Life at the Crossroads: Perspectives on Some Areas of

Public Life

Sports and Competition

Living at the Crossroads

Chapter 9

Sports as waste of time

• World negating gospel leads to a degraded view of sport

Among the various things we can relax with, athletics are low on the scale of demonstrable significance (Christianity Today).

Sports as creational gift

• World negating gospel leads to a degraded view of sport

• Gospel of the kingdom leads to:– Seeing sport as gift of creation– To be received with thanksgiving

‘God made me fast. When I run I feel his pleasure. . . . it’s not just fun. To win is to honor him’ (Eric Liddell).

Sports Rooted in Creation

• How created us as human beings

• Cultural calling He gave to enrich our lives

Rooted in who we are . . .

• As social creatures• As imaginative creatures

Sport part of ‘our artistic and imaginative impulse’ (Giammatti) or ‘aesthetic potential’ (Holmes).

Sports ‘feed a deep hunger’ (Novak) because of the way God made us.

Rooted in the task God has given us

• Genesis 1:26-28; 2:15

• Formative power to explore, discover, develop potential of creation in diverse ways

• Sports: one cultural product

God’s Good Gift of Competition

• ‘Morally wrong because it pits one . . . against another in rivalry . . .’

• ‘Basic ingredient’ of sport

Martin Zuidema

Competition is . . .

• Based on co-operation not rivalry• Co-operative agreement on goals,

rules, and obstacles of game• Co-operative agreement to contest

one another for mutual enjoyment

Obstacles provide hindrances which prevent the player from using the most efficient way of accomplishing the goal. The joy in the game is in creating tactics to overcome the obstacles and accomplish the goal’ (Frey et. al.).

An opponent is . . .

• Not first of all a rival

• Loving neighbor who provides opportunity for more delightful experience of sport by providing stiff competition

‘. . . competition can bring out co-operation, celebration, respect, and even love’ (Zuidema).

Destructive Potential of Competition

• Very powerful impulse

• Twisted by sin

• Need to discern healthy competition

• Opponent neighbor in image of God

• Treated with love, dignity, respect, and appreciation

Unhealthy Competition

‘I don’t care who I’m playing. I want to win more than they do.’ (Quote in Olympic Tower, Sydney)

‘Intimidation is the key. You can have the other beaten before they hit the water.’ (Quote in Olympic Tower, Sydney)

‘Winning isn’t everything; it is the only thing.’

(Vince Lombardi) ‘To play this game you must have fire in you, and

there is nothing that stokes fire like hate.’ (Vince Lombardi)

Two Conditions if Sports is to be Good

• One ‘sound’ in the ‘symphony’ of creation

Sports as One ‘Sound’ in the Symphony of Creation

• Sports and competition have their own ‘sound’– One valid (good) God-given

activity alongside of others

One Sound in the Symphony• Attempts to justify sports by a more noble

utilitarian purpose• Sports needs no justification• Does not need to be justified because it:

– Brings physical fitness– Provides refreshment for work– Builds character and self-discipline etc.

• “Essentially sport has no purpose at all: it is an end in itself . . . its possible uses are incidental like art, religion, and friendship” (Edward Shaughnessy).

Sports as One ‘Sound’ in the Symphony of Creation

• Sports and competition have their own ‘sound’

• Harmony with other ‘sounds’ in creation– Play suffers when other aspects

weakened– Other aspects weakened when play

suffers

Two Dangers

• When ‘sound’ of play and leisure is too weak– May be caused by:

• Sacred/secular dualism• Body/soul dualism

“. . . games are of the body, and thus of a lower order than things of the spirit” (Wilson).

Two Dangers

• When ‘sound’ of play and leisure is too weak

• When ‘sound’ of play and leisure is too loud– Hedonism: ‘Sports is the fastest

growing religion in America’ (Prebish)– ‘Pursuing pleasure we lose the gift of

joy’ (Our World Belongs to God)

Two Conditions if Athletics is to be Good

• One part of the symphony of creation

• Conforming to God’s design

Conforming to God’s Creational Design

• Conforming to God’s creational design

• Wisdom: Divine and human

• Identifying how sin has corrupted it

• Looking for healing ways to allow it again to conform to God’s design

Contribution of Scholarship

“. . . academic inquiry into what is going on during leisure time is both legitimate and important. It can be helpful in deepening, enriching, and broadening our critical insight into recreational practices. . . . it can also help in correcting and reforming this dimension of life” (Spykman).

Delighting in Gift of Sports

“Athletes know the beauty of intensity of effort, the motivation of pursuit of goals, the feeling and being of fitness, the expressiveness of movement, the creativity of play, the excitement of total involvement, and the joy of sport” (Zuidema).

Delighting in God’s Good Gift of Competitive Sports

• Emotional intensity– ‘Thrill of victory, agony of defeat’– Way out of proportion with importance– Absorbed intensely and utterly in serious

pursuit of non-serious activity (Huizinga, Frey)

– Joy, emotional vibrancy spills into life

“Play relativizes our over-seriousness toward life, filling us with a spirit of joy and delight that carries over into all aspects of our existence” (Johnstone)

Delighting in God’s Good Gift of Competitive Sports

• Emotional intensity

• Physical satisfaction

• Social bonding

• Aesthetic enjoyment

• Religious deepening

Sport and Competition Matter

• ‘Nothing matters but the kingdom ...

• … but because of the kingdom everything matters’

• Treasures of sound, healthy sports

“The treasures of the nations will go into the new Jerusalem. Among those treasures . . . is good, sound, healthy leisure” (Spykman).