Monday, October 19, 2009
Review-Onward Christian Athletes: Turning Ballparks into Pulpits and Players into Preachers
Insightful journalist and commentator Tom Krattenmaker has given us a steady diet of compelling, nuanced snapshots of the changing role of conservative Christianity in America through his USA Today columns for years. Now, in Onward Christian Athletes, with his lens tightened to the professional sports arena, he gives us a detailed portrait of how conservative Christianity has taken on (and taken over) professional sports, transposing athletic field to mission field.
One of the strengths of this book is Krattenmaker’s careful construction of the recent history, beginning in the 1990s of well-organized, well-financed sports ministries that encouraged (and sometimes expected) athletes to use their pre- and post-game cameos as opportunities for religious testimonies and evangelistic appeals. One contribution of Krattenmaker’s analysis is that it shows that the seemingly spontaneous religious overtures by individual players and prayer huddles after games are supported and encouraged by a conservative Christian institutions, deploying a cadre of chaplains in ballparks on each Sunday of the season, that often remain out of view of the cameras.
One of the original contributions of this book is the integrated way Krattenmaker wields investigative journalism, fair-handed social critique funded by empathy for a world that is not his own, and an appeal to democratic values that undergird a free, pluralistic society. Krattenmaker is not out to undo religion, or even conservative Christianity, in sports. Rather the book aims to bring it out into the light and make it more accountable and representative of the wider religious public. Krattenmaker convincingly argues that because professional sports are not only among our most popular public rituals but also often the recipient of public financing, a reform resulting in more inclusivity is the only way to bring “fair play” to the intersection of sports and religion.
The book was just released last week, and it's a compelling read. Click below to pick it up from Amazon.
Labels: Christian right, evangelicals, sports
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
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Newsweek's September 15th cover read "Palin-tol-ogy," the "advanced study of Sarah Palin and how she sees the world." Since her surprise find as the GOP vice-presidential nominee, the media has been in a tizzy trying to get the definitive story about just who Sarah Palin is. Perhaps the primary reason this newly unearthed conservative evangelical has received so much attention is that she has enlivened what was assumed to be an ossifying Christian Right. For some political progressives--who legitimately note the divisive and uncivil turn that religion has taken over the last few decades--Palin has confirmed an old suspicion: that religion is primarily "a problem" for American democracy.
These "religion as problem" progressives tend to have three prominent worries:
- that religious people ultimately prefer a theocracy of their own religion to democratic pluralism;
- that religion breeds incivility and intolerance; and
- that religious passion is dangerously irrational and makes people of faith unreliable partners.
But if progressives allow these familiar worries to cloud their vision this election season, they will be misreading the changing religious landscape, where there is an emerging progressive religious movement that encompasses numerous faithful allies on progressive issues.
You can read the rest of the article, making the case that these worries of political progressives are misguided, here.
Labels: Christian right, Palin, progressive politics, progressive religious voices, religious right
