Feb
05
2010
A Simpler View of Sports
Like most Christian men I know, I have a love/hate relationship with sports. I’ve played sports–in high school, in college, and on the side–and I’ve been a fan of sports my whole life. I love it when my teams wins. I feel pangs of sorrow when they lose. I love the conversational fodder sports has provided thousands of times for me and my brother and my dad. I love the way sports gives me something to talk about with the majority of men in my church, many boys, and a not few women and girls.
And yet, I recognize sports talk is only the shallow end of the pool. More than that, I am fearful of the place sports can occupy in my heart. As a pastor, I want the folks in my congregation to give their lives for something more meaningful than youth soccer leagues and the triumphs of fandom. I am not blind to the idolatries of sport and the failings of sport stars. But, still, I am a huge sports fan.
So it was with interest that I read the Christianity Today cover article on “Sports Fanatics.” In this lengthy essay, Shirl James Hoffman, an emeritus professor of kinesiology at UNC-Greensboro, sets out to prove “how Christians have succumbed to the sports culture–and what might be done about it.” I was hoping for an article that took a fair look at the world of sports–the good, the bad, and the ugly. What I got was something like this, but not quite: an argument that, on the one hand, affirms sports as “derivatives of the God-given play impulse,” and, on the other hand, argues that Christians should get rid of football and take up swimming.
Tracing the Argument
Hoffman insists he is not anti-sports. (I’ll take a look at his pro-sports argument later.) But most of the essay is a not so-subtle jab at our fascination with sports. Here’s Hoffman’s basic argument:
1. Americans are obsessed with sports. They fly flags from their houses and some even get buried in coffins decorated with their team’s colors. In 2006, Americans spent over $17 billion on tickets to sports contests and $90 billion on sporting goods. We are sports freaks. Now, I could add that Americans also spend $41 billion per year on their pets (there are 300 million of us, so it doesn’t take long for the dollars to add up). But, nevertheless, I fully agree that Americans like their sports, and many Americans like them too much. If Hoffman had simply challenged the idolatry of sports in our culture, I would have applauded. Sports as religion is diabolical.
2. Evangelicals are joined at the hip with sports culture. Churches have gyms. Pastors use sports analogies. Local baseball teams have faith and family nights. Professional teams have chaplains. Christian athletes are outspoken promoters of the faith. And on and on. I’m not sure what this list proves, other than that evangelicals like sports and some sports starts are evangelicals. But I’ll concede the point: evangelicals are tied in closely with the sports world.
3. Sports can bring out the worst in us. Hoffman cites several examples: cheating scandals, performance enhancing drugs, in-game brawls, out of control parents/fans, Christian schools sacrificing principle for sports prowess. Of course, all of these things happen, and all of them are bad. But there’s nothing revelatory here. Even the casual fan knows of these problems. And virtually every Christian, I imagine, recognizes these are problems. So what has Hoffman really proved? He’s demonstrated that there are sinners in sports and that sports cultures tempts us in bad ways. Can’t the same arguments be made about any profession–business, art, music, academia, pastoral ministry?
The Coup de Grace?
The real crux of the piece is Hoffman’s suggestion that the values of sports culture are inconsistent with Christian values. He writes:
Variously described by those inside and outside as narcissistic, materialistic, violent, sensationalist, coarse, racist, sexist, brazen, raunchy, hedonistic, body-destroying, and militaristic, big time sports culture lifts up values in sharp contrast with what Christians have for centuries understood as the embodiment of the gospel. They are simply no easy, straight-faced, intellectually respectable arguments for how evangelicals can model the Christian narrative–with its emphasis on servanthood, generosity, and self-subordination–while immersed in a culture that thrives on cut-throat competition, partisanship, and Darwinian struggle.
