Sports evangelism is believed to be a very effective tool in spreading the news of Jesus. The athletes, and their ministers, look mostly at Jesus as a conqueror, a fighter, a winner, and as someone who will never leave your side. The do not emphasize His suffering, or Jesus not wanting to be crucified. In the video for AIA, the athletes and coaches talk about how ministers reach out, like Jesus did, and how He changed their lives. In “Wrestling for Jesus” the athletes talked about how Jesus was doing wonderful things in their lives and how their lives were together because of Jesus. Whoever, when his life fell apart T-Money did not go running to Jesus, but relied purely on himself, and his girlfriend, instead.    

                Hoffman, while giving a lengthy description of the history of sports evangelism, had a few issues with the institution. He believes that full contact sports induce a rage that was not there in the first place, and that using such sports to spread the word of God seems oxymoronic. Another problem seems to be that people will not listen to the message if the athlete is not a winner. This can cause people to cheat, or conduct themselves in non-sportsman-like behavior, which is not very Christ like.

                Personally I agree with sports evangelism. Today’s culture has made the Jesus portrayed in churches much too feminine. Sermons have become about feelings, and felling right with God, which is great for trying to attract women into churches, or a relationship with Christ, but does little for the men. Being able to talk about God and do “manly” things is a great way to minister to men.  

Sports have become a well-used vehicle for promotion of the Christian faith.  The vast majority of individuals who are involved in the spread of Christianity through athletics are evangelicals, who see it as their mission to spread the word of Jesus Christ and convert others to Christianity.  This includes displays on the field, Christian help for athletes, and good works through charity.  The documentary Wrestling for Jesus displayed this current trend of playing a sport and winning in the name of Jesus Christ.
    There was one point of the documentary that I found most interesting.  This was when Matt, a good guy to Timothy’s villain in the wrestling ring, attempted to explain why he won the award of ‘Most Christ-Like’.  When asked why he thought he received
this award, he said because he was friendly.  This was literally the only point he could think to compare himself to Jesus.  For one who is supposed to live his life for Jesus, he barely knew anything about the man.
    Krattenmaker makes his clear in his article that while Christianity in sports started as an innocent show of faith on the field by people like Herbert Lusk, it has exploded into an event.  He also maintains that there is no room for any other religions in sport today, despite the fact that sports should belong to everyone regardless of religion (26).  We now have the likes of Tim Tebow and Jeremy Lin to contend with, and through events like Justice Sunday sports are beginning to mix with politics.  While athletes are free to express their personal opinion during a game, I think it is wrong and completely inappropriate for their influence to extend any further than that.  We as a nation must at least attempt to maintain our separation of church and state, and
due to sports the line between the two is becoming almost nonexistent.

Sports have become a very key tool for evangelical Christians.  Using sports to spread the gospel has become the focus of evangelicals.  The only problem with this is that the context of the information they are spreading and the bias involved in the process.  In sports, the evangelicals that want to spread the word only want to spread the scripture that they feel is important, or that will grab the crowd.  The word that is spread is usually the positive or great Jesus that overcame and conquered.  FCA was created to bring together Christian athletes and to also use them to spread the gospel, whether it be in a normal situation or at an athletic event.  In the WFJ the wrestlers, T-Money in particular, said that everything they did was for Jesus.  They held sermons after every match and put the message of God out to the crowd.  The version of Jesus that was presented to the crowd was the loving Jesus, the forgiving Jesus, and the Jesus that will take anyone in. 

            I was really surprised that when things stopped going T-Money’s way, he began to talk less and less about Jesus and more about how awful his life was.  He went against most of the Christian values after WFJ ended including divorce and lust.  He only started really talking about Jesus and evangelism when his life was getting better. 

            All of the evangelists fail to acknowledge the historical Jesus and the more human-like image of him.  They go immediately to the holy Jesus, the one who is so pure, so god-like that he could never be compared to a human or being human.  Sports are using religion in a way that can be positive; it puts out a good model or idea for Americans to follow.  Krattenmaker stated, “frankly, pro sports could really use some ‘good’ religion-religion that summons our better selves, serves our least advantaged fellow citizens, and exerts moral resistance against aspects of sports culture that are harmful and exploitive” (p. 10).  Positives can come from integrating religion and sports, it just needs to not be the forefront of all athletics in order to keep those fans who may not be religious happy and content.  

