Leave God out of the Super Bowl

Before I write this post, I want to thank the holy Tao for inspiring me. There’s nothing of me in what I’m about to say—it’s all Tao. Without you, the everlasting source of my yin-ness and yang-ness, I wouldn’t have been able to blog about God and the Super Bowl.

If you like this sort of praise be! sentimentality, you must have loved how the Indianapolis Colts’ coach and owner brought God into their post-game remarks.

Driving around tonight I heard right-wing talk show host John Gibson ranting about the progressives’ distaste for such God talk. Gibson claimed that the Daily Kos had a post called “God hates the Bears,” but all I could find with this title was a brief comment on a general Super Bowl discussion thread.

Regardless, the guy raises a good question: Does God hate the Bears? One has to assume so, or at least that he loves them less than the Colts, given the way both head coach Tony Dungy and Colts owner Jim Irsay were talking. Irsay said:

“Now there's an awful lot of shining glory, even more than last time up here. But we're giving it all to God again because that's what got us here ... sticking together and believing that we could, and I know God has looked after us on this journey and bonded us into such a tight family.”

Shining glory? For winning a Super Bowl game? How egotistical can you get, even if you claim to be giving all that glory to God? For you’re saying that God got you to the championship victory stand, implying that the poor God-deprived Bears were lacking in the divinity department (along with the quarterback department).

Gibson couldn’t understand why anyone would take issue with all the post-game praising of God. Well, John, you need to get out more.

Like, into the rest of the world. And a good share of the United States too, where people believe that religion is a humble private matter between them and the Almighty—not something to be proudly paraded before the public at every opportunity.

I have some friends who visit Europe regularly. They tell me that there it would be almost inconceivable for a politician to make his or her belief in God a campaign issue. It just doesn’t come up. But here, an admitted unbeliever probably couldn’t be elected to a major office.

This isn’t something the United States should be proud of. It’s a defect, not a virtue. Spirituality concerns the spirit, not believing that God cares who wins the Super Bowl. Or, who wins the war in Iraq.

Many Americans have a strange belief that God is on the side of the United States. Have you ever heard the leader of another country ending speeches with a “May God bless [name of nation]”? It’d sound funny, wouldn’t it? Crazed fundamentalist.

Well, actually I do recall a few others apart from American politicians expressing this sentiment: Islamic terrorists. Which shows that when people believe that God favors them rather than others, bad things often follow.

At the extreme, planes destroying buildings and killing thousands of people. At the least, an us vs. them theology that separates rather than unites. Colts, Bears—I’m pretty sure that the Tao doesn’t look upon them any differently.

There’s already plenty of competition in sports. We don’t need coaches, players, and owners also competing for who God supposedly likes most.

Comments

[Sponge]

Sure, keep God in the box where he belongs. I can agree with criticisms of bad theology (claiming God favors the victors), and cringe at the sloppy God-is-my-buddy rhetoric that diminishes a deeper glory, but I cannot fault the emotional expressions of joy from people of faith upon achieving their goals and giving praise to the God that sustains them daily. While true spirituality is an intensely personal matter, its public declaration "in the moment" is not necessarily something unseemly.

[Idler]

I don't disagree with Sponge, but I can't resist noting what Dutch soccer giant Johann Crujff once said about players crossing themselves:

"If it worked, every game would end in a tie."

[Bob]

The Bears were definitely lacking in the quarterback department! If the Bears had a decent quarterback, God may have changed his mind and helped the Bears pull it off. Instead, he was pissed offed at the Bears organization for recruiting such a poor quarterback.

BTW, God has been pissed off at Al Davis for a very long time!

[proud lefty]

Before I get to my comments, I want to thank the Lord, Jesus Christ for allowing me to have the ability to have this computer and His blessings to be able to have the ability to see this keyboard to type this blog. God has truely blessed me to be born in this country that has such spiritually developed technology and thanks to my devout belief in God I have the intellectual ability to find this blog site. God dammit! I forgot what I was going to say!!!

[dee]

Most of your articles have one thing in common, aside from your obvious hate for anyone that doesn't share your views, that is, you also hate freespeech...that is of course, the freespeech of anyone who doesn't share your views. Though I see your views as typical and like a mocking bird of someone trained well to conform to todays liberal indoctrination, and someone who uses samantics and the fleeting buzz word of the moment and sterotypes of those who think outside the box, while at the same time pretending real science actually supports your politics--I still believe you have a right to free speech. You should try learning how to disagree, while still understanding other's have the right to their voice. Which by the way, was God-given, and I have the right to say it even in public.. and even if you or anyone else agrees or not. God bless you.

[Brian]

dee, I love free speech. That's what blogging is all about: free speech. Did you notice how easy it was for you to comment on what I said?

I never said that the coach and owner didn't have a right to blab on about God after their Super Bowl win. I just said that I wish they hadn't done this.

That's free speech: being able to disagree with what someone else is saying.

It isn't progressives who are trying to stifle free speech in this country. It is the conservatives.

Witness the Bush administration's attempts to stifle scientists who try to present facts about global climate change. Witness the new Secretary of Defense claiming that if a resolution condemning the surge plan is debated, that gives aid and comfort to the terrorists.

I'm not afraid of free speech. Just the opposite.

[Idler]

Riiiiiiight. It's conservatives that are advocating speech codes and punishing people for expressing their thoughts.

Question: Where can you be prosecuted for expressing the wrong opinion in writing, progressive Europe or "George Bush's America"?

And, sure, expressing any kind of skepticism about global warming claims is a great move for grant applicants!

Read all about the latest ravages of anti-free speech conservatives at the Huffington Post:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/eugene-volokh/the-new-antiblasphemy-la_b_40766.html

[D W Mitchell]

IT'S NOT "RELIGION"!

IT'S A "RELATIONSHIP"!

Just like Peyton would give credit to his Father (Archie) for guiding him through life and eventually into the Super Bowl ...

Irsay & Dungy give credit to their Father in Heaven for helping them ...

It's okay for an Oscar winner to thank a director ... why isn't it okay for athletes to thank The Ultimate Director, God the Father, God the Son & God the holy spirit?!?!?

[Idler]

Well, DW, Brian's point is that while the involvement of the director of the Oscar winner's film is demonstrable, the involvement of some heavenly father is not.

If an athlete or coach is simply thanking whatever is responsible for those capabilities he possesses through no effort of his own, that's unobjectionable, and Brian should recognize it as such.

However, if the athelete or coach is claiming God's preference for his winning over his opponents, that is objectionable.

Think of the claims we often hear from survivors of disasters that God was responsible for their survival and not of others'. Don't you see the narcissism of such claims?

[Zack]

As someone from Indiana I am not surprised by the religous comments from the Colts coach and Owner. As a conservative state, in general Indiana pushes conservative christian values strongly. Over the weeks leading up to the superbowl, coach Dungy was constantly praised by the local media for being such a religous man. The state even took the rediculous step of coming out with a special "In God we trust" license plate, which unlike every other special license plate available, is no extra charge. Next year you will probably have to pay extra in order to get a license plate that doesn't say "Jesus rules!".

I like the state, but it's a tough place for an atheist.