A Separation of Church and Sport?
Cathy Grossman, religion writer for USA Today and host of the newspaper’s on-line “Faith and Reason” forum, invited me to guest-host the forum this week. The topic: Should there be a “separation of church and sport”? Here’s how Cathy teed it up: (Thanks for plugging ONWARD CHRISTIAN ATHLETES, Cathy.)
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Major League Baseball season is underway and soon will come this year’s round of Faith Days and Faith Nights, aimed at evangelical Christians who turn out en masse and for a ballpark revival (including testimonials from players) following the game.
Is this “kosher”? Could you ever imagine an “Interfaith Night” or a “Muslim Night” or at the ballpark? Should there be complete separation between church and sport?
That’s a hot topic for Tom Krattenmaker, our guest host today at Faith & Reason.
Krattenmaker is a Portland, Oregon-based writer specializing in religion in public life and member of the USA TODAY Board of Contributors who writes regularly for the newspaper’s “On Religion” series. His particular fascination is with unresolved issues concerning the role of religion in American culture and politics.
He’s the author of Onward Christian Athletes, (in store this coming fall) which examines evangelical Christian engagement with pro sports. Read more about that at his website and, of course, ask him about it here and in the Forum.
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Read the rest of Cathy’s post and check out the forum participants’ comments.