Through sports, many people have found their own ways to express their religious beliefs.  From the readings, documentary, video clips and podcasts, I have realized that there are so many different ways to represent Jesus Christ through athletics.   Christian athletes have definitely been sharing their faiths more, which probably has to do with media coverage and positive attention.  While I think it is influential to express religious beliefs through sports, I also think there are some issues with it.  For example, in Wresting For Jesus, I noticed that the wrestlers were focused more on specific versus they chose to follow, rather than following the Bible as a whole.  Timothy was obviously a Christian and built his marriage around the Church, but I found it odd that they ended up getting a divorce when the Bible strictly forbids it with only a few exceptions.  I respected Timothy a lot in the beginning of the documentary because I felt that he was a true Christian and he was strictly wresting for Jesus.  As the documentary progressed, I realized that he was disobeying very common rules in the Bible such as living with another woman while still being married.  Many turned away from Wrestling for Jesus, and I think it really tested the true faith of the members.  When Timothy’s life began to change, I felt that he was no longer focused at all on his commitment to Christianity.  When Matt Cruz was asked to explain why he was awarded the “most Christ-like” trophy, he was unable to do so.  Christ has many attributes that can be relatable to his followers, so I thought it was strange that he was unable to give examples.  I think that athletes need to be cautious about bringing religion into sports, because they may gain the positive attention of others but will be unable to back their beliefs up biblically. 

        In Hoffman and Krattenmaker’s articles, a dominant consensus was that athletes use their fame and position to show their Christian faith. In Hoffman’s article he states, “The evangelical community milked the athletic image” (129). This community is exclusive, allowing believers of Christ to come together and compete with Christian attitudes. Coaches use their faith to preach to the viewers and professional athletes as they play. When Christian athletes prepare for a game, the phase “doing it the Lord’s way” is used; this quote refers to playing without cursing, smoking, and drinking (219). Christian athletes use their faith as a prop for famous as well; using fame to get faith promoted. This mentality makes the athletes look like morality good people, not faithful believers. In Krattenmaker’s article, similar statements are made; he says, “it makes eminent sense to conceive of major league sports as an instrument for the advancement for the of evangelical Christianity” (16) This point seems to be a building stone to the Christian community spreading the word; when fans fall in-love with a team they may go so far as to follow their religion as well. Hoffman notes the some of the problems with having religion and sports combined; “The message sneaks into the soul and psyche when the audience’s moral defenses are down” (230).  This point is referenced as a lore people who are caught up in the momen of sports, not letting the religion be something spiritual and a serious decision. 

    Jesus is represented as a tool for the athletes like T-money and his Wrestling for Jesus group. Jesus was someone who could help them win or fulfill prayers about winning the match. Tim also seemed to only cry out for the Lord in his time of doubt an sadness. Similar to WFJ, other groups like Fellowship of Christian Athletes or Athletes in Action want to use their Christian influences to be witness for Christ; this is something to look at for the athletes, coaches, and fans. The people from the videos viewed, looked at verses such as Romans 10:9 which is about “believe in Christ and you will be saved” and only apply this to their lives.They seem to view God as a convenience to help them win; when he lets them down, like T-Money, it seems like faith in Christ is lost.

The image of Jesus in American sports is a skewed image.  Most groups that look at using sports as a way to promote Jesus, only look at the aspects of Jesus that show actions that they view as good sportsmanship.  Though I do agree that individuals have the ability to use their influence as a player to show lives that show their set of morals, it is hard to show that one the field.  This is especially hard to show in a fighting sport such as wrestling.  In examining the Wrestling for Jesus organizations, there are instances where participates in the organization either do not know where Jesus came into the show, or had an interesting way of portraying Jesus.  This includes having an award titled “Most Christ Like” which is undefined as well as a tag team named after the anti-Christ.  Because of this, it was almost impossible to see what image of Jesus this group had.  Most defiantly one of strength, but a counter-cultural one is not seen.  Specifically a Jesus that is passive and non-self-promoting.  In an article by Krattenmaker this idea of Christian sports groups is addressed.  In doing so he brings up an elitist mindset that he sees and becomes concerned as he feels sports belong to all of the watchers and players not just the Christian ones (Krattenmaker, 26).  That elitist attitude is seen in the Wrestling for Jesus group, as members left the group as they felt it was becoming such an institution.  This is an unfortunate occurrence that has found its way onto the professional level.  There have been reports of persecution and mistreatment of non-Christians.  This definably is against any biblical or historical Jesus who suffered through persecution, but did not subject any to his own.  Again, I feel that using one’s position in society if ok to advocate one’s own ideas but not to the exclusion of others.  A Christian sports organization is something that can allow professing Christians to gather together and have fun, but to use it to proselytizing to the exclusion of others is a true concern.

