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.
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.
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