Worldview and Football

I'm all in favor of a developing a distinctively Christian approach to all sorts of human enterprises like, say, the law. And I think that Christians have a responsibility to critique all aspects of culture including the place of sports. But the recent announcement of my undergraduate alma mater, Dordt College, that its new hire as football head coach was to "continue to build a football program with a Reformed worldview" (news release here) could make folks want to throw in their lot with the "two-kingdoms" agitators. (If my reference to two kingdoms mystifies you, check here for my most recent comment on the subject.)

I know James K.A. Smith has spoken at Dordt; his book, Desiring the Kingdom: Worship, Worldview, and Culture Formation came in for some criticism from the college faculty a while back. (Check here for Smith's reply.) I bring up Smith's book because there he critiques the predominant secular "liturgies" that shape the desires of contemporary Americans. One of his examples is the liturgy of "sacrificial violence," subtitled the "Military-Entertainment Complex." Football, anyone?

I enjoy watching football (the violent American type, not the running-around-without-much-scoring European brand, known here as soccer). But how football can be "done" from a "Reformed worldview" borders on the incoherent. Sure, football can be done ethically and excellently, but let's be honest. The only reason a small college like Dordt even sponsors this sport is to attract students.

I'm quite confident that thefootball would not have been added except as an addition to the bottom line of fiscal prudence. So let's not dress up hiring a coach as somehow enhancing a  Reformed worldview. It's a concession, and perhaps a necessary one, to the spirit of the age of sacrificial violence.