The Holy Goalie

 

Álisson Ramsés Becker. born 2 October 1992, is a Brazilian professional footballer ("soccer player" for Americans). He plays his professional football for Liverpool in the English Premier League. Professionally, he is known as Alisson. On 18 May 2026, he was selected to be on Brazil's squad for the 2026 FIFA World Cup.

Because of his German ancestry, Alisson was nicknamed "The German" while playing for Roma in Italy. He speaks Portuguese, Italian, Spanish and English.

Alisson and his wife, Natália, have been WHO advocates for pro-active care of mental health.

Alisson is mentioned in this blog because he is an outspoken Pentecostal Christian known to hold baptisms in his swimming pool. One teammate nicknamed Becker "The Holy Goalie" due to his outspoken faith.

With so many athletes being known for drugs, domestic abuse, out of control tempers, personal arrogance, questionable financial dealings, and any number of other negatives, it is to be praised that Alisson chooses to publicly serve the Lord.

(This is an English language humorous word play. It may not translate well into other languages. "The Holy Goalie" is an alliterative word play on "the Holy Ghost" or "the Holy Spirit.")

Book Comment: The Narcissist Next Door

             I am going to recommend a book which, for several reasons, you might never otherwise read. The book is The Narcissist Next Door by Jeffrey Kluger. Among the reasons that some might object to reading this book include: the book is entirely secular, the concept of narcissism is not widely understood, the author is not a Christian, and the book contains some profanities and shocking statements.

The Narcissist Next Door concerns how the psychological condition known as narcissism is present in every level of civilization, in our governments, in every institution, in every business, and even in our own families. It is a self-centered type of personality and occurs in varying degrees of severity worldwide. Symptoms of the disorder include a feeling of grandiosity, an excessive need for attention and admiration, and an impaired ability to be empathetic. It is considered to be a psychiatric condition known as narcissistic personality disorder. The cause of the condition cannot be definitively stated but there are numerous suggestions: childhood parental neglect, childhood emotional or physical abuse, the person may crave the feeling of control generated by being able to abuse others who are too weak-willed to oppose them, the person may have a combination of narcissism and sociopathy with a total lack of normal emotions, the person also could have been the family’s golden child who never learned how to hear the word no.

You probably don’t think that you know any narcissists, but you do. They are around you every day, on television, singing the songs you hear on your car’s radio, one of your co-workers, they may be your political leaders, they may be a family member (particularly distressing), they may even be in your church. They may even be one of your deacons or your pastor or your priest.

Kluger points out that, in order to deal with narcissism, you first have to understand what is actually is. He explains what the arrogant narcissist is actually feeling, and gives examples of the narcissists living around us, going so far as to name the names of real people who are obvious narcissists.

Some of Kluger’s chapters are The Bastard in the Corner Office, The Peacock in the Oval Office, The Schmuck in the Next Cubicle, The Beast in Your Bed, and Death Row and Hollywood: Where the Narcissists Won.

One particularly awful type is the spiritual narcissist. These people with narcissist tendencies seem to be in almost every church. These are the persons who are sure that they are correct and that they want everyone else to know it. They come across as overbearing, judgmental, and power-hungry. They assume that they are holy and spiritually knowledgeable and that everyone else falls short of what they have achieved. This is the sin of Self, I AM special. Hear the words I AM, one of the names of God.

You should not just ignore these spiritual narcissists, because they can poison a church. You should also not just attack or lecture them but you should handle the situation in the spirit of Christ. Never become defensive or hostile towards them, because that can interfere with your good judgement. An excellent approach is not to become part of the power struggle by gossiping and buzzing about the problem but, instead, to bring up the subject with trusted church leaders. Protect yourself, putting on the spiritual armor which the Holy Spirit has provided to you, the whole armor of God: the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the shoes of the gospel of peace, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. 

1 Corinthians 7:15, 15:33; Luke 17:3-4; 1 Peter 4:8; Ephesians 3:14-19, 6:10-18.

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As with most books such as this, what you get from the book depends on what you bring with you. You may not agree with everything the author says. Luke (see below) advises you to think for yourself. Read your Bible and to listen to what it says. Do not believe anything just because someone else told to believe it; let the Holy Spirit guide you to the truth.

A general caution: books may give you wonderful new insights and explanations of subjects, but you should never base your Christian beliefs on any one book or the teachings of one person, no matter who they are. All teachings must be consistent with scripture. Read as the Bereans did, with discernment. “… for they received the word with great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so.” Acts 17:11 NASB

Any doctrines must be consistent with the historical full body of Christian thought. Doctrines or teachings inconsistent with scripture in any way must be rejected. You would not eat cheese which had a fuzzy fungus growing on it.

