Former U.S. Senator George Mitchell yesterday issued a report of his investigation into the extent of the use of performance-enhancing drugs in Major League Baseball.  Over the course of a few hundred pages, Sen. Mitchell detailed evidence and accusations of which current and recent baseball players were sticking hypodermic needles in their hind ends in order to hit a ball further or throw it harder.  He mentioned the common lament of players who did not cheat that their jobs were taken by those who did.  I suppose some people will be surprised by the degree to which the situation exists, and by which of their heroes are cheaters.

It’s remarkable, though, the measures some people will take, even risking their long-term health and well-being, in order to be successful.  Of course, there is a mountainous pile of money on the baseball table, and on average, playing careers are brief.  (There are no dollars from me, though.  As much as I like baseball, I have a personal rule:  I don’t attend games if I have to pay to get in, and I don’t subscribe to baseball Internet, radio, or television packages.  Besides, I have difficulty just sitting around for three hours.)

Office politics, lying, manipulation and who-knows-what-else are vehicles for getting ahead in other professions, so moral slippages are not unique to baseball players.

In the church it often seems that “performance-enhancers” are avoided.  Worship attendance is spotty.  Participation in classes and study groups is regarded as if it were a form of punishment.  The pages of the best-selling book of all time generally remain safe from light-exposure.  Encouragement to faithful stewardship of one’s material wealth is resented.  Evangelism is someone else’s job, because “I’m not comfortable talking to people about my faith.”  Well, it’s no wonder, when there isn’t much to discuss.

At least, we aren’t cheating.  Or are we?  It seems sadly ironic that there is so much striving and climbing and looking for short cuts in order to grab hold of “bread which does not satisfy,” and at the same time such half-hearted (quarter-hearted?) attempts at living into the “peace that passes all understanding.”