I enjoy athletics and sports. I have my favorite teams, and suffer a bit when they lose. In reading broadly, especially in national newspapers and magazines, both secular and religious, I find numerous references to sports. They intrigue me, and sometimes disappoint, in that some are poor articles and some excellent – but isn’t that true for writers in any field of interest? As my years multiplied I realized from experience and reading how athletics and, for that matter, other fields useful to human experience have become highly meaningful in the popular culture. I believe we are aided in rediscovering the place athletics historically held in the life of mankind, and how new meanings have diminished higher purposes with which some sports, as well as other venues, were first founded and practiced. For my illustration I use here basketball, recently published as the third most popular sport in America, just behind baseball, with football noted most popular. I take their word for it, but feel positions change with the seasons. Such statistics may not be helpful. Soccer is the world’s first. Basketball is the newest of the top three, easy to document.
Rather often, in my perusal of the Wall Street Journal, I find articles usually faithful about Christianity and its influence in history and society. They appear to ring true in that they are written by persons who seem to know the variables they are writing about as pertains to culture and the Christian religion. One evaluates the reporter’s points, not only on general interests, but also on the conviction that there is an informed biblical context in his or her evaluations and observations. There is usually straightforward reporting, and it is clear if the author is espousing this or that context, but permitting the original source to stand on its own. Such an article appeared on March 16, 2010, focusing on the origin and growth of the game of basketball as it was developed by its inventor, Dr. James Naismith. The following paragraph is summary of the article, in the accent to be made here.
Naismith had a difficult childhood shuffled among relatives on the deaths of caretakers. He dropped out of school, but persevered as a Christian, returned to school in a Canadian Christian college. He decided that his gifts were not in ordained ministry, but wanted to serve Christian purpose. He was drawn to athletics. He moved to Massachusetts, married and became a physical-education instructor in the YMCA. His vision was: To win men to the Master through the gym. Encouraged by a mentor, he studied various sports and decided he wanted one that did not require physical clashing of the players.
At the time the YMCA was an attractive venue for Christians to witness and find context for the advancement of biblical ideals. Free of sectarianism, the institution could concentrate on the commission of Christ to advance active Christian lifestyle with its redemptive message. Dwight L. Moody, the eminent evangelist of the post-Civil War era, but never ordained, got his start to eminence in his lay Christian influence in the YMCA. The stories are too little known of these devoted persons and movements, deeply committed to Christian idealism and biblical mandate. In passing of years, the secular culture usually takes over, so the explicit Christian purpose and application loses force, perhaps dies. As a lad during the Great Depression of the 1930s, I was sponsored by a member of the YMCA. I learned to swim there, and met with personnel holding ideals for youth, but by that time I would not have heard anything of Moody’s or Naismith’s gospel. Since that time there have been many persons suggesting ‘Christian’ or The ‘C’ should be dropped from the name of the organization. One rightly asks: What happened? It is common for the public to accept the secular good (common grace), and drop the spiritual ideal and motivation (divine grace) so to get on with some good things without personal obligation to Deity. God does not take out copyright on his contributions to daily life, and mankind steals the benefits leaving other creativity to true believers. Christmas is not Christmas for them but Holidays. Even some churches follow the trend. The identity of God in Jesus Christ is turned into simply a generic god. God forgive. *Mark W. Lee, Sr. — 2016, 2020