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Is Football a Sin? (Author says "yes" because Christians shouldn't try to triumph over others)
press release ^ | unkn | Pangaeus press

Posted on 02/03/2003 8:09:40 AM PST by mountaineer

DALLAS--In the wake of Superbowl XXXVII, there’s the pain of loss, the agony of post-game quarterbacking But the toughest fact to confront on Superbowl Monday may be that the whole business of sport is really a sin, from the Christian point of view, says Kevin Orlin Johnson, Ph.D., author of many best-selling books on Christian beliefs and practices.

In his Rosary: Mysteries, Meditations, and the Telling of the Beads--hailed by National Review’s literary editor Michael Potemra as "the best book I have yet seen on this subject"--Johnson reveals the surprising history of sport to clarify the story of Christ’s "Agony in the Garden" before the Crucifixion, an episode traditionally meditated on as part of the Rosary’s prayers.

The term "agony" is from the Greek word for sport, Johnson says; it’s applied to the internal struggle that Jesus felt before going to his suffering and death. That’s the essential struggle, the "good fight" of every Christian, but struggling with other people in sport is something else entirely. "I hate to be the one to say it, but the Church has always taught, from the Gospels, that any sport--any contention in which you try to triumph over somebody else--is completely opposed to everything that Christ teaches," he says.

It seems obvious when you put it that way, but it’s still a shocker. Sports fans always ask, "Are you serious?" and come up with all kinds of excuses about sportsmanship and teamwork and the like. Sorry, it won’t work, Johnson says, because sport is what it is--obviously--and there’s also a huge body of Christian literature that knocks down every pretext you can think of.

That’s because the Church worked so hard to remind Christians that they’re not supposed to go around hitting, fighting or tackling other people ("Turn the other cheek," remember?) and certainly not to try proving themselves better than others. St. Paul himself used the image of an athlete in his first letter to the Corinthians (9:24-27) when he catalogued everything that a Christian is not supposed to do. All of the Fathers of the Church preached fervently about the sinfulness of sport, and some even wrote whole books about it. Eventually the point got across and the stadiums fell into ruin, but it had taken 600 years. "Evidently the early Christians were even denser about it than we are now," Johnson says.

Of course, those games were often fights to the death, with hundreds of human beings slaughtered in gladiatorial combats or even footraces. But it wasn’t just the bloody murders that the Church objected to. Long before anybody gets killed, the Fathers of the Church said, sport always involves the sins of strife, superstition, sedition, pride, vainglory, contention--"how many ways do we need to prove that not one of the things associated with these sports is pleasing to God?" the 2nd-century convert Tertullian asked. No sport, he said, fails to inflict spiritual damage, because in sport there is always "eagerness, which adds spice to pleasure. Where there’s eagerness there’s the taking of sides. Where there’s the taking of sides, there’s rage, and bile and anger and pain and all the other things that follow from them, which like them are incompatible with spiritual discipline."

After the stadia closed down, sport still erupted informally among the less-educated classes, but the Church was always there to remind them. By the time St. Thomas Aquinas catalogued the vices that sport expresses in his 13th-century Summa, sport was widely understood as a violation of Christian principles of life, and in fact as sin.

(Excerpt) Read more at pangaeus.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Philosophy
KEYWORDS: aquinas; bookreview; football; notredame; superbowl
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To: Paul Atreides
Not only that, but if a CHRISTIAN doesn't already know that they are TRIUMPHANT over the devil, then their Christian instruction is sorely lacking.
61 posted on 02/03/2003 9:15:10 AM PST by CyberAnt ( Yo! Syracuse)
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To: ewing
definitely post rennovation
62 posted on 02/03/2003 9:17:14 AM PST by irish guard
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To: ewing
The author of this drivel has given the process of thinking a bad name.

From my understanding and readings, Jesus came to take away one's sins...not their minds.

And the statement: "Christians shouldn't try to triumph over others"...boggles the mind of rational thinkers! Just how does one conquer Evil? ... I'll tell you this, it's not with open arms and hugs and kisses.

The social justice crowd is growing under the charade of religious "feelgoodism" unhampered by original thought.

Mustang sends.
63 posted on 02/03/2003 9:18:12 AM PST by Mustang
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To: mountaineer
I know there is one admin moderator who agrees with this author as football news threads are sometimes moved over to "chat".
64 posted on 02/03/2003 9:20:14 AM PST by Cagey
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To: ewing
it is post rennovation because you can see two entry tunnels one larger one just above the smaller one. this is a picture taken from across the stadium in the new nosebleed seats....

irish guardsmen wear no underwear

65 posted on 02/03/2003 9:21:46 AM PST by irish guard
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To: mountaineer
Absurd. He tries to imply that Aquinas condemed sport as sinful, without any citation whatsoever.
66 posted on 02/03/2003 9:22:06 AM PST by B Knotts
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To: L,TOWM
"like this are little more than bloviating by persons long on Law, short on Grace."

