Sunday, July 18, 2010

Jesus Christ and Sports part 2

A Positive thing that major sporting events indicate.

One thing that I believe is a good thing about major sporting events in general, is that in a way, it has taken the place of war. Think about it. The fact that we have Olympics, World Cup, etc., shows that we have unprecedented peace and prosperity on our land. It wasn’t too long ago when certain sporting events couldn’t take place because of the danger.
Back in ancient times, the reasons for a city or nation rejoicing together was because of a major conquest or a fending off of an enemy. A much more worthy reason to rejoice, to be sure. However, we now do battle in the stadiums in the world, and we are not killing anyone.
If we are spending money on athletes, that is money that is not going towards training soldiers and making weapons. It is a ‘lesser of two evils’ situation, for sure, since sports can have its evil, which I will talk about next.
But I still maintain that it is something that we should be thankful for!

Monday, July 12, 2010

Jesus Christ and Sports part 1

Outside Christendom, there are three basic reactions to the arrival of a major sporting event. The first is by the fans of the sporting event. This is easy enough to spot, and ranges from mild enthusiasm to outright fanaticism. The next group are those who have no real care or understanding of the sporting event in general, so they are mostly indifferent. The third group emerges as the second group becomes inconvenienced or made to feel inferior because of the sporting event. This can be especially contentious when a wife is ignored or disregarded due to sporting event that to her seems to have little or no significance. It causes problems in other people when something they love, (ie a TV series) is interrupted for coverage of the sporting event.

Inside Christendom, the groups are very similar, but there is a slight difference. The third group will often revert to self-righteousness. As in, they will act like martyrs who are being persecuted for their love for Jesus, which outweighs their love for the sporting event, unlike the other immature Christians who have succumbed to the devil’s sporting event; conveniently overlooking their own fanaticism when the season finale, or concert, or the other thing that they love comes into view and challenges their own love for Jesus.
I am ashamed to say that I have been the self-righteous ‘martyr’ and the fanatic.

I’ll talk more about the balance later.