EXPRESSIONS of faith are the right of the believer, and also a great responsibility. Christian athletes are free to publicly give thanks to God and /or acknowledge God before, during and after a game, there is nothing wrong with doing so. Their commitment to their faith will be obvious in their lives off the field/court and their conduct during the game. Given we of faith are both sinners and saints we all need to be careful of how we judge these athletes and their faith. More importantly, we really need to be careful of adopting these athletes as Christian role models because they are human, they, like us, are both sinners and saints, and if we look to them as a role model we will undoubtedly become disappointed. Better to see them the same as we are, and for Christians to look to the New Testament and the teachings of Jesus Christ for someone to admire, emulate and to be our role model. No disappointment there, just grace. See also my postDid God help Gabrielle Douglas win? 3AUG12
This from HuffPost.....
(RNS) Why should religious leaders, of all people, turn their fire on
celebrities who use their popularity for public proclamations of the
Almighty's power?
In an age when media icons flaunt every sort of indulgence and
depravity, prominent members of clergy should find more appropriate
targets to scold than athletic achievers like football's Tim Tebow,
basketball's Jeremy Lin or baseball's Josh Hamilton, who choose to
flaunt their devout Christian commitment.
Widespread discomfort toward well-publicized professions of faith
highlights a significant rift in outlook -- not just between believers
and skeptics, but between religious people who want to limit theological
affirmations to church or synagogue settings and those who announce
their ardent belief at every opportunity.
The newly elected leader of the important Reform movement in Judaism
clearly shares the instinct to wince at the insertion of too many
religious gestures in today's pop culture.
"God-sentences do not flow trippingly off Jewish lips," writes Rabbi Rick Jacobs in his denominational magazine Reform Judaism.
He goes on to suggest "a deep reason for our unease. The God-talk we
hear most is hardly worth emulating. Watching athletes pointing to the
heavens to acknowledge their savior after scoring a touchdown, you'd
think God actually cared about which team won. While I hope God's
presence can be felt in all places, including football stadiums, I find
it offensive to reduce the Almighty to a football mascot in the sky."
These indignant comments take unmistakable aim at religious sports
stars such as Tebow, who hopes to add many Jewish admirers to his
adoring fan base when he takes the field for his new team, the New York
Jets. Of course, Tebow has repeatedly denied he believes that God
bothers to arrange miraculous victories for favored athletes.
When
Christian sports figures point toward the clouds or drop to their knees
in prayer, they merely express gratitude for the Lord's grace and
generosity in allowing them to perform at the peak of their abilities.
Is this impulse so different from the instinct of many religious Jews --
including members of Jacobs' own progressive Reform denomination in
Judaism -- to recite the Shehecheyanu prayer to observe life's
milestones, like watching the graduation of a beloved child, or leaving
the hospital after serious illness?
If athletic contests count as an inappropriate place for reflections
on godly power, then Jews might find it difficult to explain our
traditional "bathroom blessing" (Asher Yatzar), recited for centuries to
celebrate the normal functioning of our marvelous bodies. If religious
Jews thank God each time he enables us to relieve ourselves, it's hardly
outrageous that religious Christians should express their gratitude for
hitting a home run or scoring a touchdown before 60,000 screaming fans.
Meanwhile, if critics of public religious displays find it offensive
whenever athletes seek to "give God the glory" for extraordinary
accomplishments on the playing field, do they find it equally offensive
if great artists credit a higher power for amazing gifts that enriched
humanity?
The musical manuscripts of Johann Sebastian Bach show him writing the
initials "SDG" at the beginning and end of all of his some 300 church
compositions, as well as attaching the same abbreviation to many of his
immortal secular works. The initials stand for
soli deo gloria
("to God alone be glory"). No one assumes that Bach expressed these
sentiments to imply some divine favoritism for his music above
contributions by his less religious friend and rival, Georg Philipp
Telemann. Instead, Bach humbly acknowledged the Creator as the ultimate
originator of his miraculous creativity, much as a distinctly blessed
athlete in our century might acknowledge the Almighty as the true source
of his own health, power and skill.
The argument against injecting blessing and praise into what Jacobs
calls the "fleeting trivialities of popular culture" maintains that
association with such ephemera actually diminishes our sense of the
divine. But the other side insists that expressions of appreciation to a
higher power help place even our silliest earthly endeavors in proper
perspective, without any alteration of our perceptions of God.
If a champion wins an Olympic medal, an Oscar, a Super Bowl, or even a
significant political campaign, and celebrates the triumph with
invocation of the Almighty's reign, that victor doesn't claim
supernatural favor but rather recognizes mortal limits to his own power.
When the most admired public figures take time to express gratitude and
share credit, it suggests an admirable quality of humility that remains
in short supply in celebrity culture and the nation at large.
(Nationally syndicated talk radio host Michael Medved, a member
of USA Today's Board of Contributors, is author of The 5 Big Lies About
American Business.)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/13/war-on-christian-athletes-god_n_1669067.html
U.S. gymnast Gabrielle Douglas displays her gold medal (Credit: AP/Julie Jacobson)
