Filed under: Christianity, Larry Shallenberger, Sports Ministry | Tags: ESPN Books, Larry Shallenberger, Muscular Christianity, Patriots, Social Darwinism, Tom Farrey, Tony Dungy
It’s a balmy 45-degrees in Erie, PA in January which never happens. So I sat on my front steps and read the Jan 14, 2008 ESPN MAG from cover-to-cover.
Tom Farrey wrote a brilliant article entitled “Made In America” on Bill Belichick. I happen to have little-to-no respect for Belichick after Spy-Gate. My antipathy is probably because I’m an Eagles fan and I have to wonder if Philadelphia was robbed of a Superbowl because of his cheating. But I digress.
Farrey writes with a strong historical perspective on sports and associates Belichick’s philosophy of coaching with Social Darwinism. So for Belichick, winning is morality.
On the other hand, Farrey associates Belichick’s counterpart, Coach Dungy with “Muscular Christianity.” Which in Farrey’s mind is a reaction to feminized Christianity (John Eldridge of the Wild At Heart fame makes the same arguments). If Belichick is a product of Darwin, then Farrey sees Dungy the child of Teddy Roosevelt, a “muscular Christian” who was influential in the creation of the YMCA which promoted sport as a way to develop strong Christian character.
Farrey has a book coming out in May of 2008 which is worth watching if your children’s ministry has a sports outreach entitled, Game On: The All-American Race to Make Champions of Our Children (ESPN Books). I suspect that Farrey will be tracing these two streams of sports philosophy and how they influence children’s sports programs in America.
If you are a subscriber of Children’s Ministry Magazine check out Keith’s article on using sports for outreach in the archives.
