While we are on the subject of morality and personal choices to participate or not in cultural practices:
Patton Dodd discusses Steve Almond’s book on choosing to stop watching football and asks if we can have a conversation about football and the morality of supporting a sport that does so much damage to its players. Can football be saved from itself?
Steve Almond’s Against Football: One Fan’s Reluctant Manifesto is an invitation to take that step. Witty, informed, engrossing, and entertaining, Against Football is the book that’s been missing from our national conversation about the sport and the way we watch it. It’s a true fan’s perspective, and it’s a persuasive call to action for anyone who loves football and hopes we can save it from itself.
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Football is the single most popular cultural activity in America. Tens of millions of our citizens worship on Sunday (and on Saturday and Friday and . . .). And as a long-time fan, I know how pleasurable the game can be. But this is the nature of temptation. To me, the popularity of the game isn’t a spiritual crisis. It’s a moral evasion. The whole point of my book is to plead with fans to confront the dark side of the game, to apply the same Christian morality to football that they do to other areas of their lives.