Religion in Sports

[mgb]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6876708/

It drives me nuts when athletes point to the sky after hitting a home running or thank god for helping them catch a pass.

Do you think religion has a place in sports? Or more aptly should religion have a place in sports?

The article above even goes so far as to suggest that atheists have to be "in the closet" for fear of losing endorsements. Crazy.

[Nyairj]

Do they think before they speak? God is willing to intervene to give them a home run or a touchdown, but he lets millions of children in Sub-Saharan Africa suffer and die from starvation?

[Warrior413]

God is obviously for <Team A>. Only heretical infidels believe God could be for <Team B>.

And the cycle continues.

[mgb]

Someone should start a team called the infidels. That would be funny.

[QrioCT]

God is obviously for <Team A>. Only heretical infidels believe God could be for <Team B>.

And the cycle continues.

nods.

but it's not specifically in sports that religions has a part, but it's in the athlete's life that it does. (what does baseball have to do with god, except through the athlete's religiousness?) religion really taking a part in sports is such as when the aztecs sacrificed the winners of a sport game as a worthy sacrifice to god. the winner is the loser...of their lives.

[Warrior413]

It drives me nuts when athletes point to the sky after hitting a home running or thank god for helping them catch a pass.
Hmm... do they point to the ground if they get struck out? *ponders*


Someone should start a team called the infidels. That would be funny.
Yes... that's something I'd do if I had a chance.

[crule81]

Hmm... do they point to the ground if they get struck out? *ponders*


I can't wait until athletes begin to blame Satan for losing!

[CreativeChaos]

What do you expect from a bunch of Dumb Jocks, anyway MG?

[mgb]

I can't wait until athletes begin to blame Satan for losing!

I always find it funny that they never blame God for helping the other team more than they helped their team. I'd love to see someone shake their fist at the sky and call God a "cheating asshole".

[jimkopelli]

Someone should start a team called the infidels. That
would be funny.
They could have an entire field routine... sacrifice a goat or something just to freak people out. Then... do you think they'd get accused of cheating?
Read on...

Back in high school, we had this one guy on drumline who a goofball. Name of Robert.
Quasi-goth, somewhat punk, and definitely into funny substances. Horrible drummer, now that I think about it.
Anyhoo, we all got bored at practice one day and he brought up the subject of voodoo. The team wasn't having a good year (and the school was trying to solve this by throwing money at them... but that's another rant...) and we decided that almost nothing could hurt.
The next game, Rob shows up with a decapitated barbie head (he couldn't come up with a real shrunken head, for some reason) and it had a bunch of nails stuck through it and he'd given it Quee-Queg tattoos with a sharpie. For display purposes, it was stuck on the end of a drumstick. He was going around during warmups and hitting band people with it... blessing them or something. Most of us were getting a kick out of it, but some of the more devout bible-belters looked a little worried afterwards.
Anyway, once the game started, the guy went nuts. The band sat in the space beyond the endzone... (they wouldn't give us seats in the bleachers for paying customers... and we had to dodge footballs more than once...) and anyway, whenever the game wasn't going our way, he'd start doing a weird ass dance and shaking the head at the field. If our team had their back to us, and the other team could see him... He'd glare at their players, make gibberish noises, and roll his eyes back in his head. The band was cracking up laughing by this point... though there were still a few people who were a bit uncomfortable with things.
Robert was jumping around like a monkey most of the game. Every time our team got a touchdown, he'd beat the ground with the head, like he was blessing the field or something. He had more energy than the cheerleaders... and people in the stands were starting to notice. They didn't know what to do but watch. :blink:

We ended up winning the game, but voodoo daddy got complaints from the opposing coaches and team, some of the band with weaker sensiblilties, and some of the crowd. Our football team asked for the same next game, and one of the coaches had a pizza sent to the band room for him after the game.
End result, he got suspended pending a decision, got to skip for three days, and then they realized they couldn't peg him for anything except misguided school spirit, and let it pass with a "Don't ever do that again."
The voodoo head went to all of our competitions that year.

[Warrior413]

:rofl:

That's religious discrimination! Or... cultist discrimination... either way he should sue.