“Does God care about a football game? Of course He does. He loves people so much that He cares about everything and anything they care about.”
—Kurt Warner, MVP quarterback of the St. Louis Rams¹

“Football and religion don’t go together.”
—John Riggins, former MVP running back of the New York Jets and Washington Redskins²

AN WE say with spiritual authority (and a little paraphrasing) that “no one can serve two masters: either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and sports” (see Matt. 6:24)? Does the fruit of the Spirit—love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control—fit with sacks, blitzes, grand slams, slam dunks, Bears, Lions, Pirates, and Raiders? What dare we think that the greatest of Christians (and the Kansas City Chief of sinners) seem to be highly knowledgeable sports fans? “Do you not know that in a race all the runners run” (1 Cor. 9:24, NIV) and “run . . . to get the prize” (verse 24, NIV) and “physical training is of some value” (1 Tim. 4:8, NIV) and “athletes exercise” (1 Cor. 9:25, NRSV)? Can I cheer for Jesus Christ on Saturday and Deion Sanders on Sunday?

Additional Resources

20 Things To Learn From Sports Sports Evangelism?

I’ve listened to sports proponents and opponents over the years. Many live for January’s Super Sunday, March Madness, Augusta in April, and the Boys of Summer; or they simply wish Winter’s Ice would never melt. Others (who haven’t a clue what the last sentence means) could care less. And some flat-out believe competitive sport is sin. No matter one’s perspective on this wide continuum, I have heard three general sports “truths” agreed on by just about everyone. Let’s examine them.

1. Sports divert the mind from
more important issues.
Few would disagree with this “truth.” The sports lover argues, “Sports help me get my mind off the stress of life. They’re a good way for me to relax, to have fun, to get some recreation to balance the difficult challenges of a hectic life.” The critic of competitive sport counters, “Yes, sports do take your mind off important life issues. Sports distract men and women from dealing with the important spiritual and relational subjects for which God calls us to pay close and continuous attention.” Unless you are in the sports business, it’s pretty clear that sports take your mind away from more important matters—work, paying bills, religion, relationships, and so on.

First, to the sports lover’s argument for recreation and fun: it is clear that Jesus never intended men and women to be in constant high-intensity ministry focus. He told His disciples, “Come away . . . and rest for a while” (Mark 6:31, NRSV); and “Let’s go over to the other side of the lake” (Luke 8:22, NIV). What impresses me about Jesus is His slowing down of work and ministry. He limited His work to just 12 disciples and a few close friends. He focused His work on Jewish people alone, where there was a whole world of nations to save. He took time to eat and to play with children. Those who followed Jesus discovered what C. S. Lewis recognized in his famous observation “Joy is the serious business of heaven.”

Some of my fondest memories are of watching football games with my brothers, calling my dad at midnight from college in the bottom of the ninth inning to celebrate a Braves victory together, and playing pick up flag football games in our backyard at Thanksgiving. I survived on basketball stress relief in high school, college, and graduate school. Tennis with my friend David keeps me going now.

It’s hard to believe Jesus would reject altogether the joy of participatory and spectator sports. Christians who miss the value of play and Jesus’ not-so-hidden command “Thou shalt have fun!” are often people who do not resemble the playful God we serve.

On the other hand, sports can be an overly invasive distraction. Here the critics make an important observation. When ESPN is a 24-hour programming network in your home, something is the matter. We should worry about Christians who claim a busyness and fatigue so great they can’t serve the poor, attend prayer meeting, worship regularly on the weekend, or spend quality time with spouse, parents, children, or friends—while they watch, talk, attend, and read about sports all the time. We should worry when a Christ-follower is a veritable athletics encyclopedia, yet can’t articulate Christ’s teaching in the Sermon on the Mount. We should worry when sports disciples aren’t fully engaged in the abundant life God has in mind for them. We should worry if that describes us.

This may sound old-fashioned . . . but I believe it’s true. If many Christians took half the time they spend watching sports on television and invested it in family, community, service to the church, Bible study, and prayer, their churches would become radical spiritual places. Imagine what three hours of prayer on Sunday afternoon would do for a group of God-fearing men (still leaving the other afternoon game and the Sunday night game free!). Imagine how a Monday night “date night” every other week would revolutionize a marriage. Imagine if the month of March (the national college basketball tournament in the United States) were used as a month of intentional outreach to the poor. Taking a big-time investment away from sports and placing it in activities that really count would be extraordinary.