In basketball no one likes a cherry picker–someone who refuses to play defense, but instead stands under his own basket just hoping to get a pass from the other end and score an easy bucket. What goes for sports, goes for cherry-picking arguments about sports too. Hasn’t Hoffman simply highlighted everything that can be bad about sports, without paying any attention to what can be good? What about the story of the coach in Georgia who forfeited his team’s state title because they accidentally played one minute of one game with an academically ineligible player? What about the Tim Tebows of the world who lead with courage and set an example of principled character? What about coaches like Tony Dungy who emphasize serving the community even more than winning? What about a guy like Isaiah Dalman for the Spartans who was Mr. Basketball in Minnesota but, for the good of the team, has joyfully and without complaint accepted his role as a minimal bench player? What about the values of honesty, hard work, cooperation, fair play, and team-first that characterize hundreds of teams and thousands of players? What about the college coaches who take rough kids from rough places and genuinely care about making them responsible men and not just champions? The list could go on and on. If you are looking for all that’s depraved in sports, you don’t have to look hard. But there’s plenty that’s consistent with Christian virtue too, if you are willing to see it.
At bottom, it’s hard not to conclude that Hoffman is upset with sports because sports emphasizes hard virtues instead of soft virtues. After urging Christians to play sports for the glory of God, Hoffman bemoans the fact that in today’s sports world, “such visions of glorifying God are almost always linked to athletic production. God is glorified through demonstrations of grit, muscularity, strategic calculation, and victory, notions that seem more derivative of the coach’s office that of the Bible.” Huh? Grit and victory not part of the Bible? Many of the Old Testament heroes were renowned for their strength, courage, and cunning. And if you don’t trust the Old Testament–Hoffman thinks sports is too much Old Testament war and not enough Sermon on the Mount–you can turn to the New Testament and find numerous metaphors about training your body, running the race so as to win the prize, fighting the good fight, enduring suffering as a good soldier. And when you finish up the Bible in Revelation you’ll see that theme is nike (victory), how to be an overcomer. Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of soft virtues to go around too. The Bible is a big book with many ways to describe godliness. But let’s not emasculate the Bible of its athletic and militaristic language just because Mark McGwire used steroids and Gilbert Arenas carries a gun.
Elsewhere, Hoffman suggests that “Sportianity” advocates a worldview at odds with Christianity. “The concrete trumps the symbolic; doing, achieving, and struggling are favored over mystery, joy, feeling, transport, and spiritual insight.” First of all, I’m not sure what this means. Second, since when do sports not emphasize joy and feeling? And third, you’ll find a lot more in the Bible about struggling and striving than you will about the wonders of ineffable mystery.
The other argument against sports, at least violent ones like football, is that as temples of the Holy Spirit we should not treat our bodies so harshly. Of course, there’s a grain of truth here. Players who sacrifices mobility at fifty for one more season at thirty act imprudently. But the “body as a temple” argument only goes so far. Injuries happen in “non-violent” sports just as they do in “violent” ones. Women runners and basketball players, for example, are especially susceptible to leg problems, and swimmers can see muscle mass turn to fat in later years. In all cases, athletes face hard decisions about how hard to push their bodies. In most cases, however, I would guess athletes do not face crippling injuries later in life. And, ironically, in their prime, athletes have more impressive “temples” than anyone else.
The Flip Side
As I said, Hoffman is not entirely adverse to sports. In fact, he wants to see them reach their full potential. To that end, we should be open to “the possibility that sports can be what Hugo Rahner called a rehearsal ‘of that Godward directed harmony of body and soul which we call heaven,’ an expression of ‘man’s hope for another life taking visible form in gesture,’ a ‘feeble imitation’ of true play, which will begin ‘only when this world has been left behind.’” In his conclusion, Hoffman urges Christians to view sports as “derivatives of the God-given play impulse–intended less to test our spiritual limits than as times and places to recover our spiritual centers of gravity and to rehearse spiritual truths, dim images of the real games that will begin when we leave this world behind.”
