sports

The week in religion, poetically.

I wept on Friday evening when I heard the news of the death of Coach John Wooden. I had seen him the day before at UCLA looking frail and tired after 99 good years—as long and rewarding a life as one could hope. Coach Wooden was ready for a good death, surrounded by family and friends…

Why did the chairman of golf’s most prestigious tournament have the temerity to violate the Great Public Ritual of Celebrity Disgrace by publicly castigating Tiger Woods just as he was headed for redemption? Did Woods’ socially-proscribed moral transgressions simply provide Golf’s Old Guard a perfect opportunity to reassert who should be in and who should be out?

As the ‘gods’ of Hollywood descend in designer digs, religion scholars Gary Laderman and Anthea Butler discuss the divinity of celebrity in America.

The exaggerated indulgence in high-risk activities at the Winter Olympics offers more than a subtle glimpse into the deeper connections the Greeks perceived between sport and war. In the US we want greater speed, but fewer crashes; higher platforms, but we don’t want anyone to get hurt. We imagine ever-riskier surgical procedures, but we seem surprised and morally outraged if they fail.

Answers in Genesis proselytizes to Olympics competitors and spectators.

While Tiger Woods’ public apology offers us the chance to talk about rituals of confession and repentance, we must not forget to ask who this mythical “public” is that we hear so much about.

Notorious healing televangelist faces divorce.

The ancient Greeks celebrated athletic contests because of their danger; we moderns are far more conflicted about the matter.

The Tebow family are in the missionary business, and the ad they produced for Focus on the Family used their son’s football stardom to good effect. But what were they really selling?