Information you will need to search for this book:

Kluger, Jeffrey, The Narcissist Next Door. Understanding the Monster in Your Family, in Your Office, in Your Bed – In Your World (New York: Riverhead Books, 2014)

Book Comment: Yes Lord, I have Sinned, but I Have Several Excellent Excuses

 

In his book, Yes Lord, I Have Sinned, but I Have Several Excellent Excuses, James W. Moore, discusses the one real sin from which all other sins flow; idolatry of the self, and the numerous excuses we offer to God in our feeble attempts to explain why we are really OK and not to blame for our failures. We can convince ourselves, but not God, that we have good reasons for what we have done or what we are planning to do. Luke 14:15-24. The title of this book is a quotation of a line of dialogue from Tolstoy’s War and Peace.

ἁμαρτία (amartia: sin, missing the mark). Strong’s Greek Concordance says that this word derives from a (not) and meros (a part or a share of). The word is associated with archery and carries the idea of loss because of a failure to hit the mark, the target of the standard set by God.

Some of the sins discussed in this book include: talking a good game, half-heartedness, spiritual arrogance, deception, overreaction, hostility, and presumptuousness, all of which reduce down to the one sin, worship of self.

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As with most books such as this, what you get from the book depends on what you bring with you. You may not agree with everything the author says. Luke (see below) advises you to think for yourself. Read your Bible and to listen to what it says. Do not believe anything just because someone else told to believe it; let the Holy Spirit guide you to the truth.

A general caution: books may give you wonderful new insights and explanations of subjects, but you should never base your Christian beliefs on any one book or the teachings of one person, no matter who they are. All teachings must be consistent with scripture. Read as the Bereans did, with discernment. “… for they received the word with great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so.” Acts 17:11 NASB

Any doctrines must be consistent with the historical full body of Christian thought. Doctrines or teachings inconsistent with scripture in any way must be rejected. You would not eat cheese which had a fuzzy fungus growing on it.

Information you will need to search for this book: Moore, James W., Yes Lord, I Have Sinned, but I Have Several Excellent Excuses (Nashville, Tn., Abingdon Press, 1991)

Film Comment: Doctor Strange (2017)

Doctor Strange (2017), seen merely as film, is very enjoyable and technically well made. It is equally funny, frightening, visually amazing, and thought provoking. The acting is top-level and the music perfectly fits the film.

The story is based on the comic book character created by writer Stan Lee and artist Steve Ditko in     1963.  Doctor Strange is a brilliant but hideously arrogant neurosurgeon.  He is a totally unlikable man, and is verbally and emotionally abusive of everyone around him, even the fellow doctor who considers herself to be his girlfriend.  As an atheist, he derisively rejects any mention of God or the supernatural. Then, his smug life is totally shattered as his talented hands are mangled in an especially violent automobile crash.    

Stephen’s entire self-worth has been built around what he considers to be his obvious superiority to those around him. He cannot accept that his prior life is gone. He desperately spends his entire fortune on increasingly experimental and questionable medical procedures. He is still broken with no improvement in sight.

Eventually his search leads him to Kathmandu and a secretive school led by a mystic known as The Ancient One. She claims to be thousands of years old. The Ancient One opens Strange’s eyes to the unseen world surrounding him.

This is an origin story and Stephen eventually becomes a Master Sorcerer charged with protecting the world from supernatural threats from powerful otherworldly beings. He has become a full-fledged hero even though he still carries just a touch of his former arrogance.

Doctor Strange is directed by Scott Derrickson, a publicly self-acknowledged Christian, and, while the film is about personal redemption, it is not a Christian film. There is no mention of Jesus at all.

Christians are commanded to stay away from magic and the occult. Magic is essentially the quest to use knowledge of spells, objects, and rituals to cause the universe (read spirits, demons, Satan, and God) to react in specific ways. This is the way in which Stephen Strange becomes a sorcerer. He is merely a man who learns how to manipulate space and time and how to leave his physical body to move about as his spirit self.

The primary sin is to place oneself in the place of God. This is essentially what magic does, harnessing supernatural beings and forces to impose one’s will upon the universe. It has no place in true Christianity.

