Easter is Sunday.
Paris’ Notre Dame Cathedral is left smoldering.
And Monday night across DFW, fans of both the Dallas Stars and Texas Rangers prayed – not in church, mind you, but on social media – for a third-period goal and/or 10-run rally, all in the name of divine intervention.
Loosen your Bible Belt a notch or two and sit a spell. This is going to be uncomfortable. Because, sorry, after multiple conversations over several years with those that should know – the Almighty was unavailable for comment – I’ve come to this conclusion:
God doesn’t give a rat’s ass about sports.
“I think God cares about sports in that he cares how athletes carry themselves and represent themselves, sure,” Ed Young, best-selling author and pastor of the Fellowship Church in Grapevine, told me a couple of years ago. “But does he swoop down and affect the outcome of games? Of course not.”
That fact, er, educated opinion, will not deter, however, sports fans from holding hands, bowing heads, clutching their crosses and going over their quota of “Just this one time!!” pleas with the game on the line. Nor will it prevent athletes from believing – and professing – that they or the games they play are touched by an angel, or someone higher up the pay grade.
God smiled down on us tonight.
This was God’s will.
The man upstairs was looking out for us.
If that’s the case, wouldn’t that mean, for whatever reason, God also took stock of the game and decided to screw the losers?
In a God-fearing state where football is religion and Sunday sermons merely serve as appetizers to noon kick-offs, we all know why there was a hole in the roof of Texas Stadium. But legendary University of Texas football coach Darrell Royal leaned toward a separation of God and gridiron by rarely leading his team in prayer before games.
“Because,”’ reasoned Royal, “I’m pretty sure the Lord is neutral about things like football.”
Still, from Friday nights in Allen to Sunday afternoons in front of the Zenith, football fans from the four corners of belief will continue asking/begging for a block, bounce or bomb from God’s divine praybook. And with it, the human race will further advance our spiritually suspect quest to dilute He/She/It into just another jersey-wearing, pizza-munching sports fanatic.
We are obsessed with melding sports and scripture.
In the holy traditions of The Hail Mary, Miracle on Ice, Hand of God Goal and The Immaculate Reception, our commitment to tie results to religion as compatible teammates has led to an unwavering belief in at least divine attention.
Augusta has Amen Corner. Touchdown Jesus watches over Notre Dame football games. The Angels have won a World Series. Even with Zion, the Duke Blue Devils didn’t win college basketball’s national championship.
With our stadiums more crowded than our sanctuaries, major championships decided on supposedly Sabbath Sundays, boastful Christians like Quincy Carter and Josh Hamilton experiencing fizzled careers, Holy Cross never getting so much as one vote in the Top 25 and those surly scandals down at Baptist Baylor, we can assume God’s state-of-the-sports address from atop his pearly-gated luxury suite would be equal parts negativity and heated brimstone.
“God loves everybody equally, so it’s ridiculous to think he would favor one team or one player over another,” said one of the most religious players in Mavs history, Shawn Bradley. “I’ve heard people directly praying for victories, and in my opinion that’s just not right. It’s not whether you win or lose, it’s how you play the game. I think that’s God’s only rule when it comes to sports.”
At the Mesquite Rodeo and Texas Motor Speedway, participants meet for pre-event chapel. For most of his life, John Weber balanced God’s will and athletes’ skill.
Weber once held pre-game services for the Rangers, Cowboys and Arena League Dallas Desperados. A religious sounding board/security blanket for the likes of former Rangers manager Johnny Oates and veteran NFL broadcaster Pat Summerall, the former director of the Grapevine-based Athletes in Action prayed with Jimmy Johnson before Super Bowls and Jerry Jones after heart-breaking losses.
“God cares about everything, including sports,”’ Weber once told me. “With sincere Christians on both sides of the field, it’s tough to decide if he has a rooting interest. I think he’s interested in the outcome, but more so in the behavior and the actions of his children. Whether it’s winning a Super Bowl or raking leaves in your yard, he wants you to do it with all your heart.”
From WWJD? bracelets to post-game prayer circles, we are desperate to believe an omnipotent God is a puppeteer knowing and controlling every pitch, pass and point. That philosophy becomes tricky and awkward, however, if you play it forward.
As in, why would a God that magically directs a field goal inside – or outside – the goal posts sit idly and watch as one of Earth’s most holy structures goes up in smoke and almost comes down in flames? How could he reconcile orchestrating a late-game rally on the ice or the diamond while also witnessing a gunman waltz into a Sutherland Springs church and commit the deadliest shooting (26 victims) in a Texas house of worship?
“God has a plan, for all of us,” Young said. “It’s just not always easy for our tiny human brains to comprehend. Sometimes we get lessons from the losses.”
Some of the most Christian sports figures I encountered in DFW included Tom Landry, A.C. Green, Bradley, Carter and Hamilton. Though their success greatly varied, their faith remained solid on generally the same foundation.
God doesn’t care about sports, but he cares about the people who play them.
Despite all our attempts to integrate entities, it seems most likely that the highest being created “born-again” and left “sudden-death” up to us? Perhaps, in the end, God is indeed more concerned with final judgments rather than final scores.
Joked Summerall, “Let’s hope he has better things to do.”
In Jesus’ name we play, Amen.
