WW--Christians Shouldn't Be Sports Fans

Note: Before reading the following arguments, please understand that they are not what I believe. On Wednesdays, I deliberately argue for wrong ideas, challenging my listeners to call and defend the obvious right answer, which is usually far harder than one would expect. This is a summary of what Wacky Andrew will be arguing, not a representation of what real Andrew believes.

~Causes division over things that do not matter.
~Causes distraction from things that do matter.
~It makes you unhappy with a reality which is not as interesting as sports.
~Wastes time and money.
~You spend $200 on a jersey so you can sit and drink beer while you get angry at a referee and frustrated at your team for underperforming? That DOES sound Christian.
~The Fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, self-control….
~If you ever find yourself booing another human because he wears the wrong jersey, something has gone horribly wrong.
~We aren’t supposed to be attached to the things of this world.
~Have you ever listened to a sports commentary show and thought to yourself, “My, those boys are sure some devoted Christians?”
~The first shall be last, but we don’t exactly honor the Pittsburgh Pirates do we?
~Do you cheer for Jesus the way you cheer for your team?
~Your heart should jump and weep over the lost and sin rather than over points on some electronic board in a stadium of drunks somewhere.
~If sports fanaticism isn’t idolatry, I’m not sure what is.
~You lose at least as often as you win, and at the end of the year, all but one team will have lost in some spectacular way.
~Something with so little significance shouldn’t be capable of making you so happy or sad.
~Why invest emotionally in something you have no control over?
~Doesn’t the serenity prayer teach us differently? God grant me courage to change the things I can, peace to accept the things I cannot, and wisdom to know the difference.
~“Some of us share a growing concern that sports not only have become a threat to religion, but in some respects may have become a religion.”
~At judgment day, the thing I am least looking forward to is a replaying of the videotape of my life. But to be honest, the pain of such an experience pales in comparison with the prospect of being shown a video of all the things my life could have been with the time I wasted.

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Response--In defense of sports fans

1. Appreciation of beauty, virtue, excellence, artistry, amazing feats.

2. Default setting
a. Something isn’t explicitly Biblically prohibited
b. It doesn’t run afoul of any clear Biblical principles
c. It brings people joy and satisfaction.
d. It is by default okay.

3. This is really a subset of two much broader allegations:
a. Christians should not care about anything
b. Christians should care, but only about really important things

4. Some people have a false notion of the correct orientation of Christians to the things of this world. We are to simultaneously hold them loosely and also cherish them. Consider my children. What sort of parent would I be if I didn’t absolutely love them, but what sort of Christian would I be if I did not recognize that God gives and God takes away?

5. Sports gives us a chance to practice virtue.
a. Justice is a key idea of sports. Honor.
b. If we abandon sports, then only the worst sorts will dominate.

6. I have much more in common with a Cubs fan than I do with someone who doesn’t care about sports at all.

7. If Christians can play sports, then it sure is odd to say that other Christians can’t support them and that they, themselves, cannot be fans of the game.

8. You learn how to control your emotions and handle disappointment, especially if you are a fan of a team that loses a lot. You learn loyalty and unconditional love. What woman wouldn’t want to marry a Cubs fan?

9. There is tremendous value in learning how to be invested in things you can’t control
a. This is called love
b. The opposite is called apathy
c. The idea that you should only love things you can control is called selfishness.

d. Love of a child you can’t control.
e. Love of humanity you won’t control.
f. Love of a country.

g. You don’t control anything 100%.
h. Which is more pernicious to Christian character: devotion to things that seem to matter little or devotion to self?

10. Vicarious identity is at the very core of what it means to be a Christian.

11. Non-individualism is vital to Christian thinking

12. “Our theologians have written volumes on the theology of work, but there has been little effort given on their part to developing a theology of play. Certainly very little has been written on the theology of sports.”

13. “A theology of play is important because heaven is probably more about play than it is about work. We gain a sense that when this life is over we will have ceased from our labors (Heb 4:11). The afterlife is Biblically depicted as a time of celebration and fun (John 7:37). The question is whether or not we who have learned to work with Christ wil know how to play with Him. Will we be able to learn how to frolic with the Lord of Creation in play that transcends time and space? It may be that those who cannot play cannot be part of the heavenly kingdom.”In praise of athletics because it raises, even for a moment, our transcendent awareness.