Posted on 01/24/2009 6:49:41 AM PST by EternalVigilance
As our post-Christian nation beholds the liberal demolition of everything American, one icon remains untouched by the agents of change – the great diversion, our unofficial religion: Sports.
This makes perfect sense in a world in which increasingly nothing else does. Sports have provided the ultimate American distraction for decades. What better way to keep God’s people occupied, than season after relentless season of mindless “family devotion” to the athletes so “worthy” of our reverence, time, and financial support?
Oh, yes, I realize I am treading on “holy” ground. For years, I’ve avoided tackling this topic, for fear of offending my own friends and family. Today, the urgency I sense concerning the Church’s need to repent compels me to write.
What does the Church in America have to show for the countless resources we’ve invested in the never-ending array of sports mania? What might have been accomplished, what devastation avoided, had we spent that time, money, and talent on godly pursuits? I’m just asking.
How many Christian parents are so addicted to sports, we’ll dutifully sacrifice our children to the cause, often in an effort to relive our own “glory” days? (Please, spare me the “keep ‘em busy and out of trouble” mantra.) Whom do we teach our sons and daughters to revere, and why? To what degree does one generation’s blind allegiance to sports affect the next?
Maybe I’m just a spoilsport. Maybe God is pleased when parents take preschoolers to cheerleading practice. Maybe He appreciates getting out of church early during the playoffs. Maybe feeding the ravaging gambling industry by betting on a game now and then is really just innocent fun. Maybe throwing a Super Bowl party is a great way to show lost people how we honor the Lord’s Day. Maybe Jesus was nailed to the cross so that we who refuse to raise our voices for righteousness’ sake can yell and scream in the bleachers without condemnation.
Call me a pessimist, but the way I see it, the home team’s clock is about to run out. While we’ve obsessed over invented foes, the real enemy has gained untold ground. Alas, the competition in which we now find ourselves, though surreal, is not a game. Could it be time to turn off the HD, flush the season passes, and teach our kids about heroes of the faith?
Lord God, we have squandered Your blessings on so much of no eternal consequence. Open the eyes of Your people and show us Your heart regarding our love affair with the things of this world. Bring Your Church to repentance for worshipping idols and forsaking You. Show us how we can invest the remainder of our days for YOUR glory. In the name of Jesus and for His sake, we ask it. Amen.
In the light of pressing needs and events, it is amazing how many things fade into insignificance, and how quickly God can give us a true perspective on what is truly important.
I’d say, lighten up, hombre! There’s a lot of things that people find enjoyable... if sports is escapism, don’t we need that? Americans seem to overdo things, that’s for sure, But if God is in charge, then it’s only your relationship to Him that ultimately matters.
There are a lot of people who are so addicted to sports, that it does distract them from God and threat of socialism. This is a good article and could be published on a website such as onenewsnow or worldnetdaily.
I have been hearing alot about the fact that hollywood is shocked that it is not immune from this economic downturn. They are quite stupid to think they would be immune this time around. Old hollywood did not have TV’s, DVDs, blockbusters and netflix, much less the internet to compete with. People actually had to go to the movies to escape. In hollywoods greed for ever larger paychecks, they created all of the above to make more per movie.
I think the same will happen with sports, although a bit slower. I believe televised games, cable sports pay channels and the like will drive attendance down dramatically this year and hopefully all these over paid athletes and movie stars will finally see they are not indespenible nor are they even remotely important.
I hope more families will engage in closeness activities as this downturn occurs. Camping, going to the beach, fishing, hiking. No distractions from the family, time to build relationships. Maybe then the kids and the parents wont need to turn to athletes and movie/music idols, they can have a hero to worship in their own family, their parents, as it should be.
God did not call himself Father for no reason. We are to base our relationship on the closest one we are supposed to have. Sadly, due to the above mentioned distractions, Father is last on the list, if he is even present in the home at all anymore. I, sadly, have to say, I hope this country completely crashes. I know that it will stink, but I also can only envision how this will rebuild families, churches, communities as never before, all while eliminating most distractions.
( I posted this on another blog )
Pro sports bore me. It is to physical activity what McDonald’s is to food. Colorful, world class( I suppose) but processed, stepped on, squeezed and marketed to death. I can hardly tell where the sports commercial ends and the commercial sport begins.
Listening to coaches, talking heads and athletes are painful. I swear, there are only twenty cliches in the history of sports. If an Islamist should ever get me, forget waterboarding, just make me listen to ESPN shows for days. (I’ll talk, I’ll sign anything, but just turn it off!)
At one time, America was wide and wild with lots of physical activity, little of it organized. Now the country is rule bound, law drowned and cubicals.
I like the kids that make their own sports. Surfers, skateboarders, trail bikes, climbers. They get the idea of sports like old English gentry might of. For themselves, and their own internal growth. Maybe out of the kids will come the courage to break out of our hoary old strictures of mass amusements, time wasting and mon ‘culture’
I certainly think folks need diversions at times, to recharge their batteries.
The problem these days though is not that we don't have enough escapes from reality. It's the exact opposite. Too few now are dealing with reality much at all. I kinda think that's the writer's point.
I’m with you.
I put up with NASCAR only until our local dirt track thaws out. Then, my Saturday nights are spent rooting for guys I know. These are the guys who build homes, fix cars, drive trucks, and work hard to earn a living during the week. After work, they head for the garage to prepare their race cars for the weekend.
Usually, the whole family is involved in these enterprises.
After the last checkered flag flies, drivers, crews, and their families can be found in the pits. It’s their time to socialize, b.s. a little, then pack up to prepare for the next week.
There are no “big money” sponsors, no T.V. contracts, no endorsement money. These guys just love to race. They’re not polished speakers a la NASCAR, but they are some of the most down-to-earth, genuine people I’ve ever had the pleasure to know.
If you are not doing it, participating in it, it’s not sports.
What is called sports now on TV, MSM is a lie.
It isn’t sports, it’s a selling vehicle. It instructs and even demands physical passivity from the fans. What kind of sports is that?
Even your racing. It isn’t about the track, the cars, or even the race. It’s about you. It is internal. It is about self discovery, team mates. That is sports. Not this selling/buying orgy on a flat piece of glass, which is a sales job, a lie, a fake thing telling you fake sincerity as if you are with them, as if you are on the track, the field. You, me, we are not.
Doing is sport. Watching is watching. Sitting is sitting.
I actually find pro sports insulting. When you consider how much better, even if done badly, any activity is, and they they ‘sell’ me that me sitting there, passively, buying their overpriced, made in China crap is ‘really great’ and that I am supposed to feel special that I over paid to sit on plastic. Please.
Well, excuse me.
I’m sorry, I didn’t write clearly, or you misunderstood. And or both.
What you are DOING, is sport. You are doing the right thing. You and your friends are sports, becasue you are doing.
Sitting in the stands, in front of a TV is not ‘sports’.
Some of the leading actors have had to take a reduction in salary for movies made. Poor Harrison Ford only received 8 million for his last picture.
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