I’m going to start off this blog with another story about my
sister, Emily. When she was little, she was a 100% daddy’s girl. She always
wanted to be just like him. For example, my dad loved Brussels sprouts (why? I
will never understand). So, Emily also decided that she loved Brussels sprouts. My mom would make them pretty frequently and would thoughtfully place the plate right in front of Emily. We all watched closely as
my sister forked some of the nasty green lumps onto her plate. Her voice said
“yum,” but her eyes said something else. We all knew that she didn’t actually
like them, but my mom continued to serve them, waiting for her to finally give
in and stop pretending. I guess I am like my sister in more ways than just
looking like her twin.
When I was in 5th grade, all I wanted was to show
my dad that I loved football. Being raised in a home where the toilet paper
roll in our basement sang the University of Michigan fight song, you could say
my dad was a true fan. I would watch the games with him during the day, and Google
the official rules at night, just so I could partake in all of the football
“lingo.” Once I finally understood how
the game worked, I, like most other Americans, became obsessed (as you can see from
the photo of the Steelers, Giants, and U of M records hanging next to my bed).
Fall no longer meant pumpkin patches, pretty colors, and hayrides, now it meant football season. Ok, now fast forward from my middle school years, to about a
week ago in my religion class. My religion professor also happens to be the
pastor of the church I attend, so he is a super solid guy and I really enjoy
the class. Since the class is “Intro to Religion” he has to teach us about all
the religions in the most non-biased way he possibly can. To start off, he
decided it was important for us to know what actually constitutes a religion,
by giving us 9 official characteristics. Here they are:
1.
Belief in a supernatural being
2.
A distinction between sacred and profane objects
3.
Ritual Acts focused on sacred objects
4.
A moral code believed to be sanctioned by the
gods
5.
Characteristically religious feelings which tend
to be aroused in the presence of sacred objects and during the practice of
ritual
6.
Prayer and other forms of communication with
gods
7.
A worldview, or a general picture of the world
as a whole and the place of the individual therein. This picture contains some
specification of an overall purpose or point of the world and an indication of
how the individual fits into it.
8.
A more or less total organization of one’s life
based on the worldview
9.
A social group bound together by the above
As you can see, all of these characteristics are all very
vague, due to the fact that religions are so different, how can you even begin
to put them into similar categories? To prove the vastness of the term
“religion,” he used the example of football. Is football a religion? Of course
not…. or is it? Look back at the 9 characteristics, how many of those can be
applied to your dad (or yourself) on game day?
1.
Belief in “supernatural” beings (The
quarterback? Troy Polamalu?)
2. A distinction between sacred and profane objects
(Lucky jersey? Lucky underwear?)
3.
Ritual Acts focused on sacred objects (not
washing your jersey?)
4.
A moral code (rules of the game?)
5.
Characteristically religious feelings, which
tend to be aroused in the presence of sacred objects and during the practice of
ritual (self-explanatory…)
6.
Prayer and other forms of communication with
gods (ok, so not really “gods,” but I know I “communicate” with the TV screen)
Ok, I think you get the idea…but seriously, think about that
for a minute. Maybe this is only applicable to my fellow Pittsburghers, but we
live in a culture that wears football jerseys to church on Sunday. Not that
it’s a bad thing to have team spirit, (especially since Jesus does in fact
cheer for the Steelers…) but think about how much different our culture would
be if we showed our passion for God as much as we did our passion for football.
I’m not saying that everyone should wear shirts that say cheesy things about
Jesus being your homeboy, but think about how often your conversations with
others during football season are based on the scores from the weekend. This
past weekend, I was unable to watch any football games on Sunday due to the
fact that the TV in my dorm room doesn’t have the correct cords at the moment.
It was a very difficult day for me, but it got me thinking about how antsy I
was all day checking my ESPN app to see the scores (thank you, God, for that
app). When I am unable to read my Bible for a day, I should be just as antsy to
dive back into it. Why is it that it is so easy for us to forget to dedicate time
to God, but so easy to leave time for the big game? Every moment of our lives
should be fully dedicated to God. Think about that. Every single moment. At 1
pm on any given Sunday, are you still worshipping your Creator, or are you
worshipping football?
In Him,
Alyssa Trier
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