Faith and football \u2014 with themes of adversity, dedication and striving to improve \u2014 have always seemed tied together. Players and pastors frequently use themes of war to describe the physical and spiritual battles they encounter on the field and against sin. The National Football League (NFL) and faiths such as Christianity [=Evangelicalism] and Catholicism share Sunday as their marquee day.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is a sense that \u2018We have to fight,\u2019 and football provides the best metaphor in all of sports for that,\u201d said Seth Dowland, an American religious history professor at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, Washington. \u201cThere\u2019s something about the adversarial nature of the game that appeals to Evangelicals who have for decades, if not centuries, felt this sense of being in a war, whether it\u2019s a spiritual war against Satan or a cultural war against forces of secularism.\u201d<\/p>\n
Added George McGovern, a team chaplain for the Giants: \u201cIt\u2019s a contact sport and because of the emotions that come with the violent nature of the game, it just tends to get guys more spiritually involved. It seems to pull at the core of a guy more than other sports.\u201d<\/p>\n
During the long, physically and emotionally draining hours of the NFL week, players say Bible studies and chapel services provide order and help clear their minds. Players often draw a powerful sense of comfort and strength from leaning on their religion as game day approaches.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Bible tells us that Jesus is peace,\u201d said Okung, the cornerstone of the Seahawks\u2019 offensive line. \u201cIt\u2019s peace of mind. It\u2019s a soundness of mind. When you have those things, that\u2019s a power from God. We can rely on that and know that we have peace of mind in situations, regardless of whatever circumstances we may be in.\u201d<\/p>\n
Several of the Seahawks have used the run-up to 2014\u2019s Super Bowl to spread their thoughts on religion. “We understand the attention that football brings,” Chris Maragos said. “This is a big deal. But to us, there\u2019s more to it than that. It\u2019s not just about football. Jesus is bigger than that.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Faith and football \u2014 with themes of adversity, dedication and striving to improve \u2014 have always seemed tied together. Players and pastors frequently use themes of war to describe the physical and spiritual battles they encounter on the field and against sin. The National Football League (NFL) and faiths such as Christianity [=Evangelicalism] and Catholicism […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[926,1646,139,703],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5416"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5416"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5416\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5416"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}