather the concept of “survival of the fittest.” This idea, which one can find lived out in both baseball and the body of Christ, is antithetical to the gospel. Human beings were put on this earth as stewards of creation, and that includes being stewards of one another. When God came to us in Christ, he taught us more about what this looks like: