Religion and Sports in American Culture

Scholes, Jeffrey; Sassower, Raphael

doi:10.4324/9780203075661

Cited by 17 publications

(6 citation statements)

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“…As I have stated throughout, the common practice today is for athletes who make mistakes, such as Armstrong, to serve a certain punishment after which they can play again. When an athlete is found to have acted or behaved in a manner contrary to the law, social norms, or moral codes, we often think of them as redeemed when they return to and succeed in their sport (Scholes and Sassower 2014). However, if we are to follow the path toward redemption laid out in Isaiah, what we must consider is if returning athletes to sporting environments, that perhaps encouraged their behavior in the first place, is truly redemptive.…”

Section: Three Themes Of Redemptionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Redemption of ‘Fallen’ Hero-Athletes: Lance Armstrong, Isaiah, and Doing Good while Being Bad

Meyer

2019

Religions

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Lance Armstrong’s achievements in cycling will forever be overshadowed by his admittance of using unethical performance enhancing means to win. However, Armstrong’s positive social impact of raising awareness, hundreds of millions of dollars, and support for the cancer community are undeniably noteworthy. Clearly, Armstrong’s hero-savior athlete depiction in the media prior to his ‘fall’ was related to the social ‘good’ he was equally known for. This good stands in stark contrast to his demonization since. This dichotomy of Armstrong’s profiling offers a unique opportunity to consider how his rise and fall reflect biblical themes of a sport celebrity. This paper explores the theme of redemption specifically presented in the book of Isaiah, as I explore Armstrong’s media rendering as a fallen hero-athlete following his public acknowledgement of cheating. This manuscript provides a contextual comparison of Armstrong’s story to the redemption of exiled Jews as detailed in Isaiah. Throughout the paper, I present how Armstrong has received a more profound, though less obvious or common redemption through his lifetime ban from sport. Ultimately, this article provides an analysis of a contemporary hero-athletes redemption who cycled for good, while being bad.

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Section: Three Themes Of Redemptionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Redemption of ‘Fallen’ Hero-Athletes: Lance Armstrong, Isaiah, and Doing Good while Being Bad

Meyer

2019

Religions

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“…While it is a hotly debated concept, both in the discipline of sociology and theology, the secularization of Western Europe over the last 200 years is often cited as the principle reason given to explain why the loss of traditional religious liturgies in culture has led to sports-with their ritual, communal, aesthetic, transcendent, symbolic, mythical, ascetic and heroic structures-being championed as the 'new' religion. More recent scholarship-rooted largely in Bellah's (1967) seminal work-rehearses this well-used and general line of reasoning by focussing on how sport can act as: a 'cultural religion' (Albanese 1981); a 'secular religion' (Alomes 1994;Liponski 2009); a 'surrogate religion' (Coles 1975;Percy and Taylor 1997); a 'quasi-religion' (Dunning 1986); a 'folk-religion' (Mathisen 2005;; and, a 'civil religion' (Scholes and Sassower 2013).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Christianity as public religion: a justification for using a Christian sociological approach for studying the social scientific aspects of sport

2017

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“…Where Novak (1976) is concerned, numerous writers have identified the various ways in which sport and religion may be seen to share traits (see, for example, Hoffman, 1992;Price, 2001a;Bain-Selbo, 2012;Scholes and Sassower, 2014;Bain-Selbo and Sapp, 2016;Schultz and Sheffer, 2016). While identifying the potential challenges in this relationship, all of these authors articulate the connection between sport and religion as something that is largely positive or, at a) contributors focus on various popular sports in North America, and how they have connections to a range of religious or spiritual principles and practices.…”

Section: Form Articles Inmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Like Price (2001a), Scholes and Sassower (2014) address the similarities between sport and religion. They see the two as separate entities that are connected culturally, sharing many synergies in relation to language and the ability to help people find individual meaning.…”

Section: Form Articles Inmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Chaplaincy, Mission and Elite Sport: A Cross-National Study of the Work of Chaplains in the National Football League (NFL) And English Premier League (EPL).

Whitmore¹

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Background: Sports chaplaincy is an established form of chaplaincy and ministry. However, little research has been conducted on the work of sports chaplains. Of the completed research, none has compared sports chaplaincy in different countries. Aim and methods: The aim of the present study is to compare and contrast the role and function of sports chaplains within American football’s National Football League (NFL) and the English Premier League (EPL) by way of qualitative empirical investigation. The study sought to understand the roles and skills of the sports chaplain, the governance and safeguarding structures chaplain’s operate within, and the missiological approach to this form of ministry. To investigate these elements, a qualitive approach was utilized. Data was collected via semi-structured interviews, participant observations and e-mail. Eight chaplains, four from each league, participated in the study, as well as two para-church organization leaders, from the US and UK respectively. The results showed that sports chaplains fulfilled roles comparable to chaplains within other sectors of chaplaincy, such as offering pastoral care and spiritual support. However, their work was contextual, in that how their roles were utilized differed between host organizations. Overall, chaplains felt marginalized in their work, but this position also allowed chaplains to provide support during times of challenge. Furthermore, the study demonstrated that accountability and evaluation mechanisms for sports chaplains were not consistent and safeguarding mechanisms for NFL chaplains were nonexistent. Finally, chaplains consistently expressed a calling to this form of ministry and felt that their work was a witness to the love and message of Jesus Christ. Conclusions: In the high-pressure, results oriented industry of elite sports settings, sports chaplains witness to the love of God and affirm the value of the individual, regardless of their performance or on-field results. In this, they witness to the missio Dei present in elite sport.

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Religion and Sports in American Culture

Cited by 17 publications

References 0 publications

Redemption of ‘Fallen’ Hero-Athletes: Lance Armstrong, Isaiah, and Doing Good while Being Bad

Redemption of ‘Fallen’ Hero-Athletes: Lance Armstrong, Isaiah, and Doing Good while Being Bad

Christianity as public religion: a justification for using a Christian sociological approach for studying the social scientific aspects of sport

Chaplaincy, Mission and Elite Sport: A Cross-National Study of the Work of Chaplains in the National Football League (NFL) And English Premier League (EPL).

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