March 19,1997
Dear Br. Dan:
I wanted to share some thoughts with you on a subject that neither of us participates in. In a recent edition of World Magazine, I ran across a short article about super bowl champion and Baptist minister Reggie White of the Green Bay Packers and his self-proclaimed witness of leading his team mates and players from the opposing team in public prayer after football games. When criticized for this practice, he said, in defense, that the public wanted good role models. The question, I would like to ask is a simple one, is Mr. White really a good role model and can God bless football?
There is something about this type of prayer, at secular events,
that strikes me as inappropriate. But first, let me attempt to
answer the question wither God can bless football. Both football,
and cricket, the British version of the game, are schools for
brutality. These games teach young men the Satanic principals
that force and violence are acceptable means for resolving problems.
They teach lessons in brutality that stay with a player after
he leaves the playing field and enters a career. The fans, who
spend time and money watching these gladiatorial games, also imbibe
at the same fountain. As they are played, they resemble the ancient
Roman gladiator contests where the object was to kill or mortally
wound your opponent. While football and cricket have rules to
prevent killing, the sport does encourage the deliberate act of
maiming or injuring or disabling your opponent as an acceptable
means of winning. So much time and attention, not to mention money,
are invested by both fans and players in these sports that they
tend to divert the mind from Christ and his kingdom. It is impossible,
for those who are intensely interested in football, to have a
well balanced or symmetrical mind. Useful physical exercise, combined
with mental training, are required for a healthy normality of
the mind and body. Football, and other like sports neither promote
health of body, mind, or soul.
The entire contest, between opposing teams is based on a Satanic
concept, to conquer or destroy your opponent. It is impossible
to glorify God through such a brutal, soul destroying, enterprise.
None of the heavenly principals of love, compassion, kindness,
mercy, gentleness, forgiveness, goodness, meekness, peace, joy,
or happiness are promoted by football or those who engage in this
sport or watch it on television. “No man can serve two masters:
for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he
will hold to the one; and despise the other.” Matthew 6:24
Because many football games are played on Sabbath (either on Friday
night or Sabbath afternoon), they distract from the Holy nature
of the Sabbath or from religious services in general. Many men,
upon returning home from church on Sabbath or Sunday, spend the
afternoon in front of the television, watching football, or some
other competitive sport, and forget about the significance of
the religious exercises of the morning. It is impossible to attend
church in the morning, attend a school of brutality in the afternoon,
and expect to retrain thoughts of Christ’s love in the mind.
Given the very nature of football, God cannot possibly bless the
sport or those who participate in it, either by playing the game
or watching it. When players kneel in public prayer, following
such an event, they are mocking the Lord or coming very close
to blasphemy, invoking the Lord’s blessing upon the work
of Satan. The idea, conveyed by such exercises by players, is
to suggest that Christ sanctions football or other like athletic
sports. This is a perversion of the gospel, asking God to bless
a tool of the Devil for destroying minds, bodies, and souls.
Better leave Christ out of such events altogether then suggest that he sanctions them. There seems to be a growing tendency, among athletics and other entertainment performers, to invite Christ into their activities, ostensibly as a witness. Christian rock stars (now there is a contradiction in terms), country and western singers, etc., seem bent on combining secular music with the Christian gospel. They assert that Christian words make the secular music into a Christian gospel message. No such thing occurs. People listen to music for the music, not the words, thus, to combine Christian words with rock or country and western music is to pervert the gospel by blending secularism and Christianity, something attempted by an early Roman emperor who combined paganism and the Christian gospel and came up with the concept of Sunday sacredness for which there is no Biblical support, whatsoever. When paganism (secularism) and Christianity are combined, Christianity is destroyed and paganism triumphs.
It is better to devote the time, spent pursuing football, baseball,
basketball, etc., to the pursuit of the Bible and good works.
Football will not save us, a faith in Christ will. Basketball
will not be played in heaven, for love flourishes there. Baseball
is anathema to the principal of love which seeks to promote the
happiness of another. How can one play or watch these games without
loosing sight of the first principals of heaven?
These players, who believe themselves to be Christians must have
a transforming experience with the Lord before they can enter
heaven. They must either give up the game or Christ. The entire
life must be surrendered to Christ and the character molded after
his likeness. Transformed lives and hearts are a prerequisite
for eternity. I pray that they will head the invitation of the
Holy Spirit before it is eternally too late.
You and I are too old to play these games, but we may be caught
up in the same corrupting principals if we watch them on television
or avidly pursue them through other means. Better focus our talents
on something more enduring and morally profitable. May the Lord
encourage you in your Christian walk. Your brother in Christ.
Allen A. Benson