God, I Hate Christianese…

It’s annoying because it invalidates the individuality of people’s experience and suffering. Dennis tells a wrenching tale of childhood abandonment and unhappiness, which he has repeated on his own family and substance abuse that has left him broken, and Wilson says “Oh yes, we’re all broken mortals”.

No! Not only aren’t we “all broken”, you belittle the suffering of those who have been broken by pretending that the actual events and details that led to their breaking are unimportant, because what really matters is that god considers all of us broken toys.

A couple of possible ideas as to why…

One: Shift in focus.

Whether the pastor meant to or not, he shifted focus away from the content of the article, in this case on to a theological point he wants to make. It seems pretty rude to hijack something like that to try and get across the message across.

Two: Precedence.

Even if the Pastor didn’t mean to make that point, and was just using it as a way of saying that he isn’t a one dimensional flat character with no past or other sides to his personality than what we see, the fact remains that it isn’t exactly uncommon behaviour, from any group you care to mention, and his use of terminology like `broken human being` doesn’t help.

Three: `Broken`.

There is also the issue of using `broken` as a stand in for `sympathetic` or `fully  rounded` or even just plain `human`. Christianity seems to have serious issues with the idea that people aren’t cut and dried, particularly when looking at people. The idea that people may actually have other sides to them, and it isn’t as simple as us being bad and the holy spirirt entering us to allow us to become good is completely against the narrative of original sin that is often preached. `Broken` is a really bad way to try and describe `human`.

Four: `Me`.
Finally, if you are saying that someone is an egomaniac, don’t then make a comparison to yourself. It looks weird.

(my apologies if these are badly explained: I’m still rather jetlagged.)

Because 

“Broken” is christianese for refering to our fall from perfection by eating of the Tree of Knowledge. It’s designed to make a person feel small and needy so that they will only be too happy to accept the dictates of that  sociopathic Heavenly Overlord, YAHWEH.

I agree with the sentiments here — it’s sickening. But also the fact that Rodman being a human being (“broken” or otherwise) is some big revelation to the Pastor is a bit worrying. 

By using “broken” as a one-dimensional description, both as an excuse and as a term that implies one can’t change, the pastor really does Dennis Rodman a disservice here. There are several aspects to Dennis Rodman’s speech here that are really beautiful and the pastor chooses to focus on only one of them.

First, while Dennis talks about being abandoned by his father, he also acknowledges that there were people watching out for him and fighting for him, believing in his worth as a person rather than just as a player even when things were very difficult for him. Without these people in his life, he says, he might not be alive today or he might be homeless. He speaks of their self-sacrifice on his behalf even when he was an “undeserving” person.

Second, he’s not running around blaming people for “breaking” him. He’s taking responsibility for his own actions.

Third, he’s saying that he hopes he can change and do better in the future. He’s pointing out that he has hurt people who are very important to him and saying that he recognizes the need to do better on their behalf.

Finally, by having the courage to give that particular speech he’s setting an example for others. He’s making clear that basketball is not the really important stuff, but that the people in the field, the network that exists and the individuals in it, can help act as a social grounding when you don’t have one.

The pastor is inserting his own false humility here, equating his own struggle with Rodman’s. He is also using the word “broken” which implies that Mr. Rodman can’t really put his life together and be a whole, good person. While Mr. Rodman has struggles, he doesn’t need to let the bad things that have happened to him completely define him. In fact, it is likely that in order to go in the direction he says he wants to, seeing himself as “broken” would be more of a hindrance than a help.

Moreover, because “broken” is one of those things that you can’t help, it really doesn’t acknowledge your own part in reacting to your environment. It’s rather deterministic.

“I thought I was better than him, then I remembered I’m just as bad as he is.”

No, wait. ” . . . he’s just as bad as I am.”

No, wait. Both of those statements approximate the words he said, but, somehow, he manages to come off as sounding self-righteous anyway. False humility, indeed.

“I thought he was worse than me, but then I realized he just hasn’t come to realize how right I am yet.”

Good points made above, but I don’t think the statement he made alone is inherently Christian.  I’ve heard many people, theist and atheist, refer to humans as “broken.”  Yes, it’s a little fluffy and vague.  And when a Christian says it, perhaps it’s used as a way to convince an audience that everyone is broken and “needs fixing” (AKA church or whatever) and I agree that is manipulative.  But that’s not always the intention.

Occasionally remembering that a celebrity has similar flaws as “normal people” is fine.  The statement doesn’t inherently imply manipulation, or the need for repentance through turning to christ, etc.  It may be what he’s thinking, but that’s another story.

I interpreted it as referring to the obscene concept of Original Sin, which supposedly left us all ‘broken’. But that’s just my 2 cents’ worth.

Colossians 3:5

Does that count as two words?

Original Sin is the single most disgusting idea in the entire history of mankind

Not so much the dictates of their god, but the dictates of the priest caste. Combine the idea that everyone is born broken and sinful with creating rules that make normal human emotions and aspects (such as lust/sexuality) a sin. So there is no possible way to avoid sinning. Then sell the only “cure”, knowing that people will be back for more

What I find completely odd is that Christians use “broken” to mean “damaged/sinful” AND “broken” to mean “humbled in the presence of God”, one as a sideways slap at another person and the second as a ‘street cred’ type usage establishing each other as *true* Christ followers. Blech. Oh, and it’s annoying because it’s a patronizing and condescending thing to say. Simple as that.

Well, I’m not a Rodman fan, or even a sports fan.  This was my only exposure to him as  man.  Of course I’ve seen headlines about him, sensationalized scandals and whatnot. 

I didn’t find his speech Christianized, but I didn’t read any other replies yet OR see any Christian sites discussing it.

What I did see was a sad and rather pathetic attempt by a very sad and pathetic man trying to show his humanity.  I’m a fairly empathic person and, oddly, I wasn’t at all moved by his words or “tears”.  Just by what I perceive as a shell of a man.

I have a different bone to pick, actually.  When a person says that they will “try” to be a better man/husband/son/father, that is simply another way of saying they do not plan to make a bit of change in relationships, only that they hope the old stuff will work better.  Now, IF he had, in fact, give his mom a rather large sum of money AND if he had made an authentic effort to learn to be a parent, that would have made all of the difference.
Him simply standing there recognizing how he doesn’t deserve this honor, that’s a fact.

I am proud of his mother, his wife (?), and his children for being there, putting the bells on, and letting him have his day.  Shows character on their part.

My annoyance comes from the combination of the bolded sentence and the one before.  “And while my assessment was probably fairly accurate…“, in combination with the ‘broken human being’ suggests that the latter excuses or supercedes the former.  I understand that Pete’s trying to humanize Dennis Rodman, see him as a fellow human being with flaws and quirks, like everybody else. 
The lesson I think people should draw from this is that nobody is perfect; too often we only see the one- or two-dimensional projection, not the fully-fleshed-out human being people actually are, warts and all. 
The lesson you draw from this if you’re trying to make the listener feel broken or guilty is “Everyone needs healing… Everyone.”  ‘My boss is arrogant, but it’s okay because we both need healing.’  ‘My friend is self-absorbed, but it’s okay because we both need healing.’  ‘My mom/dad is angry, but it’s okay because we both need healing.’  That’s almost as bad as a Jesus Juke (a wonderful term I recently learned), using the shortcomings of others to denigrate yourself.  A better phrase would be ‘Everyone is more than that’  – to acknowledge these people aren’t exclusively defined by their negative traits.

Because nobody is “broken”. Bent, tarnished, a bit rusty, maybe held together with duct tape, but NOT “broken”.

Can you blame him?