Both Hoffman and Krattenmaker wish to point out that athletes across all sports use their position on and off the field to mix religion and sports to evangelize.  Krattenmaker comments that athletes show their faith through interviews and religious gestures after scoring like the infamous “Tebowing” (Krattenmaker 13).  Hoffman says the problem with Christianity in sports today is that it has “hijacked” the Christian traditional values of a life of love built on patience and humility with competitive zeal.  The common response from athletes about why they tackle hard or play tough defense is the notion that Christians are not wimps, so the counter to this notion is meant with sacrificing New Testament values of being peacemakers for the competitive nature which is inevitable in sports (Hoffman 226-228).   

In the film Wrestling for Jesus, the audience sees this message of triumph and victory through Christ just like how Tim Tebow preaches his fourth-quarter heroics are because of his faith and trust in God.  Throughout the film, I tried to track how the wrestlers like T-Money and Matt Cruz related to God or spoke about Jesus’ character.  Two scenes stood out to me when watching the film.  The first was when Matt Cruz was showing off his trophies in his room with muscle cars and lightly clothed women plastered to his walls.  Matt Cruz lifted up his biggest trophy, Christ-like award.  Cruz was asked by the camera man why he won it and what does being Christ-like mean.  Cruz’s response of Jesus was diluted down to “friendly” as the only adjective to describe Jesus.  Cruz even goes further and says “I am really not sure”.  Cruz represents Hoffman’s main concern about mixing Jesus and sports.  The Christian faith is dwindled down sports to universal characteristics of a good person not a Christian person like being friendly in this case. 

Another example of the wrestlers take on Christianity was when the biker gang wrestlers said that “God is good, just look at what He gave me” pointing to their championship belts.  These particular wrestlers shaped their view of Jesus around the Scripture verses of being conquerors in Christ (Romans 8:37) and possibility in all things through Him (Philippians 4:13).  Their image of Jesus is a man of strength and power that conquered death and promises that strength through faith in Christ.  They associated several times in their ringside acts the power of Christ and the rewards of having faith in manifestations of victories because the “babyfaces” win or through championship belts.  This ideology of Jesus comes to conflict with T-Money when he goes through a divorce because he thought Jesus was never to forsake him but looking at his current life situation Jesus did.  This conflict resulted in the disintegration of WJC along with T-Money denouncing his faith.  He no longer was a winner in life in which his faith had promised him.  He gave up wrestling for Jesus and instead wrestled for himself.  T-Money’s story is further support of what Hoffman asserts, sports boils the traditional values out of Christianity because of competition.  The question raised from T-Money’s story is where were his priorities, Jesus or wrestling?  Was church just a vehicle to get a chance to wrestle?  Hoffman and Krattenmaker would argue yes. 

Drawing on the readings, the documentary, and the videos and podcasts it’s easy to see just how influential sports have become in trying to witness to people about Jesus Christ. Looking at the mission statements from both the AIA and FCA their role is to use sports as a platform for spreading the word of Jesus. They also want to challenge and influence everyone they meet about receiving Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord. FCA wanted to create new heroes who were influenced by what they thought, what they said, and the way they lived their lives. The founder of FCA, Don McClanen, had a vision where he thought that if athletes used their celebrity in influence to sell common everyday products why couldn’t they in a positive way witness for Jesus Christ. The key to FCA’s whole program is influence and how the key to influence is relationships. After listening to some of the podcasts and looking at these websites and comparing this information to WFJ I don’t personally see how WFJ was trying to witness to their audience about Jesus, other than when they gave altar calls.

The main character in the Wrestling for Jesus film that they followed a lot was T-Money. In the ring T-Money always seemed to do the right thing, it was outside of the ring where he seemed to struggle. After the matches they would have the audience listen to them preach about Jesus Christ and they would try and have people change their lives and give themselves to the lord. I think it was a positive thing how they tried to do that, but T-Money seemed to struggle towards the end of the film when he started losing everything and eventually WFJ was completely gone. From the film I remember him talking about how could Christ give him all he had and lead him to WFJ and let everything happen and let his life fall apart. Overall I think that Christianity is a great way to try and influence others about Jesus. I definitely don’t see anything wrong with it and I think that this is a great way to witness to so many people. In Krattenmaker’s article I think it’s great that Herbert Lusk used to play football in the NFL and now he preaches at the Greater Exodus Baptist Church. Krattenmaker goes on to talk about how evangelical Christians assert themselves in the public square, to grab hold of the tools of culture-television, movies, technology, media, politics, sports-and us them to spread their message and their values (15). I also like how at the end of the reading he talks about how other religions have a stake in all of this too and how it’s not just the Christians role (26). He states it well when at the end he says that professional sports don’t just belong to one segment of the American public instead they belong to all of us (26).