Well put L, well put.

67 posted on 02/03/2003 9:23:48 AM PST by jjm2111
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To: mountaineer
That does it. We really do have a bunch of nancy prancy loonies that thinks the very idea of competition is bad--sheesh!

It's small wonder why our public schools have been miserable failing in the last 40 years and why home schooling have been increasing in popularity.

68 posted on 02/03/2003 9:26:29 AM PST by RayChuang88 (I'm seen it all now....)
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To: Cagey
Actually, I was expecting just such a move to the cheese hole, but so far it hasn't happened.
69 posted on 02/03/2003 9:31:49 AM PST by mountaineer (So what does this make the N.O. Saints?)
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To: 11th Earl of Mar
If they sign Mariucci, that'll still be the case.
70 posted on 02/03/2003 9:31:56 AM PST by GraniteStateConservative
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To: Mustang
The social justice crowd is growing under the charade of religious "feelgoodism" unhampered by original thought.

Yep, it's smart tactics to take your enemy's strength and make it a weakness. We use religion as a way to rally our political troops, so the liberals adopt religion as their own weapon-- which takes it from our arsenal.

71 posted on 02/03/2003 9:34:04 AM PST by GraniteStateConservative
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To: Cagey
I always refer to the scripture when an issue of contention is raised. 2Tim 2:5 says all I need to know about the subject. And yes, it is in context, and I checked twelve different translations. Go away, Christian Taliban!
72 posted on 02/03/2003 9:37:47 AM PST by CalvaryJohn
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To: mountaineer
The Apostle Paul tapped into the Olympian spirit in Corinth:

1 Corinthians 9

24Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize.

He only suggests that end-zone dancing be done tastefully (ie. more James Brown, less Janet Jackson)
73 posted on 02/03/2003 9:47:39 AM PST by Green Kayak (brand new freeper - you people are nuts)
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To: mountaineer
But the toughest fact to confront on Superbowl Monday may be that the whole business of sport is really a sin, from the Christian point of view, says Kevin Orlin Johnson, Ph.D., author of many best-selling books on Christian beliefs and practices.

He does NOT present a "Christian point of view"...it likely presents his view of Christianism. Best selling books? What a maroon! (all credit to Bugs Bunny)

74 posted on 02/03/2003 9:56:00 AM PST by Prov1322 (No tags were hurt or harmed in the producton of this post)
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To: mountaineer
LOOOOOOOOOOOO-ser! Go join the Taliban!
75 posted on 02/03/2003 10:40:25 AM PST by The Old Hoosier
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To: irish guard

76 posted on 02/03/2003 10:50:22 AM PST by ewing
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To: amused
I can see socialist/communist fodder here. You shouldn't get that promotion over Fred as that would be a triumph, you shouldn't send your kids to a better school than Phil, you shouldn't drive a nicer car, have nicer stuff, basically any and all competition ...

The root problem is theological. How unfair that you go to heaven, while some other guy goes to hell? They're mad at God because He rewards virtue, and punishes evil -- they'd rather have a world, and a universe, free from responsibility. They're also mad at God for differentially distributing innate talents, as it hurts their pride when someone else is better than themselves. Since ALL human competitions reward either virtue, or talent, or both, these people can't stand competition. It implicitly reminds them of Someone they'd rather forget.

77 posted on 02/03/2003 12:04:31 PM PST by Rytwyng
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To: ewing
Hmmm, football and sinful in the same sentence... can I do it?

Okay, maybe dorky rather than sinful.
78 posted on 02/03/2003 12:41:36 PM PST by mountaineer (So what does this make the N.O. Saints?)
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To: ColdSteelTalon
The same could be said of any activity that takes the place of God in one's life. Sports, work, entertainment, sex, food, money, etc. can all be forms of idolotry in that context, but they are not inherrently so.

There have been some great Christian football coaches and players. Many Christian colleges and secondary schools field football teams. I feel pretty confident that nobody is going to be cursed to eternal damnation because they watched the Super Bowl.
79 posted on 02/03/2003 12:54:15 PM PST by Media Insurgent
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To: Mustang
"And the statement: "Christians shouldn't try to triumph over others"...boggles the mind of rational thinkers! Just how does one conquer Evil?"

Exactly!!!! Isn't the entire New Testament really a book about triumph? Last time I checked, the good guys won in the end.
80 posted on 02/03/2003 12:59:01 PM PST by Media Insurgent
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