Fandom

I have friends who are genuine Alabama friends, and this post is not about them.  But it is about those 'fans' who didn't go to that school, who know nobody from Alabama, who have never been to Alabama, yet in recent years here far away from Alabama have decided they are Alabama football fans.  Why?  Because they have won, a lot.  While I care nothing for college football anymore, I am annoyed by fake fans. 

I write this because as I am driving my bus this morning I see a kid coming into the school wearing a a Clemson Tigers shirt.  Does he know anything about Clemson?  Is he from South Carolina?  Could he locate it on a map?  But hey, they won the national championship last night over Alabama...and now we have brand new gear being broken out in honor of their victory.  I am guessing that this kid is not really the problem...likely he has stupid parents who thought it would be good to clothe their kids in orange. 

One of these days these programs will give way to Michigan or USC or Texas or Oklahoma or somebody else...and soon those kids will be wearing clothes reflecting that kind of 'fandom'.  I suppose this is the world we live in...no loyalty beyond victory.  It's the same mentality that makes the 42% of the population still fans of the current president.  He's not the other side, and the economic hasn't fully tanked (yet).  So they'll keep supporting him even though for years they demanded a Christian president, a man of character and nobility.  Soon they'll turn on him, too, because somebody else will soon come along. 

Vicarious Vics

My 7-year old daughter is playing Upward basketball.  I like the program for the most part...it's positive and encouraging.  They look to get the kids involved, even the ones who don't really understand what is going on.   When a kid makes a mistake, they'll stop and try to explain what happened.  They pray with the kids, they try to help them remember what is important, they teach the idea of sportsmanship.

Of course, there is always the problem of parents who live vicariously through their kids, who act at the games like they have serious money riding on the outcome.  Because Upward is an outreach program of some sort for the church that sponsors it, they allow kids to be involved who may come from homes where Christian values are not encouraged.  And occasionally this will mean that there is always at least one Vicarious Vic in the crowd.

So my daughter is one of those kids that needs some encouragement.  She's a bit of a slow adapter...she's played two seasons of soccer and the first year she really didn't get it.  If she kicked the ball, that was good...but by last year there were times where she looked like Gareth Bale flashing down the wing.  Not always, of course, but she generally understood what was going on: 'if you have the ball, try to score it in the other team's goal...pass the ball to your teammates...if the other team has the ball, try to kick it away.'

When she started basketball, then, we knew that there was going to be a learning curve for her.  She hasn't played much, and though her coaches look like they know what they are doing and are encouraging the kids to have fun, she's a bit behind.  On defense, she knows to put her arms out and try to do something that looks like guarding whoever she is matched up with.  But on offense...not so great.  Though we have worked with her on dribbling, it's not a sure thing yet.  If she has the ball in the open court as if she is a point guard, she will take 3-4 dribbles and stop, not quite sure what to do.  If she somehow comes across the ball in a crowded spot, she's likely to just pick the ball up and run with it.  Even at her level, that's still not allowed.  Her shooting is more like an overhead throw.  Some of the other kids her age are much more advanced...they can dribble, stop, and shoot and pass.  But for Elizabeth, she's just not quite there yet...next year she may be Chris Paul with the ball, but for now, she's got a lot of work to do.

So last Saturday she had a couple of incidents where it was obvious she was out of her depth.  One time she ran with the ball.  But the guy in the row behind me who was videotaping every minute of the game for posterity's sake, when his daughter is the next great star, had a play-by-play account of everything that she (and other kids) did wrong, and he was not shy about expressing them.  "Oh, come on ref...she's travelling.  Jump ball!  You gotta be kidding me."  Remember, these are 7- and 8- year old girls.

As much as I hope that my kids enjoy sports, I want them to keep some perspective about it all...and this will not be easy with Vicarious Vics around.

Should Christians be sports fans?

I'm reading a book called 'Among the Thugs' by Bill Buford, a book about soccer hooliganism in the 1980s and published in 1991.  Fascinating account of what it's like to be an extreme sports fan.  It makes me not quite sure I want to go and spend some time in England watching soccer matches someday.  I don't want exactly want to be knifed or have people pee on me from above because I'm some kind of American wanker.

It makes me think something of sports fandom, how dangerous to the soul it might be.  Maybe there is not this kind of extremism or violent mob mentality in American sports, but the sociological questions of what it means to be a true 'fan' are fascinating.  Last night we went up to my evangelical Christian university's gymnasium to see the men's and women's basketball teams play basketball against another university.  It wasn't a terribly interesting game, but to watch sports fan scream at officials, yell at the opposing team, and act like this is of vital importance makes me think.  What are Christians to really think about sports?

For most of the last few centuries sports was held at arms' length by the organized church.  It was viewed as being frivolous, as edifying body rather than spirit.  But in the late 19th century the YMCA started to appeal to youth with the idea that sports was important for both their body and their mind.  Promoting this idea of 'virile manhood', churches and church-related organizations started pushing sports, thinking that it wasn't just enough to preach.  Naturally much of the 'religious' element eventually got pushed out...would anybody consider the "Y" a 'Christian' organization now?  Probably not.  But they certainly have some good waterslides...

Now that my children are getting older, they are starting to play sports.  It's not that they are that interested in them yet, but we want them to try things.  So Elizabeth is now playing 'Upward' basketball.  It's a fascinating operation they have...they teach kids how to post up or execute a good cheer even as they are trying to get them to hear a word of Scripture and teach character.  I can't really find anything wrong with it...but over time, will Upward move away from the Christian foundation it is trying to promote? Will its emphasis on outreach eventually mean that it doesn't stand for much at all, so as not to offend?

The idolatry of sports is one of the great dangers to the modern church.  We have so much free time, so much discretionary income in our American culture that we have the means to obsess about what a group of men wearing a certain uniform do.  In some cultures it turns them into lunatics that go rampaging through European cities.  Others have a less dangerous activity, perhaps, but their passion is just as strong.  It overcomes churches, it divides families, it makes a mockery of those of us who claim that we are to be serving God first and foremost.  Lord help us to keep sports in their rightful place.