The Post-Journal 

  Lessons From The World Of Sport

Local Commentaries

Jul 26, 2025

Rolland KiddeR

This past weekend was highlighted by the 153rd occasion of a golf tournament–the British Open or, more correctly, if you live in the U.K., “The Open.”

If you were an American, you had to be proud as the top four finishers were Americans, the winner being the current number one golfer in the world, Scottie Sheffler. But, golf is not just an American sport–it is a world sport.

And, guess who was in the final pairing on Sunday? Yes, a player by the name of Haotong Li, from China. The lesson here was obvious: competitors don’t have to be enemies. The world of sport teaches you that.

It is true that I don’t like the fact that the Chinese government is run by a dictatorship. Yet, I don’t hold that against the Chinese people. They are people just as we are, and they have good athletes. The world of sport teaches that.

In addition, not everything that we have and enjoy was invented in America. Golf was “invented,” so-to-speak, in Scotland. The organization that started it, frames the rules that govern it, and sponsors The Open each year is named “The Royal and Ancient” (R & A)–and it makes its home at the place the sport originated…St. Andrews, Scotland.

This all gets personal for me, because I have been privileged in my lifetime to have played the Old Course at St. Andrews. Also, on one terribly rainy and windy day, I tried to play Royal Portrush–where The Open was played this past weekend.

I say “tried” to play, as the playing conditions got so rough that I couldn’t keep the ball in the fairway. I took out a three wood on a 150-yard par three, hit it as hard as I could into the wind, and put it in a gully short of the green. (You can tell that I am not a great golfer.) After that, I picked up my ball and walked the rest of the course with my friends. I had not played Royal Portrush, it had “played” me.

The favorite at this year’s tournament was Rory McIlroy from Northern Ireland. He, obviously, didn’t win, but made some meaningful remarks at the end reminding the world that the playing of The Open at Portrush was again possible because the fighting had finally stopped a few years back between northern and southern Ireland.

That is another lesson we can learn from sport…it can be a bridge for “bridging” our differences.

Then there is the always beautiful ending of The Open, when the President of the R & A presents the Gold Medal and the Claret Jug to the “Golfer of the Year.” The golfer of the year in the U.K. is not the person who won The Masters, the PGA, the US Open or is rated number one in the world–it is he who has survived and prevailed over four tough days in all kinds of weather in the oldest international tournament in golf in the land where it started. To the Brits, that defines who the golfer of the year is.

Finally, there was the presentation made to Scottie Sheffler, who, standing next to his wife with his year-old son in his arms, graciously accepted the honor. No politics or breast-beating about who was from what country, but a message that the importance of family trumps everything…including nationality and sport itself.

And, the fact that Portrush is a small town of about 6,000, and the golf club is a public course – what a story in itself! Sport can teach us a lot about the good things of life…as it did in Ireland last weekend.

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The Separation Of Church And State

Jul 5, 2025

 

Rolland Kidder

It was drilled into me at an early age that part of being an American was the belief in the separation of Church and State.

Of course, the foundation of that belief goes back to the earliest history of the country when immigrants came here from Europe to escape religious persecution. That principle was codified in the Constitution of the United States with the words: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof….”

Having said that, it worries me that today some are beginning to equate religious affiliation with political party affiliation. “To be a good Christian you need to be a ____.” It doesn’t matter which party you use to fill in the blank, it is a bad idea.

One’s religious beliefs should not become equated with what it means to be an American. Not only is it poor politics, it ends up equating a religious belief with an earthly, temporal, secular point-of-view. From a theological standpoint, that can be a form of idolatry.

These are round numbers, but in the 17th century during the Thirty Years War largely between Protestants and Catholics, it has been estimated that approximately 20%-25% of the population of Central Europe was killed. Mixing religion with politics can do that.

It is no wonder that the founding fathers didn’t want that to happen in America.

If you look around the world today, there is still a lot of war going on based, in large part, upon religion…the most prominent example today likely being between Muslim Gaza and Jewish Israel. Now Israel and Iran are involved in a shooting war with our country now also getting involved. Fueling much of this war-making in the Middle East is religious hatred.

As an American, I distinguish between Judaism as a religion and Israel as a state. In like manner, being a Palestinian or an Iranian is not the same for me as a religious belief in Islam. Religious beliefs should be separate and distinct from the state.

Yet, because religion and the state are equated in that part of the world, we are now experiencing war there with a level of ferocity and destruction reminiscent of the Second World War.

Perhaps there is a middle ground when it comes to separating Church and State. In Germany, for example, the government supports both Protestant and Catholic Churches depending upon which part of the country you live in. The general populace accepts that, and Germany goes on about its business of continuing to be a thriving democracy in central Europe essentially ignoring differences in religion by supporting two main branches of Christianity.

Yet, I think the American ideal is a better model to follow…just keep the state and religion separated. Don’t mix them up, or, at least, try not to. That should be our goal.

We have enough problems with common humanity in the world in trying to keep our cultural/national/racial identities from taking us to war. We don’t need religion to be another source of war-making.