This article is about sport, and the different aspects of sport: competition, sport performance, success and failure, and personal worth. Sport and the glory of God is also discussed.

Source: New Horizons, 1984. 2 pages.

The Christian and Athletic Competition

Do you have a child who thinks that the only reason games have rules is to make sure that he wins? If he doesn't win, the words echo through the house, “That's not fair!” Have you ever seen a ten-year-old Little League pitcher brought to tears by the harassment of an adult coach from an opposing team? Or have you ever heard words like those of NFL star Norm Evans, “I guarantee you Christ would be the toughest guy who ever played the game… If he were alive today I would picture a 6'6”, 260-pound defensive tackle who would always make the big play…”?

What about athletic competition? Of course there are noncompetitive, potential benefits of athletics, but as a Christian parent should I allow my children to play sports? Is it Christian?

Attitudes and Relationships🔗

The most obvious issue involved is that of the relationship of the competitors. What should be my attitude toward my opponent? What is God's attitude toward him? Whose side is God on? Of course we all would respond, “God doesn't take sides in a baseball game.”

It is God's desire that both I and my opponent develop the physical, mental and emotional gifts that he has given to us and utilize them to the praise of his glory. Admittedly, the unregenerate may, like the soulless galaxies, praise God unwittingly; but as the image bearer of God he does proclaim his Maker's praise even amidst his cursings. And if the two competitors are Christians consciously praising God with their bodies, the strains of worship will be heard by them – if not by others.

What does this mean for my attitude toward my opponent? It means that I am not out to dehumanize, brutalize, intimidate or harass him. As a Christian I may not use psychological intimidation to try and make him play poorly. There is no place for the basketball foul-shot chant, “There's the basket, there's the ball; come on, stupid, hit the wall!”

The opposite side of the coin is an even greater threat to the secular athletic model. If God is glorified by the maximizing of my opponent's gifts, I should encourage, praise and help him. That does not mean I slow down at the end of a 100-meter race to let him cross the finish line first. That would not necessarily encourage the maximizing of his gifts; it might even encourage laziness. That I should maximize the development of his gifts does mean, however, that I should point out that flaw in his starter's stance, foul-shooting form or batting stance.

Personal Worth🔗

What we are calling for is a major reevaluation of the Christian's involvement in competitive athletics. The problem areas which we have noticed (and other problems) have led some Christians to the conclusion that they should not participate in sports such as football, soccer and basketball. Rather, they pursue sports such as running and gymnastics in which a person competes against himself or a stopwatch, not against other people.

Pursuing self-improvement by competing with prior levels of achievement obviously can have beneficial results. A Christian striving to improve on past performances in order to present a more glorious sacrifice of athletic praise to God does bring glory to his Lord, as all Chariots of Fire fans will testify. And this model of athletics avoids the negative dehumanization of opponents.

We must, however, move carefully here. There is a subtle, but dangerous, temptation present. It is the temptation to evaluate progress and personal identity on the standard of competency. It is the temptation to equate the good man and the good runner. Whether our standard is the performance of another or our own prior performance, there is the real temptation in our society to use such performance standards as measurements of personal worth.

To beat another runner or to beat my former time is simply to say that today I ran faster than he did or I formerly did. Yet so often that translates, especially for our youth, into an affirmation of success in the area of personhood – an affirmation that I am (or am not) a significant person. This is dangerous.

We and our children must learn that our value as people before God and in his church cannot be evaluated in terms of competency. As parents we must affirm our love to our children and their special place in our lives in noncompetency situations – such as when the five-year-old is just quietly sitting in the grass doing nothing at all.

Well, then, should I pull my children out of Little League? Maybe, but not necessarily. Remember that there is a proper way in which the presence, model and activity of others can be a stimulus to the ever-greater development of the gifts (including athletic gifts) which God has given. Obviously the appropriation of this perspective involves a radical departure from the typical self-centered, egotistic approach to athletics. It requires a reformation of contemporary perspectives. The Christian community does not need athletics “like the other nations.” It does need athletics “after God's own heart.”

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