NFL
By: Jeffrey Newholm
Karma may seem like a rather intangible and abstract idea. But in the recent film When The Game Stands Tall, a similar concept is used by a mean, green football coach. At one point in the movie, De La Salle coach Bob Ladouceur is trying to teach his students about personal responsibility. With De La Salle being a Christian school, he naturally uses a passage from the New Testament. He reads a quote from the Gospel according to Luke: “Give and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over……will be poured into your lap……for with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.” The students, of course, are reluctant to agree. But in the following piece I’ve pulled some thoughts from both eastern and Christian thought to argue that coach Ladouceur is right about Karma, and it behooves all aspiring athletes to carefully weigh their actions and character.
I can think of two major objections to the idea of Karma. The first is that Karma simply isn’t real. The second is that determinism (meaning there is no free will) is true, so Karma is impossible. I’ll start with the first objection. It should seem obvious enough that people with bad character face negative consequences, and people with good character go really far in life. But one could correctly counter-argue that there are some notable exceptions. There have been plenty of irresponsible rich people who never had real adversity placed upon themselves. And of course there are plenty of good people who get terrible diseases and die young. If a man only lives one lifespan, these exceptions would completely refute Karma. But spirituality, of course, brings the afterlife into play.
In Buddhism and Hinduism, future reincarnations further Karma’s consequences. Those who practice good actions will have a better fate in the next life, and ill-doers will suffer a worse one. Christianity teaches the same thing, but in a more frightful way. Now, quite frankly, I think evangelists’ obsession with visions and descriptions of literal heavens and hells is over-the-top and unhelpful. But the basic gist Luke is getting at is that if bad consequences aren’t measured back to one in this life, that person can count on suffering in the next. Jesus’s well known story of Lazarus and the rich man in Luke 16:19-30 teaches an important spiritual lesson. Too much argument is made on the historical truth of this story, but the key takeaway is common to all spirituality: ultimate culpability for one’s actions, even after death.
The unnamed rich man in the parable should surely bring to mind many examples of real-life rich men. He lives an extravagantly luxurious lifestyle and cares nothing for the sufferings of others. Some have speculated that the rich man was a Sadducee, a religious sect that didn’t believe in the afterlife. Certainly many wrongdoers today think death brings annihilation and a vanishing from existence. But the rich man is in for a rude surprise when he is transported to burning Hades after death, the temporary holding ground for the damned. Meanwhile righteous but destitute and poor Lazzrus is taken to a more pleasant abode, either heaven or a more temporary “Paradise”, depending on which theologian is asked. The rich man appeals to Jewish patriarch Abraham for relief from his suffering, but is of course turned down. The rich man was judged to have acted irresponsibly, and since he never faced suffering in this first life, he must face it intensified in the next.
I think that, if we consider the next life’s consequences as God’s or fate’s ultimate correction of justice (and I’m hard pressed to think of a spiritual school of thought that doesn’t teach this in some way), this resolves the first objection to Karma. But what of the second? Many scientists strongly argue that free will is an illusion. A large subset of Christianity called Calvinism teaches the same thing. The Buddha teached that man does have free will, just not in the purely individualistic way that’s prevalent in western thought. But for the sake of argument I’ll agree that the Calvinists and scientists are correct. However, this still doesn’t get us off the hook for wrongdoings.
First of all, several passages from the bible do point towards determinism, but go on to say sinners will be held accountable anyways. In the famous exodus tale involving Moses and the ten plagues, God tells Moses ahead of time that “I will make him [the pharaoh] obstinate, however, so that he will not let the people go” (Exodus 4:21). Just a few chapters later, the bible reports that “Yet Pharaoh remained obstinate [after one of the plagues] and would not listen to them, just as the LORD had foretold” (exodus 9:15). For those who prefer the new covenant and testament, Jesus has similar words. He tells his disciples that “‘Things that cause sin will inevitably occur, but woe to the person through whom they occur” (Luke 17:1) Notice the wording: Jesus says “through whom”, suggesting God is the master of one’s fate and works through a man to cause sin. Yet the same man will still face punishment. In fact Jesus goes on to say that “It would be better for him if a millstone were put around his neck and he be thrown into the sea than for him to cause one of these little ones to sin” (Luke 17:2). So clearly these verses indicate that Karma is still a Christian concept, even if viewed through a Calvinist lens.
