"Football is not a matter of life and death, it is more important than that."

Bill Shankly, Liverpool Football manager

Redeeming Sports

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Redeeming Sports through a Biblical World-view: counselling athletes for the glory of God, Douglas Edward Leaman, MA in Biblical counselling, The Master’s College. California, 2008

I was encouraged when I read the following statement in the abstract of the thesis:

"This thesis attempts to address the serious need that exists in the church for a Biblical perspective on the Christian involved in athletics…The Bible is shown to be very applicable to the arena of modern sports". (Page ix)

However the content does not live up to the promise. The bibliography says it all really – 45 books of which 3 relate to sport.

In the conclusion he states, "It has been the working assumption of this project that many Christians do not bring good theology to bear upon the world of sport". (Page 113) Regrettably the thesis does not take us much further in that direction and does not contribute towards a theology of sport.

Another paragraph in the conclusion states "The Christian church does not have to lose sports to worldly thinking. Christians can learn to be involved with athletics without being controlled by them. They can learn to keep them in a healthy Biblical perspective. They can learn, through sports, the Biblical essence of hard work. They can learn what the Bible has to say about pride, humility and the glory of God to apply this to athletics." (Page 113-4). I see nothing in this which suggests that the author values sport or sees it as part of God’s creation. Sport seems largely to be a negative force and at best of extrinsic value.

This is confirmed by his statement: "Today, many Christian parents take their kids to sports activities rather than worship on the Lord’s day" Page 65

There is some good material in the thesis –

• "Just imagine how much pressure is taken off an athlete when his focus is on glorifying God rather than impressing the crowd". (Page 22) .

• "sports are meant for the glory of God as opposed to self-glory" (Page 39)

• "To put on the foot-washing mentality in sports would be counter cultural". (Page 68)

But none of these is developed

There are also some strange observations:

"When Usain Bolt and Michael Phelps cross the finish line, do young Christians understand and interact with these great athletes in a theologically-accurate way?" (Page 35) What nonsense! And by the way quite how does Michael Phelps cross the finish line?

Again he asserts that "Nothing that Kobe Bryant does apart from Christ is pleasing to God. There must be no confusion over these issues or Christians will lack the clarity and sharpness that they should have while counselling" (Page 36) Would he say it of a doctor? An atheist relief worker?

Despite the fact that the author has played sport professionally he seems to lack an understanding of sport. For example when he uses an example of a High School basketball player weeping because he only scored 14 points - indicating that success in basketball has a gripping hold on his emotions - it seemed that he failed to understand the nature of competitive sport. (Page 52) Of course the player needs help – but not condemnation.

The12 chapters in the thesis are:

1 Introduction

2 Importance of world-views in counseling athletes

3 Heart and flesh – important theological terms for counselling an athlete

4 Common Grace, Special Grace and antithesis

5 Glory

6 Sports and Idolatry

7 Pride

8 Humility

9 The fear of man

10 Emotions

11 Work ethic

12 What is success?

13 Conclusion

Appendix on "The proper view of anthropology for counseling"

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