Spiritual health requires a position somewhere between abstinence and obsession. Diversion is a good thing from time to time. Permanent distraction is fatal. The writer of Ecclesiastes pens, “There is . . . a time to weep and a time to laugh” (Eccl. 3:1-4, NIV) and “Do not be overrighteous” (Eccl. 7:16, NIV). Sometimes seriousness and work are holy. Sometimes laughter and play are holy. Holiness is balance.

2. Sports are competitive.
The sportsperson argues, “Sports teach me how to compete with energy and integrity in the real world.” The sports detractor counters, “Sports are too competitive and have no place in the mind or heart of a Christian.” In this few would disagree: sports are competitive.

The story is told about a coach who pulled one of his young Little League players aside during the game. “Do you understand what cooperation is? What a team is?” The little boy nodded in the affirmative. “Do you understand that what matters is whether we win as a team?” The little boy nodded yes. “So,” the coach continued, “when a strike is called or you’re out at first, you don’t argue or curse or attack the umpire. Do you understand all that?” Again the little boy nodded. “Good,” said the coach. “Now go over there and explain it to your mother.”

Something is wrong when the “mature” person is the one unable to maintain her cool. Something is wrong when the “child” has a better grasp on fair play than the so-called adult. The Bible indicates that Christians should become mature in order that we might help unbelievers—the less mature—understand what a truly grown-up life looks like.

It’s disheartening at best and embarrassing at worst to watch a Christian lose their cool on the playing field. A friend who refereed intramural sports at Andrews University many years ago told me that some of the seminary students who participated had the worst attitudes. “They knew the law of God, so they obviously believed they knew the law of basketball, the law of football, and the law of softball. They would argue and whine constantly.” I have a friend (and prominent Christian leader) who loses his cool every time he plays a sport. Profanity, yelling, and trash-talking are regular occurrences. Too many Christians win obnoxiously and lose bitterly. Competition does have a way of bringing out true colors.

There is a problem, however, in rejecting sports outright because they are competitive. If we reject something because it is competitive, we won’t do much of anything. Dating is built on competition. The job market in just about any career, including ministerial, is intensely competitive. Entrance into colleges and universities is competitive. The stock market is competitive. Churches must compete for the attention and commitment of people. I know women who can’t stand the competitive nature of sports who compare and contrast themselves to other women (mainly through gossip) all the time. I know men who render lip service against the competitive nature of sports who are ruthless in the marketplace. (Capitalism is by definition competitive.) A competition-free paradigm doesn’t work.³

What Do You Think? Sports. Sometimes just the word evokes feelings of joy. Or bitterness. Disdain. Or pleasure. What do you think? Do you participate in any sporting activities? Why or why not? Please send responses on this topic to: To Sport or Not, Adventist Review, 12501 Old Columbia Pike, Silver Spring, MD 20904-6600. E-mail: 104315.2145@compuserve.com. Fax: (301) 680-6638. Please include your name, address, and phone number with each submission. The Review hopes to print some of these responses in a special feature.

The right answer, no matter what the arena of competition, is to be a good sport. Winning and losing are facts of life that will not change this side of heaven. Being a mature Christian requires maturity in victory or defeat. Being a mature Christian requires playing by the rules and treating “opponents” with respect. In sport, maturity is realizing it’s just a game. It’s calling a foul on yourself, celebrating the other team’s success, playing hard without playing dirty, scoring a touchdown without spiking the ball in your opponent’s face.

Sports can teach a lot about winning and losing. The Little Leaguer’s parents who take their child out to ice cream—win or lose—teach a valuable lesson about priorities. The teenager who loses because of a bad call by an official, but chooses to lose with grace, learns a valuable lesson about how to deal with unfairness in life. Even the fan who roots for a losing team for decades learns a loyalty the “bandwagon” fan who jumps from winner to winner never knows.

The spiritually responsible position is to handle competition with Christian grace and integrity. Stay away from a competitive situation (including sports) if you can’t handle it. But far better, grow in personal maturity to the place where you can handle competition responsibility. The genius of bearing the fruit of the Spirit is that it applies in every situation.

3. Sports teach behavior.
The sports proponent argues, “Sports is a great way to learn important lessons and values for life—even more than simply winning and losing.” The sports opponent counters, “Sports and sports personalities will influence you in ways that keep you from God and discourage moral living.”

It is easy to find negative examples in the world of athletics. Just read the headlines:

• Eugene Robinson, football player and noted Christian, caught with a prostitute the night before the Super Bowl.
  
