This is Super Bowl Sunday. That's right. That's the name we've given it. The concept that dominates this Lord's Day is who is going to win a football game. Does that seem problematic to you? Well, it does to me. But I have to say it's only the beginning of what I see as a problem.
The game, they tell me, starts at 4:30 (at least in my time zone), so no one has an excuse to miss church today. That helps, right? No, not really, because so many already did the math. "Can I go to church and still make the game? Yeah, it will be okay." Because, you see, if not, there would be a big decision, a serious conflict, the outcome of which would not be certain. Super Bowl could very easily trump God. Hands down. You can be fairly certain that no evening services will be occurring on this Sunday. No churches want to compete with the Super Bowl. And that's a problem. In John Calvin's day they were concerned about too much recreation on Sunday afternoon detracting from the day of worship. Today we're more concerned about too much church in the day (Super Bowl Sunday or otherwise) detracting from our recreation. Big problem.
Nagging at the back of my thoughts, though, is a difficulty that you may not likely have considered. Super Bowl Sunday is a guy-thing. Few women would wonder, "If the Super Bowl starts while we're in church, which will I choose?" Oh, sure, there are exceptions, but not generally. So, what are women doing today? Or, what I'm asking, what are we thinking about women today and how does Super Bowl Sunday reflect that?
Super Bowl Sunday offers us a few basic views of women. On one hand there is the object, the sexual prize. They are in the ads and dressed as cheerleaders. They are unrealistic body types and highly sexualized. If you are to be an acceptable woman, you need to be ... like "this". And "this" is a male-oriented, selfish, sinful view.
Of course, the women who are not on the screen are also depicting womanhood. There are, in your living rooms, two possibilities. One is the dependable housewife dutifully serving the whims of the males with food and drink without gratitude or inclusion. Maybe they're gathering in the kitchen together, waiting for a command from the TV room while they chat, but they're not honored, not attended to, and not a part except as servants or, perhaps, slaves. The other type is the women right there with you. She likes football like you do. She's yelling like you are. She's a real fan like you are. This woman, in her quest to throw off patriarchy and elevate women to a higher rank, has subjugated femininity and made herself just like you. Just like much of our culture today, Super Bowl Sunday offers a liberated woman who can be just as foul-mouthed, contentious, combative, and macho as any disgustingly stereotyped evil male today.
Super Bowl Sunday, both on and off television, manages to illustrate a variety of female types. There is the sex object, the slave, and the masculine feminine. None of these are biblical perspectives. And none of them seem to register today on either male or female psyches.
Gender roles are only a part of my concerns for Super Bowl Sunday. We are quick to latch onto idolatry on a day like this. We might point to the Christian on the field -- the Christian coach who gives glory to God or the Tim Tebow who honors God when he succeeds -- but if they really intended to honor God, would they be playing on the Lord's Day at all? Sure, few Christians care much today about honoring God on the Sabbath. The fact that the idea is rare doesn't bode well for modern Christianity. Me? I'd recommend a simple principle. "Whatever you do, do all to the glory of God" (1 Cor 10:31). No, I didn't make that one up myself. Whose day is it anyway? I'll let you think about that one on your own.
10 comments:
Not to be too contentious, I offer the following:
Can one not satisfy 1 Cor 10:31 by the manner in which one plays the game of football?
Should one refrain from employment that requires "work" on the Sabbath, and is that in line with the spirit of the command to honor it?
Isn't Saturday the Sabbath?
Are we required in any way to spend every waking minute of the Sabbath focused solely on God, but never on pleasure of any kind?
Are there not women who like football because of the players' unrealistic body types dressed in tight pants? (My wife expressed being quite taken with the thighs of Willie Gault (Chi Bears '83-'88) and Andre Dawson (Chi Cubs '87-'92)
Overall, however, I get your point. I have often thought of the old days when it was difficult to shop on Sunday. Some owners operate in the same way, but others, considering the bad economy, remain open as often as they can.
Other businesses, including professional sports, are dependent upon operation during hours the rest of us aren't working. That limits them to less than eight business hours, as the general public has only a few after work and on the weekends. I would not weep over the inability to watch sports, go to movies or shop on Sunday, but that would be a problem for observant Jews who wouldn't be engaged with any of those pursuits on Saturday.
Just a few random thoughts on the topic.
At the risk of appearing defensive ...
"Isn't Saturday the Sabbath?"
