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The Belmont Stakes and Bridling Our Tongue
I am not a horse-racing enthusiast, but I do like seeing history being made. So I tuned in to watch the Belmont last week to see if California Chrome could win the Triple Crown. He didn’t, but apparently the real excitement began after I turned the TV off. Seems Chrome’s owner, a fellow by the name of Steve Coburn, saddled up his rhetoric and proceeded to angrily denounce the winning horse and the system that allows “fresh” horses to run (i.e., horses that have not previously run the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness – thus entering the Belmont rested – resulting in California Chrome finishing tied for fourth).
With time to reflect on his acerbic comments, Mr. Coburn went to the “confessional” of television and offered his apologies: “Very ashamed of myself, very ashamed. I need to apologize to a lot of people, including my wife … She has stood literally stood behind me since I started this journey … I need to apologize to the winner … Their horse won the race … I did not mean to take anything away from them … And I need to apologize to the world and America, our fans that have written us, given us so much support. I apologize. I sincerely apologize” (USA Today website, 6/9/14).
My purpose is not to bash Steve Coburn, for his words sound contrite. But his public meltdown is a teachable moment. “Even so the tongue is a little member and boasts great things. See how great a forest a little fire kindles! And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity … no man can tame the tongue. It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison” (Jas 3:5-6). Once our tongue gets to galloping, especially in anger, it is like a flame-thrower that incinerates everything in its path. It is instructive that Coburn realized his words hurt his wife, who was not their target. But an uncontrolled tongue often causes collateral damage. She was embarrassed before the whole country by his outburst.
Coburn went on to say, “This is ‘America’s horse.’ I wanted so much for this horse to win the Triple Crown for the people of America, and I was pretty emotional” (ibid). Whatever legitimate point Coburn may have had about horse racing’s governing body was swallowed up by the impression of a sore loser. “Let ever man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath” (Jas 1:19).
