Idolatry
Is college basketball an idol and how should the divinity school respond to it if it is? Yes, I know it can be an idol for some and not for others. Yes, I know there can be a happy medium, living in the tensions, et cetera. How many people who say that basketball obsession can be healthy are deceiving themselves, and how many people who call it an idol don't care about basketball at all?
posted by Unknown at 1:03 PM
8 Comments:
If you can't go to college go to State, if you can't go to State go to hell...Go to hell Carolina, go to hell!
Wilson,
what brings up the question?
Tom, the question comes up because this weekend we have the juxtaposition of Holy Week and the first weekend of March Madness. Sports have their own liturgies, evangelists, prophets, priests, and yet they are seen as innocuous. Some people are unaffected by them and so this is of no concern. Is it the fact that it acts as a pseudo religion which makes it idolatrous with a pseudo via salutis, or national championship?
I mean, I am a huge basketball fan, I am really interested in why this is a hard conversation to have. Either it is obvious to some people, or completely absurd and beyond possibility.
I can't think of anything other than experience to enter into the discussion so here goes:
Is it idolatrous to fill out tournament brackets as a church sponsored program for a $10 entry, with no reward (other than vanity and pride) with all the money going to UMCOR?
How idolatrous is it to continually use sports illustrations in sermons, knowing that it alienates some of the congregation?
Is it idolatrous or manipulative to continually tease (a form of abuse) parishioners and/or pastors of their alma mater's failings or winnings?
In all things, the answer seems to be a matter of the heart. Yet, since there is the possibility that idolatry, manipulation, and sin can be manifest in these expressions, it is probably best to refrain from these dealings.
But in full disclosure, I will probably be tivo'ing the Duke game Thursday night to watch after our Maundy Thursday service.
Wilson,
I'm afraid I am generally one of those kinds of people who didn't even notice the overlap this weekend. So its not obvious to me to begin with, but now that you mention it, I think it is obvious.
Maybe a similar thing for me would be the conundrum of date night. Do I go out to eat with my wife on Friday night (and all the other pieces of date night) or do we forgo it because its Good Friday?
Thomas, can there ever be righteous light-hearted taunting? I do do fantasy football with my family and one of my favorite things is trash talking which I define as: talking as though everything hinged on something entirely insignificant.
Tom, I think idolatry is used to easily some of the time. Date night can never be a false god in the same way basketball can be. Date night does not have a false liturgy and a false soteriology.
One of my problems with evangelical piety (and I would claim the mantle evangelical on this one) is that idolatry becomes a private affair when I think it is inherently a public one. It is not about personal struggles or personal temptations but a particular form of disorderedness.
You may participate in idolatries, Tom, but you should thank God that you don't participate in this one.
Wilson,
Tell me more about what you mean by "false liturgy" and "false soteriology."
I'm not sure I agree that idolatries must be communal in nature. But I think I see where you're going with this. I think this may be an issue of semantics. So what language would you use to describe a "personal idolatry"?
Looks like the local Dagon just fell and busted into pieces!
(For Dagon, cf. Judges 6 or so)
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