Until 50 years ago all of the Church viewed Sunday as the Christian Sabbath, "the Lord's Day". Devout Christians made a point of doing no work on Sundays. (In fact, the "weekend" that we take for granted -- where Saturday and Sunday are "off" -- is exactly a product of our Judeo-Christian heritage.) Indeed, most of America had "blue laws" that prevented anyone from working on Sunday. Remember Chariots of Fire where the Christian 1924 Olympic athlete, Eric Liddell, refused to run on Sunday? But, as I said, "Few Christians care much today about honoring God on the Sabbath." But I'm not known for having a majority opinion on things, am I? :)
"Are we required in any way to spend every waking minute of the Sabbath focused solely on God, but never on pleasure of any kind?"
As everyone knows, pleasure is forbidden to the Christian. Where did you grow up ... somewhere besides the Victorian era??? Kidding. Really. The position isn't "Christians must focus solely on God without pleasure." The position is "When do you allow your pleasure to overrule your attention to God?"
"Are there not women who like football because of the players' unrealistic body types dressed in tight pants?"
Is that offered as a good idea? :) I would think not.
But I need to point out that the ideas were generalities. Men can enjoy football without being jerks about it. Women can enjoy Super Bowl Sunday without being minimized, marginalized, or masculinized. It's just that in general they don't.
"Other businesses, including professional sports, are dependent upon operation during hours the rest of us aren't working."
Point #1: "Other businesses" should not serve as the standard of good and evil for Christians.
Point #2: Almost all of today's thinking on the subject is a product of today's thinking on the subject. No one batted an eye in the past when no one worked on Sunday. It was normal, acceptable, good. Today such an idea is ... odd. It serves to illustrate how far we've moved down the secular path both in this country and in the church.
Now for the first question.
"Can one not satisfy 1 Cor 10:31 by the manner in which one plays the game of football?"
First, not the point. The point was about us watching it. In what sense does watching the Super Bowl (and skipping evening church) serve to glorify God? And in the watching, do we glorify God or do we immerse ourselves in a worldview counter to the Bible? Third, given that a majority of Christians in America today have "voted out" any sort of "honor the Sabbath" as no longer relevant today (and given that this is a new thing in Christendom), how does a professional athlete glorify God by earning a living playing sports? Not saying it doesn't happen. Just can't imagine how.
" how does a professional athlete glorify God by earning a living playing sports?"
The same way any other person glorifies God by earning a living in their particular business or industry. How do you do it in yours, and couldn't that be done in pro sports? Playing by the rules would be one way.
I don't disagree with what you say here, particularly on the working weekends part. As far as I know, only the car dealerships, in general, do not operate on Sundays, though I could be wrong about that. I agree that it is sad that it has come to this. It is part of the cultural decline that some lefties tell me isn't happening or any worse than in generations previous.
Since my personal bias is that playing a game and making millions doing it -- producing nothing at all -- seems dubious as a valid means of honest employment, it's hard for me (again, "personal bias") to imagine playing football to the glory of God. But, as I say, that's just me.
You don't see providing entertainment for those lacking the talent as honest employment? I can sing, and fairly well given I've fronted a few bands and have been asked to join the choir at church, yet I pay for CDs or tickets to attend concerts. Others want to hear the same artists and are also willing to pay to do it. There's a demand for it, a market. The same is true of sports. I've played many sports but am willing to pay to watch better athletes play the same sports I've played for the pleasure it brings me to do so. Others feel the same. There's a demand for it, a market. That we can live without it would limit the options for employment for everybody, as there are many jobs producing products and/or services that are not essential to the lives of the rest of us. Recreation is a legitimate area of employment, and thus honest employment.
OK. I'm done now.
As I said, it's just me. I have difficulty seeing "entertainment" as a valid form of God-honoring employment. Art? Yes. Music? Sure. These are producing things. Sports? Produces nothing. Nothing at all.
A long time ago the Puritans had this view that we've come to know as the Puritan work ethic. Their work ethic was certainly foreign to today's world, but I'm not sure it was wrong. They believed that a "job" was actually a "vocation", a calling. They were to serve God in their calling. They were to serve their community in their calling. With that silly, old fashioned, and perhaps even biblical perspective in my mind, it's hard for me to see how pummeling a bunch of guys up and down a grass patch in pursuit of a air-filled piece of pigskin would honor God or produce anything of any use for one's community somehow.
But, as I said, that's just me. And it is certainly a different issue from the aim of the post.
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