Playing and Praying

Gerald L. Zelizer

During this baseball season, you can be sure that, in addition to the games, a lot of religion will take place right in front of us on the field.

Religion and sports have always had an uneasy relationship because they compete for the same leisure time of Americans. Usually, one or the other has had to adjust. Several years ago the NFL abandoned its plan to begin Sunday games at 12:30 when members of the Christian clergy feared the mass exodus of male worshippers to attend kickoffs. The timing of a playoff game of the New York Knicks aroused the ire of thousands of New York Jews because it took place on the first night of Passover. In the 1970's, when the then Cassius Clay brought his faith to the forefront in refusing to serve in Viet Nam, he was stripped of his boxing titles and the recipient of death threats. Religion and sports were not to be mixed..

Recently, though, sports and prayer have become cozier. They sometimes merge as the participants play and pray in the same arena.

What football fan could not help be moved last season when as Detroit Lions' player lay motionless and unable to breathe because of a spine injury, his teammates knelt in prayer on one side of the field while the opponent New York Jets players prayed on their knees some yards downfield?

The overlap of sports and prayer is not limited to emergency situations. Witness during this baseball season the ubiquitous signs behind home plate proclaiming the theology of the gospel John. The Miami Dolphins routinely invite different clergy to give invocations prior to all home game. Tiger Woods proudly wears a buddha charm around his neck, and Hakim Olajuwon boasts to the Associated Press how he prays to Allah five time a day, and fasts during Ramadan even as he taxing his physical limits nightly in the NBA.

The faith of athletes was not always this public. In a new book, Faith In Sports by Steve Hubbard, one of the great all time catchers, Gary Carter, recalls how in his time even the personal faith of sports figures was camouflaged: "…Back then, proclaiming yourself a Christian and trying to stand up for your beliefs might have been a little more ridiculed…there were few Christians…if someone asked you if you gave praise to God, people shut you off.

Why this transition in sports from conflict to cozy, from public to private? Hubbard gives the testimony and explanations of the athletes themselves which range from a method of coping with the strain and pressure of sports to thanking the Almighty for the opportunity to maximize physical attributes. Corey Miller, linebacker of the New York Giants summarized much of the athletes' sentiments when he observed that prayer is both and anchor and a relief for all of the pressures : "After an intense physical football game , the guys come in the middle of that field to express their thanks and gratitude to God. To say: 'Thanks for allowing us to play this game…thanks for allowing us to finish this game."

I would like to draw different conclusions from this new phenomenon of praying while playing...

The Book of Psalms proclaims: "Call unto me and I will answer you." What is supposed to be God's answer to the public prayer of an athlete? Prayer is divided into several categories.

Petition - asking the Almighty to change the course of events in our favor. But when two teams are competing and each petitioning victory, whose prayer should be favored? Perhaps a tie in some sports is God's way of saying "I cannot make up my mind."

Thanksgiving - there is a lot to be thankful for when inspite of pushing the body to extremes in athletics, it still works. A catcher blocking a slide into home plate with his still whole body, has much to give thanks for. But for what does the opponent whose knee has been shredded owe gratitude?

Confession - of what? In conventional religion; of human shortcomings. In competitive sports, though, shortcomings translate into shortcuts; spiking the opponent while sliding, holding the opponent when the referee is not looking, and trashtalking in attempt to intimidate. But in religion, confession is supposed to precede repentance, which is completed when one does not commit the same offense again at the next opportunity. I see a lot of repeat spiking, holding, and trashtalking from even the most vocal of athlete believers. Even though all pro defensive lineman Reggie White, an ordained minister, insists " We don't go out to kill each other. We go out to win," a longtime coach in the NFL, Joe Walton, admitted, "Thugs win football games."

Cure - Theologians of all religions concur with the statement of the Talmud: 'If one sees a house burning on his street, he should not pray to God that his own house be spared.." because by that time, events have already been in progress over time. When a collision occurs on the field, it is only human for players to plead with God that a serious injury be avoided. More realistically, though events have already been in progress since training camp.

As a clergyman who is also a sports fan, my fantasy is to minister on the field next to my favorite team. As a student of prayer, I have to wonder whether all this public display of faith power, is nothing more than an alternate display of dancing and prancing, of grandstanding in front of admiring fans. What I see on the field seldom displays the authentic goals and function of prayer. The religious belief of athletes, which can be as heartfelt and sincere as anyone else's, should remain private and discreet.