(See below for updates) I can recall, several years ago, my son coming home from school asking me if I ever heard about Lance Armstrong. The class was discussing how wonderful this man was, how he had beaten back cancer, and how he was raising money for a foundation to help other people beat cancer. Of course I had heard of Armstrong and I was impressed with his achievements as they were presented in the media. Little did we know about the dirty little skeletons lurking in the closet.
Last night Lance Armstrong appeared on Oprah and finally admitted to the world what officials and his own team-mates have known all along - Armstrong cheated... big time.
What's even worse is he lied, and lied, and lied. He coerced his handlers and medical team to lie on his behalf. His entire career, all of his successes were the result of cheating and lying. That is who Lance Armstrong is - that will be his legacy.
Armstrong is also an atheist. Or so the atheist groups claim. Armstrong has made several public statements on God and religion. Essentially it all boils down to this - Armstrong believes he is a good person and if there is a God and this God doesn't want him then fine, whatever.
An article in the UK Times Online by Alastair Campbell, printed Saturday Feb 28, 2004, says:
His stance on religion is in marked contrast to his wife's ever more fervent Catholicism and the difference may have been one of the factors that led to their marriage breaking up. Armstrong believes it is possible to be a good person while not believing. "I think we all have obligations to be good, honest, hard-working, caring and compassionate," he says. "You have to try and it won't always be easy but you try your best. I do not believe that because you are not prepared to submit yourself to a god or a higher being, that when you get to the end of the road, you will be sent down. I'm not prepared to believe that."
But that was then. This is now.
Lance Armstrong is not a good person. He's a cheat and a liar. And that's what we know for sure! Why would God want him?
And yet - He does!
We're ALL guilty of sin... all of us! Jesus need not have come to earth except for the total depravity of humanity and our utter inability to be "good" enough. By admitting to Oprah that he's a cheat and a liar he has simply admitted what God already knew about him. He's a sinner.
Admitting our sinful state is the first step. Step number 2 is equally difficult - admitting we can't fix or save ourselves. Jesus died for the sins of the world, this is true, but the resurrection of Jesus gives us power - the power of the resurrection - the ability to be called a son of God.
When Jesus walked away from the grave He opened up the adoption agency so that anyone can be adopted out of the family of the god of this world and into God's family, without being "good" enough, without works, and without fault. It is then, and only then, that we are given a new life, with a new name, and a new identity. It is through adoption that we are truly saved... and born again.
Just as the Psalmist says, there are no such things as "good" atheists, or anyone else for that matter. Come to the LORD, Lance. There's room at the cross for you!
Update!
Lance Armstrong May Have Lied to Winfrey: Investigators
Lance Armstrong may have lied to Oprah Winfrey during his so-called confession Thursday night about his doping during the Tour de France bicycle race, investigators told ABC News today.
Armstrong, 41, admitted for the first time that his decade-long dominance of cycling and seven wins in the Tour de France were owed, in part, to performance-enhancing drugs and oxygen-boosting blood transfusions. He told Winfrey that he was taking the opportunity to confess to everything he had done wrong, including angrily denying reports for years claiming that he had doped.
Investigators familiar with Armstrong's case, however, said today that Armstrong didn't completely come clean. They say he blatantly lied about when he stopped doping, saying the last time he used the drugs and transfusions was the 2005 race.
"That's the only thing in this whole report that upset me," Armstrong said during the interview. "The accusation and alleged proof that they said I doped [in 2009] is not true. The last time I crossed the line, that line was 2005."
"You did not do a blood transfusion in 2009?" Winfrey asked.
"No, 2009 and 2010 absolutely not," Armstrong said.
Investigators familiar with the case disagree. They said today that Armstrong's blood values at the 2009 race showed clear blood manipulation consistent with two transfusions. Armstrong's red blood cell count suddenly went up at these points, even though the number of baby red blood cells did not.
Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/US/lance-armstrong-lied-oprah-cover-crimes-investigators/story?id=18245484
Good point about we're all sinners, and it's not easy for anyone to claim they are "good". Really well written article!
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