Sounds good, I think. The lofty prose makes for tricky reading, but I think this is the super-smart way of saying “God is playful and creative, and in heaven we will glorify God with our bodies. Play sports as a reflection of these realities.” If that’s what Hoffman means, I’m all for it. But honestly, the whole argument feels overblown, like a lot of fancy words trying to infuse sports with heavenly typology. Hoffman, it seems, wants sports to be in the realm of special grace, where I am happy to have them in the world of common grace. Sports are games. They’re fun. They can bring out the best in us and the worst, just like everything else in life. They are blessings. And they can be idols. If Hoffman had talked about that, I would be all over it. God knows we need conviction for deifying sports teams and sports stars.
But in the end, I don’t think a theology of sports needs to be terribly complicated. Sports is yet another avenue to live out rebellion or another way to glorify God. But the glory is not because the perfect backstroke gives us a glimpse of heavenly play and heavenly bodies. Rather, because the backstroker, or point guard, or slot receiver, is humble, honest, and works hard unto the Lord. Let’s not make things more difficult than they have to be. Sports can be a waste of time, a wasteland of vice, or an oasis of God-glorifying people and principles. It depends on what you make it.
And if there are winners and losers, that’s ok. Because, you know what, that’s sort of what life is like too.
23 Comments
I grew up in the south and I was nerdy, bookish, unathletic and I was picked on and marginalized for my lack of athletic ability as well as overall lack of interest and involvement in sports. I went to Southern and Independent Baptist churches that worshipped God on Sunday and then they worshipped at the altar of High School, college and pro football the rest of the week. That culture with its anti-intellectual bent was inextriquibly linked, to the cult of football and sports in general. As well as the deep hypocrisy and meanness in groups like FCA that treated kids like me like we were from another planet. I find much common ground in Hoffman’s argument but I do believe he has to be careful that he doesn’t marginalize a significant portion of the body of Christ. With that being said, I know that the Church (regardless of the hegemony that I experienced growing up) is diverse and we are not the all the same and I still struggle with bitterness and resentment towards evangelicalism’s attachment to mainstream culture especially via sports but I still need to love and respect my brothers and sisters in Christ even if we have very little in common with each other. It has taken me a while to even get to this point and I still have a long way to go, but I am working at it.
Yes, there are admirable people in the sporting world. But it appears that two of those you mentioned, Tony Dungy and Tim Tebow, are admirable for what they do apart from sports. Sporting activity is not a neutral thing, something that could be either a blessing or a curse depending on who engages in it. It’s an invention of fallen man, not of the Christian community. It’s inherently man-glorifying.
Kevin,
Send him a copy of Ted’s book. I think Ted’s book was great at the balance of sports and Christianity.
You are right, there are lots of admirable things about sports (this coming from a guys that was never good at any of them) and some of the people who participate. (I think Georgia’s coach Mark Rich is another good example, this coming from a Gator fan).
Robert,
That same argument can be made for literature, arts, cooking, and the list goes on and on. Our culture may be too sports obsessed and evangelicals as a group have jumped on that bandwagon, but lets not throw out the baby with the bathwater. I really think this is a Romans 14 issue. Sports is no more man glorifying than anything else is. We can take anything and be prideful of it, even good things like Bible memorization. The problem is not that sports are sinful, its that sin resides in the human heart and people in sports are sinners like the rest of us.
Some good books for you to consider are “Game Day for the Glory of God” by Altrogge and “The Reason for Sports” by Kluck.
Kevin,
I have enjoyed following your blog for quite sometime now. Thank you for you dedication.
Also, thank you for your thoughts and analysis of the article in Christianity today. I agree that- on a general level- understanding sports for Christians is by and large simplistic as you pointed out. However,a woman’s role in sports is one controversial area that you did not mention. I was wondering if you have given any thought to the role of sports in the life of women and girls. Are there any adverse implications regarding a woman’s biblical role that are brought about by a female actively pursuing sports? I can think of many positives that stem from a woman or girl’s involvement in sports (physically, mentally, and spiritually). However, do you see the possibility of any negatives? Are the negatives the same for men and boys? If not, why? Thank you!
