Athletes Praising the Christian God

I think people don’t notice when athletes thank their teammates and coaches, and put emphasis on the hard work they’ve put into winning whatever it is they’ve won, but never mention any sort of god. I agree; those are they ones who should be thanked.

The religious will probably assume the athlete is their brand of religious.

And what if the rival were caught on camera saying “I shit on god!” (oh that would be much interesting, imagine media coverage, preachers exorcising….)

If only Peyton Manning had left the field grumbling, “I used to believe in god, but he let the throw that interception. I’ve lost my faith.”

well said littlejohn, if these guys where honest about thanking god for their wins, you’d think at least 50% of the football league would have lost their faith.

But this only points what I found to be truly vile about religion and belief. If you win, god gets the credit, and if you loose it’s all your fault.

Nothing degrades humanity like religion does.

Hemant, you wrote: “Officials should not let players wear their faith on their sleeves (or under their eyes)”

Most of the rest of your post I agree with. Coaches should not be able to railroad people of other faiths out of their teams. However, I completely disagree with the idea that the sports announcers, athletes, or ‘officials’ of the NFL have any responsibility whatsoever to censor this kind of thing.

The NFL is a private corporation. The television announcers showing the games and doing the interviews are also private companies. They can spew whatever propaganda they want through their free speech channels. Furthermore, they can have whatever rules for personal expression of faith they want. The players, who are the performers they’ve hired to put on their spectacle, can be organized by whatever code of conduct the league wants. If the code says they can make religious expressions, then we can’t say much about it. We can change the channel. It’s their ballgame, they paid for it, and it’s their choice.

However, I expect that it is only a matter of time before a Muslim athlete experiences serious discrimination at the hands of the NFL. At that point it is no longer a free speech thing but an equal protection thing, and some of this will end. Allowing religious expression on screen is probably strictly legal. Having a culture where any other religion is verboten, discriminated against, or the like, is not.

Most large Fortune 500 companies have this figured out already. (Look at the furor over “Happy Holidays” for a recent reminder.) Just because highly visible football players and sportscasters remain a bastion of evangelical Christianity doesn’t automatically make it illegal. It’s just bad business.

I wrote this post just to point out that it is up to us to be cautious that we don’t lash out at institutions that have every right to be as religious as they want. Just because they are highly visible doesn’t mean they are arms of our government. (Even if we seem to be the ones that pay for all the stadiums.) We can’t be lax and say things that are not not strictly true. It’s important to clearly define the battle lines where we are completely in the right.

Anything less makes it too easy for our opponents to attack.

I recently underwent an emergency 9 hour heart surgery. Several people tried to tell me that my survival was a miracle, and I should thank god. I reminded them that the surgeon had a much more immediate and real impact, and I would save my praises for him and the team he worked with.

It’s interesting – Hakeem Olajuwon is a very big Muslim – however, whenever he was interviewed he always used the word “God” rather than “Allah.”

I wonder if he was coached to do that or if it was just a language issue.

There was a prop bet on the Superbowl: Who will the Superbowl MVP thank first?

#1 Choice: God

Because coaches and players are less likely to affect the outcome than something probably made up.

“Allahu akbar” in Arabic translates to “God is the greatest”, so he was pretty close.

another good example is mahmoud abdul-rauf, who was persecuted during his nba career because of his muslim faith.

“As for Drew Brees’ comment, I don’t really mind it. That’s a personal expression of his faith. But it would’ve been nicer to see him thank his coaches and teammates first. They’re the ones who actually helped him win.”

Especially, since most of the Colts probably all prayed equally hard and lost.

But ‘He’ is only credited for the good stuff as always.

That these atheletes have basically turned their invisible sky-monster into the almighty cheer-leader is not only comical, but a statement about their psychology; clearly a great many of these atheletes are very self-important, believing their rushing prowess has found them favor with THE Cloud Boss. How very egotistical.

As far as Tebow is concerned–he’s a clown–let him wear his make-up. The last thing this world needs is another dime-store martyr for the white-trash evangelical set.

This is what I love about Kathy Griffin. ALL those deities can go SUCK IT!

See that, the Saints won because God had forgiven them for allowing gays to live. Manning was probably a godless atheist, and that was most likely the reason his team lost. 🙂

Demonhype, you don’t seem to understand here. Saying God gave them the ability to win isn’t the same as saying God manipulated the game itself. What it means is that God gave the player the skill needed to be a quality athlete, and the player executed from there.

Your neglect dilemma is a false one. I’m sure Drew Brees thinks that Peyton Manning is also a talented QB gifted by God.

At any rate, if I remember this interview correctly, Brees did thank his coaches and teammates first. I remember “God is great” being the last thing he said.