        Christians believe that if you have a special talent then you should use it in a way that’s honoring to God. With the recent rise in popularity of sports (majorly due to increased media coverage), Christian athletes are beginning to embrace this calling more and more. With this increased media coverage, athletes have been elevated to celebrity status to many Americans, with their names being common knowledge in many households. Because of this, Christian athletes wanted to use this fame as a witnessing tool. FCA was created for this purpose. As the video on FCA history stated, “we created new heroes influenced by what they thought, by what they said, and by the way they lived their lives.”  
        One potential problem with using sports as a witnessing tool is that they tend to pick and choose which verses they want to emphasize. For those witnessing through wrestling and mixed martial arts, one of their key verses is Philippians 4:13, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” However they fail to mention verses such as Matthew 7:12, “So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you” because it wouldn’t mesh well with their ministries.
        In my opinion, overall, I think that sports have a great potential to be used as a witnessing tool. If Christian athletes exhibit qualities such as sportsmanship and endurance in their playing, it is an excellent way for them to witness to the millions of fans. However, there is a lot of pressure placed on Christian athletes to constantly maintain their Christ-like appearance and attitude. If athletes advertise themselves for Christianity then get caught in a scandal, not only are people likely to develop a negative opinion of that person, but also of Christianity as a whole. In Wrestling for Jesus, Timothy chooses to use his wrestling as a witnessing tool. However, through faults in the organization and his personal life, many are turned away from WFJ. The depth of his commitment to Christianity can also be questioned when his life takes a turn for the worse and he gives up on WFJ altogether. This leads me to question if Timothy (and possibly other athletes) say they are doing something for Jesus because it gains popularity that they may not have otherwise received. Additionally, this can be called into question when Matt Cruz receives the “most Christ-like” trophy and is unable to define what that means. Therefore, athletes should take great caution and realize the tremendous responsibility resting on them when they choose to publically represent and advertise Christianity to such a vast audience.

In the film Wrestling For Jesus, the wrestling organization WFJ used wrestling as a means of bringing people together and preaching the ideals of Christianity while trying to convert people or reinforce their faith.  However the group seems to focus in on few of the actual teachings of Jesus and aspects of Christianity when spreading their message.  One of the most intriguing aspects of the film was when Matt was telling the audience about his award of “Most Christ-like” and when asked what it meant, he could not answer the question because he had no idea what it represented.  At the end of the film, we learned that WFJ had folded and Timothy (AKA T-Money) had given up on his mission to spread the word of Christ through wrestling.  However, after a few months’ hiatus, WFJ and another wrestling group that had competed against WFJ had joined and were holding wrestling matches for purely entertainment purposes.  The Christian message and altar calls after the match are no longer present and it makes me wonder about the importance of Christianity in Timothy and the other wresters’ lives; especially after we watched how he was going to dedicate himself to “serving the Lord”.

The other articles bring up the question of true Christian morals.  In Krattenmaker’s article, he states that if anyone were to offer “any suggestion that religion…might become more ecumenical, more open to the different faiths and worldviews…the answer today for the most part, is ‘no’” (25-26).  On the Athletes in Action website they state that their message is to “boldly proclaim the love and truth of Jesus Christ to every college athlete in the U.S. and the millions they influence.”  These statements both support the thought that evangelicals in sports, like most evangelicals, believe that conservative Christianity is the “right” religion and that there is no other way to believe.  I feel that this is wrong, not just in my opinion, but also in Christian doctrine itself.

Personally I have no issues with the convergence of Christianity and athletics.  Athletic events and athletes are great mediums in order to spread a message and do have a great amount of influence over a large amount of people.  The issue I have the most trouble with is the narrow-mindedness of evangelicals in not accepting the fact that people also practice other faiths.  To use Tim Tebow as an example again, if he were a Muslim who prayed towards Mecca and to Allah instead of a Christian, would he be nearly as popular as he is today?  Who knows.