Forcing God's Hand

Here's a newsflash: Any attempt to manipulate God into serving our own agenda is doomed to failure!

Back in July, after tennis great Serena Williams won at Wimbledon, she exclaimed, "I want to thank Jehovah God."

It's not uncommon for professional athletes to express gratitude to the Creator for a successful play in their field of competition — Tim Tebow being a prime example — but, in Williams' case, whoever wrote the headline about her post-match victory exclamation misunderstood what these expressions of faith are about.

The headline read, "Wimbledon winner Serena Williams' secret weapon: 'Jehovah God.'"

As is often the case in journalism, the headline was no doubt written by an editor, not by the reporter who wrote the article. The article itself, while explaining Williams' involvement with the Jehovah's Witnesses and her faith in God, never describes God as "a weapon" in some sort of arsenal to which the tennis star has access. Whoever wrote the headline, however, sacrificed accuracy in favor of a punchy eye-catcher.

But headlines are written to get people to read the ...