But perhaps verses from the Bible are increasingly irrelevant in a secular and scientific society. One of America’s founding principles is, after all, separation of church and state. But even when Karma is looked at through a secular deterministic framework, I would argue that it’s still in effect. One of the first principles taught in psychology is that explaining does not mean excusing. Society must hold criminals responsible for crimes regardless of their biology or conditioning. Besides, the judge has the perfect rebuttal to any clever lawyer arguing determinism as as a defense: his own lack of free will to give leniency. Certainly many criminals do have unfortunate upbringings that made them into wrongdoers. Most of those with privileges never end up in jail. But police reports are still, right or wrong, filled with arrests and fines for those who break the law. A Calvinistic God doesn’t consider predestination an excuse, and society doesn’t either. With all of this considered, I find it right to dismiss the deterministic argument against Karma as incorrect, regardless of determinism’s actual truth or falsehood.
Now if all of this has sounded dry and academic, I would be happy to use some real-life examples from sports to reveal how Karma works in real life. Consider, as a negative example, Mark McGwire. Now one could substitute the name of any steroids cheat for his, but McGwire provides the cleanest example as he flat-out admitted to drug usage in 2010. (Although he did hedge his apology by saying it was only for health reasons). McGwire and Sammy Sosa revitalized baseball from its strike-induced slump with a heroic home run chase, with the values of some balls reaching seven figures. But sadly McGwire took a shortcut and used dishonest means to bring his fame and fortune. As a result, he never came close to Hall of Fame election and by now has fallen off the ballet completely. Baseball has a strict code of ethics when it comes to its rules: a man who breaks them is forever a pariah. Thankfully, those who make better life choices have better life outcomes.
I think a good example of the positive results of Karma is legendary coach John Wooden. Wooden aimed to instill good moral character in his men, and is well known for his inspirational quotes and pyramid of success. He tried to teach his players to “avoid the peaks and valleys”, and would even call timeout in blowout championship games to prevent his players from getting too excited. And there were, of course, quite a few of those championship games in Wooden’s career. He won 10 NCAA titles and happily lived to the ripe old age of 99. Yes, there were some allegations of lowering the standards somewhat at UCLA to keep his astonishing championship streak going. But for the most part, Wooden coached and lived the right and honorable way. And there hasn’t been a more accomplished coach in the annals of NCAA men’s basketball before or since.
Regardless of whether one takes the free-will or deterministic view of Karma, I think both are ultimately hopeful. If we have free will, we can commit ourselves to choosing good thoughts, actions, and character, and choose a better destiny. But even if Karma is viewed in a Calvinistic, predestined way, that doesn’t mean suffering has no purpose. It means that God, or fate, or whoever one names our master, has a plan and meaning for those who must sin and suffer consequences. Suffering in such a framework can be viewed as formative and corrective, rather than simply punitive. In the film mentioned earlier, an exasperated coach Ladouceur eventually has to ask “why does a guy like Luke, who’s a doctor, painter, writer, historian…..take the time to invent a lie?” I steadfastly believe that St. Luke certainly did not lie. A man will eventually be held responsible for his actions, whether in this life or the next. The rich man in Luke’s gospel had to learn this lesson the hard way. For those of us with life yet to live, Karma offers hope for a better and more meaningful future. And that, truly, is a wonderful idea.
You can follow me on Twitter @JeffreyNewholm and our blog @NutsAndBoltsSP.
Note: scripture readings from the New American Bible
