My paternal granddad was a huge baseball fan. I think he really believed that everything you needed to know in life, you could learn from baseball. So if you’ll bear with me, I’m going to give that theory a try today.

We have a nice little minor league baseball team in my town, the SaltDogs. What’s a saltdog? Well, it has something to do with the fact that the natural saltwater creeks around here were our first claim to fame – back in the 1860s, when salt was crucial to survival. And the team owners really wanted a doggie mascot, so the two concepts were merged together into one bad idea.

But that’s not what I meant to talk about.

Our Saltdogs have a new manager this year, the third one in three years. The first guy left after something like six games because he got caught beating his wife. The second guy, who had originally been the star pitcher, was a good manager who led our fledgling team to the play-offs in their second season. He was unceremoniously booted during the winter break because "his values were not in keeping with the morals of the team owners and players." That sounds ominous, doesn’t it?

You might be surprised to learn that what that meant was the manager was a strict disciplinarian. For example, a player would be admonished for showing up late to practice. And he would fine the players for cussing in the dugout, on the field or in the locker room.

Apparently, the players complained to the owners that "baseball isn’t fun enough" when you have to obey such "silly rules," and the owners agreed. They axed the strict manager…and hired a guy who had just been dismissed from his previous position because he’d lied on his resume and to the players, telling them he was a Viet Nam war veteran and using phony war stories to motivate the team.

Got that straight now? They fired the manager who wanted people to show up on time and use polite/acceptable language and hired a liar. And they’re probably scratching their heads now, trying to figure out why the team isn’t doing as well this year as last.

Discipline is not a bad thing. In fact, any person who believes in Christ should understand that we are called to a life of discipline. One of the fruits of the Holy Spirit is self-control – it’s something that we should not only desire, but seek out and cherish.

But that’s a really strange thing in our society. We Americans are heartily committed to the "live and let live" and "if it feels right, it is right" philosophies. And if a person dare speak out against those ideas, he or she is quickly labeled "intolerant" or "legalistic" or "self-righteous."

When our Bishop was newly arrived in our community back in 1992, he caused a great controversy by instructing priests to deny the Eucharist to any Catholic person whom they knew for a fact was part of anti-Catholic groups. You know, Planned Parenthood, Catholics for Choice, and other groups that are organized to promote or protect societal policies that are in direct opposition to the Church.

I wasn’t even remotely Catholic when all this happened, but I was interested. The media was quick to portray the Bishop as a hard-nosed, unyielding, self-righteous jerk. From my then-evangelical perspective, I had a measure of appreciation for the Bishop. I mean, what’s the point of having an official policy if the leaders of the Church aren’t going to do everything they can to uphold it?

It’s been a while, and the details are a little foggy, but I seem to recall a quote in the paper from one of the Catholics for Choice folks. He said he was going to "start going to Mass every Sunday and just see if the priest would really dare deny me the Eucharist."

I never heard any follow-up of what happened with that particular gentleman. But now that I’m Catholic, I find it so strange that he had been comfortably ignoring his Sunday Mass obligation and was only going to start going to see if the priest would uphold the Bishop’s attempt to uphold the real teaching of the Church. I mean, honestly, what is the point of being Catholic at all if you aren’t going to follow the Church’s instructions? Why would a person who dissents so strongly even want to identify himself as Catholic?

But maybe, just maybe, the situation is broader than that. Maybe this fellow had never had instruction on the importance of discipline. Maybe his Catholic parents and godparents and priests and schoolteachers had taught him – openly or inadvertently by their own lack of example -- that disobeying the Church was an okay thing, that the Church’s definition of "morality" was entirely optional. I don’t know – somewhere along the line, the man came to believe that breaking the rules was the best thing he could do.

I’ve run into people on the web who say their whole parish is like that. The priests just sort of wink at the Vatican and it’s "silly rules." These priests ignore the fact that the young couple they are marrying have been living together, they shrug off the use of artificial birth control. Some folks have told me their priests even say that abortion is "acceptable in certain circumstances."

I don’t get that. Maybe because I come from Protestant circles, where if you disagreed with the basic stuff, you just found yourself another denomination – or founded one, if you had the chutzpah. When I became Catholic, I accepted all the "silly rules" and understood that I was obligated to live by them, whether I agreed with them or not. And I find myself very grateful to be in a Diocese where that’s expected and encouraged. There’s no winking at abortion or what have you around here.

And funny thing, I’ve met the Bishop (briefly), and he’s a really affable and joyful guy. Not the hard-nosed, unyielding jerk the media would have us believe. His enthusiastic leadership is felt throughout the diocese, I’m sure. In fact, the pastor of our home parish wears a similar mantle of joy. He practically sparkles with it when he preaches on holy living.

I have to tell you, I think it’s easier to follow leaders who take such pleasure in the Catholic disciplines – it’s encouraging. I not so foolish as to believe I have Catholicism down pat, but with our Bishop and our priests as an example, I believe with all my heart that I will always find a measure of joy in obedience. And as you read this, know that I pray you will experience that, too.

--Sparki