Robert,
Also I want to point out that Tebow and Dungy were the same men on the ’sports playing field’ as they were in life. Their consistency is what gave greater credence (in the eyes of an unbelieving world)to their words.
I live in the Gainesville area where Tebow is lifted high as the kind of guy you want your son to be like. (I am not advocating this, just reporting it) Even with Tebow’s stand for life, which by the way is completely the opposite of what most people in this area would have, the people here have respected him for his stance and even rallied to support his right to say it. It is because of his excellence on the field that many of them listen. Tebow showed the world a joyful, passionate Christianity on the playing field and off of it. That is what I enjoyed watching. (Things like counseling teammates on the sidelines, leading on and off the field, showing that purity before marriage is ‘cool’, etc.)
We cannot compartmentalize our lives and that is what Tebow demonstrated. Same with Dungy.
[...] For a response to the article, you can read Kevin DeYoung’s blog entry. [...]
[...] DeYoung takes a look at CT’s lengthy cover story on “Sports [...]
This, Kevin’s essay here, is the kind of engagement on an issue that will leave people very comfortable in their present attitudes and emotions and actions. In other words, “Nothing to see here…move along.”
Kevin-
Great post. Very thought provoking. Do you think one simple way that Christians do succumb to the sports culture is by partaking of it on the Lord’s Day? For instance, is this Sunday Super Bowl XLIV Sunday or Lord’s Day 6?
I read that article. It was really interesting. We are ‘fanatics for Jesus.’
How many sports illustrations creep into sermon illustrations?
David
Red Letter Believers
http://www.redletterbelievers.com
“Salt and Light”
Participating in sports breeds good things like friendships, overcoming challenges, physical fitness, teamwork, communication, winning and losing. I’ve yet to see what type of character is gained by being a super-fan?
Right with you. Just like a lot of other things, participation and enjoyment of sports being “good” or “bad” for God’s people and His glory comes down to what motivates the athlete or spectator, what emotions these atcivities invoke, etc.
Another good source on a Christian view of sports is a small booklet by Robert G. Spinney, now professor of American History at Patrick Henry College, but once my pastor. It’s called “Did God Create Sports Also?” Here’s the link.
http://www.cvbbs.com/inventory.php?target=indiv&search_back=keywords%3DRobert+G.+Spinney%26searchstyle%3Dall%26page%3D1%26title_keyword%3D%26isbn_keyword%3D%26publisher_keyword%3D%26author_keyword%3D%26sort_by%3D&bookid=10638
Thanks Kevin for this post and your blog, I find it to be an encouragement. Although I think you were right in balancing this article out, I think he raises a real problem in the church.
I think it is a problem when those who are supposed to have their hearts set upon the things above are soaking their affections on the things of this world, I find that many men who claim Christ as their treasure spend a lot more time, thought, energy to sports than they do to the things of God. I know many men in my sphere can tell you who Nebraska is recruiting at quarterback but can’t tell what the Reformation was about. They don’t have an interest in what is happening in the American church today but would love to talk about the bowl scene, the playoffs, sweet 16, etc.
I am concerned that we are following the world in this and are in danger of losing our first love. I am not saying sports cant be used for good and I enjoy them, sometimes too much. I just think we need to be careful we are supposed to be setting our “minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.” (Col 3:2)
As I head out to my daughters basketball game this afternoon, I Really do appreciate your ministry, God Bless
Professor Hoffman does a fine job of summarizing the excesses and evils of our sports culture. He desires to have sports redeemed for God’s glory. He says Christians have a “….duty to seek the redemption of sports,…”, and that the evangelical community needs to craft “….a sensible philosophy that will help them mine the spiritual riches that sport has to offer.”