Some commenters have said that director Scott Derrickson has used Doctor Strange’s eastern mystical roots to hint at a deeply Christian perspective on reality.  For example, the Ancient One teaches Strange that what we see around us is only a small part of reality. Paul says the same thing in the sixth chapter of Ephesians. Some commenters are much more troubled by the film’s roots and some denounce it.

In the film, The Ancient One is discovered to be a hypocrite in that, while fighting for Good, she is drawing much of her power and longevity from The Dark Dimension which is ruled by the utterly evil being known as Dormammu. Since she is their teacher, it must be assumed that the Ancient One’s students, including Stephen Strange, are also drawing power from the Dark Dimension. Surely he understands this once the revelation has been made and yet, he still uses the power.

Strange cannot possibly defeat a being as immensely powerful as Dormammu but he succeeds in outwitting the monster. Though Dormammu repeatedly and violently kills him, Doctor Strange has trapped Dormammu and himself in a repetitive time loop. The only way that Strange will release him from the loop is for the monster to agree to leave. Strange becomes a self-sacrificing savior who returns from the dead. This alone should be a massive red flag for Christians.

Bumper Stickers

On America’s highways one will often see a bumper sticker like this on the rear bumper of an eighteen-wheeler truck, a bus, or a utility vehicle.

If the driver exhibits sloppy or aggressive driving behavior, they can be reported to their employer by a call to the provided phone number, usually a toll-free call. This helps to ensure that the majority drive with care.

Recently, while on a long-distance highway trip, I saw a speeding sports car with a bumper sticker which read:

“How is my driving?  Call 1-800- EAT-SHIT.”

This person is displaying contempt for everyone else. He (or she) is basically saying, “I do not care what you think of my driving.  What you think of my driving does not matter. You do not matter. I can do whatever I want, whenever I want.  I am superior to you.”

Contempt and hostility are fueled by disgust at other people’s perceived incompetence and worthlessness. There is an intent to insult and to harm. The type of person who does this is a narcissist: arrogant, dismissive of others, and selfish, with a sense of entitlement.

What is telling is that these same people are also impulsive, immature, restrained only by a fear of being punished, disconnected from other people, manipulative, and hypersensitive to criticism. These are lost people who will be extremely difficult to reach because they will actively reject any attempt to reach them.

“When a wicked man comes, contempt also comes, And with dishonor comes scorn.” Proverbs 18:3 (NASB)

“But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; Avoid such men as these. For among them are those who enter into households and captivate weak women weighed down with sins, led on by various impulses, always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.”    2 Timothy 3:1-7 (NASB)

"Scripture quotations taken from the New American Standard Bible®,
Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973,
1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation 
Used by permission." (www.Lockman.org)

Hindering the Gospel

A local Roman Catholic Church continues a practice which I believe is reeking of arrogance and, I believe, presents a hiindrance to the presentation of the gospel. I struggled mightily about whether or not to actually name the church in this post and decided against it at this time. The problem is not restricted just to this one church and, to many, it will seem to be a trivial complaint. Let me assure you that it is not trivial.

The church has a large, active, and very faithful congregation. This is wonderful. The problem is that they have very limited parking and insist on filling up the parking lot of the public library across the street. They have been asked repeatedly, for years, to not do this, but continue. The argument that the spaces they are appropriating are public property for use by library patrons, those who are Catholic and those who are not, falls on deaf ears. The idea of the church as the servant, reaching out to the unsaved, falls to the wayside. The exhibited attitude is "Get out of my way!"

This current situation is brought into sharper focus when one more piece of information is added. The public library sits on the campus of a former Church of Christ which moved to another location in frustration when its members were unable to find a place to park in their own parking lot, which was private, not public property. Again, the exhibited attitude was "Get out of my way!"
Not the attitude of the servant.

"If others be partakers of [this] power over you, [are] not we rather? Nevertheless we have not used this power; but suffer all things, lest we should hinder the gospel of Christ. … For though I be free from all [men], yet have I made myself servant unto all, that I might gain the more. And unto the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews; to them that are under the law, as under the law, that I might gain them that are under the law; To them that are without law, as without law, (being not without law to God, but under the law to Christ,) that I might gain them that are without law. To the weak became I as weak, that I might gain the weak: I am made all things to all [men], that I might by all means save some." 1 Corinthians 9:12, 19-22.

A Father of the Catholic Church, Origen, said of Paul's statement that only someone mature in faith could do such a thing.

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For full disclosure purposes, I have no connection to either the Roman Catholic Church or the Church of Christ. I'm one of those mean old Baptists.