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Sabbath beliefs as a barrier to sporting event attendance on Sunday. A congregational study, Steven Waller
The Journal of Religion and Popular Culture, Volume 21, Number 2, https://doi.org/10.3138/jrpc.21.2.005
The purpose of the study was to to consider the extent to which doctrinal beliefs about the Christian Sabbath influenced Christians’ perceptions of the appropriateness of attending Sunday sport. The research based on case study method was conducted on members of a Baptist Church in Dayton OH, A city which had professional sports franchises in four sports within a 90 minute drive of the city.
Members of the congregation were influenced on their view of Sunday from the Bible, in particular the 4th commandment and also by article 15 off the national Baptist convention articles of faith, which stated “we believe that the first day of the week is the Lord's day, or Christian Sabbath and is to be kept secret to religious purposes by abstaining from all secular labor and sinful recreations”. The wording immediately begged the question - what is a “sinful recreation”? In addition to the question about sport would going out to dinner or watching a movie fall foul of this wording?
The author noted that many people believed that Sunday in the United states had been so transformed that it was no longer a day of worship and rest. Even among those who attended church other activities from household chores to watching sport were accommodated. Some felt that “Sport has captured Sunday”.
What the research showed that most members of the church accepted the doctrine of the Sabbath, they find it difficult in practice to work out what it meant. While 80% of respondents agreed that Sunday was special, 62% indicated that they were comfortable attending Sunday sport where 38 percent were not. 54% thought that Sunday sport was a sinful recreation. In terms of the source off their belief about Sunday it is interesting that 62% attributed this to a personal belief as opposed to 24% to the Bible and 15% to church doctrine.
The author, therefore, concludes “the majority of the congregants who attended sporting events on Sunday acknowledged that this leisure pastime represented a ‘sinful recreation’”. The final line off the papers conclusion states: “some congregants had trouble with deciding to attend a sporting event on Sunday”,