The problem with this is that Professor Hoffman desires the redemption of something that, at its core, is irredeemable. What he would like to think of as “…derivatives of the God-given play impulse-…” are really expressions of mankind’s fundamental opposition to God and to the rest of the human race. The venues and activities point to this. People oppose each other and engage in struggle for the purpose of “winning”. I recognize that sporting activity is not the only means by which this plays out. It also happens in political campaigns. But at least political campaigns produce governments; they may be good, or they may be bad, but at least there’s a product. Sporting activities, on the other hand, produce nothing.
If the argument is made that all human activity is tainted by sin, and can be made man-glorifying, I agree. But it does not follow that all activities can be transformed for the glory of God. Professor Hoffman tries to make a case for sports by citing rather arcane (at least to me) notions from Johan Huizinga and Hugo Rahner about using sports to inspire the “…Christian imagination…” and viewing sports as “…that Godward directed harmony of body and soul which we call heaven,” an expression of “man’s hope for another life taking visible form in gesture,”…..”. Notably lacking is any biblical foundation.
And the reason there’s no biblical foundation is that no biblical case can be made. The whole business of sports is irredeemable. By its very nature, it does not and cannot give glory to God. It bears no lasting fruit. Those Christians who make their living in sports will be remembered for their lives outside of sports, not for their accomplishments within it.
Robert,
Notably lacking in your assessment is any biblical foundation as well. How is sports any less redeemable than say arts? or literature? or cooking? or music?
Also, why does Paul use sports analogies in the Scriptures? Was he sinning by doing so?
Sports is very much an idol in the culture. Is that because of sports or the sinful human heart?
As is often the case, there are several good questions and comments above. Thanks for the thoughtful remarks. I’m sorry I don’t have time to interact with all (or usually any of) the comments. I know some other bloggers do, but I am unable to do so and still serve well in the others areas of life. Thanks for understanding.
HI Kevin,
I enjoyed reading your comments on “A Simpler View of Sports”. Very interesting and enlightening..Is this the little boy that use to play in the sandbox with my boys. God Bless you and your family as you serve God.
Blessing,
Jan Vinke ( John also)
Hi Kevin,
I enjoyed reading your comments on “A Simpler View of Sports”. Vern enlightening and interesting as I am one of a very few “woman” sports lover. Is this the little boy that played with my boys in South HOlland, Il in the sandbox.. God Bless your and your family…
Jan and John Vinke
All Christian coaches should be required to memorize this sermon:
http://www.sovgracemin.org/Blog/post/CJ-Mahaney-Dont-Waste-Your-Sports-Sermon.aspx
Vinkes, great to hear from you. I have many fond memories of South Holland, including the sandbox.
[...] Kevin DeYoung: A Simpler View of Sports [...]
As a student leader at Marshall University for our Fellowship of Christian Athletes ministry, we focus on making sure that biblical truth is front and center, and not just motivational speeches about success in sports. Our theme for this year is aptly titled “Don’t Waste Your Sport”, but we are reaching beyond this, preparing our athletes for a life in Christ outside of athletics.
Our theme verse is 1 Corinthians 10:31. This is influenced by CJ Mahaney’s sermon on “Don’t Waste Your Sports”. It is important to remember that anything we do, sports or not, must be informed by the knowledge of God, and must be done as worship to God.
http://www.sovereigngraceministries.org/Blog/post/CJ-Mahaney-Dont-Waste-Your-Sports-Sermon.aspx
Also, I had the opportunity to travel with an Athletes in Action basketball team this summer to Colombia, South America. Athletics provides a platform for Christianity that allows for the sharing of the Gospel that would not normally take place.
Also, another great sermon on sports is from Scott Lothery, a man who came to Christ through the Athletes in Action Baseball ministry. As a team, we had the pleasure of having him speak to us in Chicago before we set out for Colombia.
http://www.oneplace.com/ministries/Arlington_Heights_Evangelical_Free_Church/archives.asp?bcd=9/6/2009