by Keith Bassham
As this issue of the Tribune goes to press, the Olympic Games in Sochi have displaced the Superbowl in the news, baseball pitchers and catchers are showing up in their training facilities across the South, and March Madness is nearly here.
Those who know me may be surprised I even take note of sports, let alone reference them in these pages, but I may have to reverse that indifference to get along in life. A Washington Post article written by Chris Beneke and Arthur Remillard tells me that while religion’s influence in this country is receding, sports “are on the opposite trajectory.” The article says that 50 years ago four in ten Americans considered themselves sports fans, and the number today exceeds six in ten. And churches appear to be suffering loss as a result. Beneke and Remillard cite a 2013 study in which eight of 14 pastors “identified sports as the main culprit for low Sunday service attendance.”
There is another side to this of course. Religion does thrive in the arena as we all know. Witness Tim Tebow and others like him among players and coaches known for their outspoken evangelical beliefs. And even though evangelicals in the Colonial Era considered playing sports idleness at best and even a sinful distraction from godliness, attitudes changed in the 19th century. Presbyterian minister James Naismith invented basketball partly to fulfill his goal to reach people through athletics, and the Young Men’s Christian Association (or the YMCA as people know it today) was begun in much the same way.
And then there are those who have decided to mix their theology and their sports. In January, the Public Religion Research Institute issued a report that concluded “half of American fans see supernatural forces at play in sports.” This influence has some variety to it. One in four American sports fans believe his or her team has been cursed at some point. A little over one-fourth have prayed for God to help their teams, and about one in five believes God plays a role in determining the outcome in a game. I don’t know what to make of that differential — apparently some of those praying for their teams don’t really believe it will make a difference. I suppose the same would hold true among many Christians and their respective endeavors.
You can see the news release with the complete story online at http://publicreligion.org/newsroom/. Search for “sports poll” to quickly find the story.
You will see in the BBC President’s column a statement regarding a very large gift given to the college by the Rawlings Foundation. The Foundation pledged a matching gift of $600,000 provided the college could raise the same amount on its own in the months of December and January. It is a generous gift, and it could not have come at a better time. I commend President Mark Milioni for his audacity, and I thank the Rawlings family for their continued involvement with the Baptist Bible Fellowship.