• Ray Lewis, football player, involved in a knife fight that ends in murder.
  
• Charles Barkley, basketball player, spits on fans.
  
• Roberto Alomar, baseball player, spits on an umpire.
  
• Bill Romanaski, football player, spits on another player.
  
• Darryl Strawberry, baseball player, arrested for drug use.
  
• Dennis Rodman, basketball player, where do we begin?
  
• Marty McSorley, hockey player, convicted of attempted manslaughter for violently striking another player in the head with his stick.
  
• Pete Rose, baseball player, banned from the sport for life for gambling on it.
  
• Bobby Knight, basketball coach, fired for uncontrolled anger and insubordination.

It is also easy to see how the sports culture often influences destructive behavior and poor character qualities. Alcohol abuse, gambling, and domestic violence are common problems associated with athletic competition. Aggression, uncontrolled anger, and a desire to dominate an opponent are qualities frequently seen in athletes and their fans. A subtle attitude that triumphs masculinity over femininity often exists. When a male player is told he “plays like a woman” or he is a “girly-man,” this not only hurts the individual but also creates a culture that belittles women.

But while negative attitudes surround sport, there are also many great people to learn from—and great lessons that can be gleaned through athletics. A host of books have been written by athletes who seek to use their professional influence for good. Football’s Reggie White, baseball’s Dave Dravecky, and basketball’s A. C. Green are three of many. The Promise Keepers movement, to a great degree, has combined a sportslike atmosphere with responsible spiritual living to help transform the lives of men. Its founder, former college football coach Bill McCartney, enlists the help of prominent athletes to communicate the message of Christ to those who attend. Not long ago I sat in an Atlanta restaurant and overheard a 90-minute spiritual conversation coming from four men sitting at a table next to me. Who led the discussion? Brett Butler, former Major League baseball player and noted Christian.

Beyond “positive” sports figures, sports can teach us how to live life better. Former professional athlete and former United States senator Bill Bradley argues in his Values of the Game that basketball teaches “passion,” “discipline,” “selflessness,” “resilience,” and “courage,” among other important qualities. His Time Present, Time Past tells of the value basketball played in his development as a man.⁴

Sports has been a great teacher in my own life. Four years of high school gymnastics taught me hard work, going on through pain, the value of teamwork, how to take orders, how to give orders, and how to take a backseat for the good of the team. Our team motto “Whatever It Takes” illustrated a value of commitment many of us learned in a way we had never known before.

In addition, many sports movies also inspire great qualities. Rudy teaches courage and determination under difficult circumstances. The Natural teaches the consequences of sin and the ability to overcome past failures. Hoosiers teaches the value of discipline and teamwork. Remember the Titans tells the true story of a racially integrated high school football team in Virginia during the 1970s, which played a role in teaching racial tolerance. The pigskin did, indeed, teach an important lesson about the pigment of one another’s skin.

The spiritually mature approach is to use judgment and wisdom in how sports will impact your values. Choose role models wisely. You will find positive and negative influences in sports—just as in government, the marketplace, educational circles, and the church. Every experience in life will lead you either toward God or away from Him. Sports included. Choose to allow the joy of sport to teach you to be a better person.

Finally, the best solution—and most biblical—is to connect God and sports. Ask the question “How would Jesus live if He were in my place?” Ask “How would Jesus play if He were in my place?”

God and sports? Yes. If He is in the arena.

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¹ Warner writes about his football and his Christianity in All Things Possible (Harper Collins, 2000).
² In Riggins’ October 10, 2000, interview with Atlanta station AM 790 he bemoans players praying together following the game.
³ A note on the denominational school system and sports. If Seventh-day Adventist schools are going to allow or disallow athletic competition with other schools, they should base their decision on sound rationale. To rule intervarsity sports out because they are competitive holds little intellectual integrity. If you rule out athletic competition with other schools on the ground that they are competitive, you must also rule out intramural sports, dating, grades, admission standards, and class officers, and willingly give your students to other schools (for you are competing with other schools for students). If financial considerations, calendar priorities, or the school’s mission lead away from intervarsity sports, so be it.
⁴ Values of the Game is available from Aritsan Press, 1998. Time Present, Time Past is a 1996 book published by Vintage Books. The quotations are chapter titles.

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Alex Bryan is the pastor of the New Community Seventh-day Adventist Church in Atlanta, Georgia.