"Serious sport has nothing to do with fair play…it is war minus the shooting."
Sport, Celebrity and Religion: Christianity, Morality and the Tebow Phenomenon
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Andrew Parker, and Nick J Watson,Studies in World Christianity,2015, 21(3) Pp: 223-238
The paper looks at Christian celebrity in sport, an approach, which, the paper suggests, is rare. While focusing on Tim Tebow, the authors raise questions which go well beyond him.
The paper suggests that Tebow is more famous for being a Christian athlete than he is purely as an athlete. As the authors put it: “Tebow… is a cultural phenomenon as much for his religious beliefs as for his sporting prowess.” The same is true a number of British Christian sportspeople who have received a higher profile in the Christian media than they would merit in the sports media. The is first was arguably Eric Liddell, more famous bit not running the 100 metres in the 1924 Olympics than for winning the 400.
The paper draws comparison with some of the American Christian sports icons: Billy Sunday, Gil Dodds, George Foreman and Joe Gibbs, showing that this is not totally a new phenomenon.
Quoting Randolph Feezell, the authors reflect on issues of how the Christian sportsperson should express their faith, including their “moral and epistemic responsibilities” which would, according to Feezell, exclude trying to influence what people believe.
The authors suggest that – “it would be interesting and fruitful for future studies to examine the on-going tension between ‘overt’ [proclamation] and ‘covert’ [living it out] ministry in sports settings.” I agree but would wish to broaden the debate to the whole issue of how churches, Christian ministry and media should act in relation to high profile Christian sportspeople in our celebrity-obsessed society. Much of the time the Christian world might seem to be using (or abusing) the sportsperson to fulfil its own agenda with little regard for the needs of the person.