Thought for the Day, 23 January 2009
Rt Rev. Lord Richard Harries
I have nothing against ManchesterCity, and I can well imagine their disappointment at not being able to persuade Kaka to join them. But I cannot help feeling that the footballer's decision to stay with Milan is not just good for Milan and for Kaka himself but for all of us. Manchester offered a transfer fee of £91 million and a weekly wage to Kaka himself of half a million pounds a week: and the footballer turned it down. He said he preferred to stay in a place where he knows his family is happy, and where he is loved by his teammates and the fans, even though he could have doubled his weekly wage by moving. Bad luck for Manchester I know, but I still felt like giving three cheers that someone in a world dominated by money, and in the public eye had made such a wise, counter cultural decision, rooted in strong values.
Kaka makes no secret of what is at the heart of his life. As he said "I'm a deeply religious person and I believe the path God decides for us is not always the most logical one." He doesn't drink or chase women. He was a virgin until he married his childhood sweetheart four years ago. When he was asked by a commentator whether his amiable, polite, religious demeanour risked getting him branded as boring he was rightly affronted. He insisted he was a "radical". He respected other people's lifestyles he said but added "I have my life, I have my values. And compared with much of society, especially football, that is radical." Yes indeed.
The other person in the news this week also seems to be able to talk about his faith in a natural, real way. Barrack Obama's father was an atheist, his mother an agnostic. It was as an adult that he was baptized as a Christian, as a result of working with the churches in the worst parts of Chicago as a community organizer, trying to mobilize people to change their environment for the better. So his faith is also a committed one-but like Kaka's one which is so much part of his person, that he is able to be generously inclusive even of people he radically disagrees with. Obama himself his pro gay-yet he invited Rick Warren, who takes a very different attitude, to say prayers at his inauguration. Perhaps the new President and Kaka between them will change the bad image that religion seems to have acquired in the last decade? Perhaps they will be able to show how it is possible to have a faith that is at once deeply committed and attractive, both firm and clear and at the same time generously inclusive of others?
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