Religion and faith can be very important to many people. It can be so important that they will put their faith above anything else - apart from family. This is even true in sports. Athletes take their belief into the playing field. For example, during the month of Ramadan, football players who are under the Muslim faith, Fast and break it during a particular football match that they are possibly participating in. It's instances like these that prove religion is absolutely important to most people and respective sportmen/women.
It can be argued that both sport and religion bond together. Having and believing in a faith can often enhance a performance. Psychologically speaking, people face challenges nearly every single day. When people face said challenges, they often turn to their faith and religion for guidance as to how to face it.
Religion in sport can play their part in any manner. This issue of religion and sport participation ultimately breaks down to the belief and values of the athlete.
Most religions have some sort of restrictions and expectations. These can include:
- Clothing restrictions
- Days of worship
- Religious festivals and holidays
- Periods of fasting
- Interactions between different sexes
As I've written above, there are those who put their faith first. As such, they are more than happy to ditch their professional career and devote their time to religious actions. An example would be Sandy Koufax. In 1965, the Los Angeles Dodgers’ star pitcher and future Hall of Famer, sat out Game 1 of that year’s World Series to observe the holiest day on the Jewish calendar, Yom Kippur. The Dodgers went on to lose the game to the Minnesota Twins, 8-2, although they ultimately won the Fall Classic in seven games. Koufax was named World Series MVP after throwing two shutouts in Games 5 and 7.
Sport, like religion, can teach us many lessons. These include values and culturally appropriate behaviour. It's important to note how sport and religion go hand-in-hand with each other: historically, many sports developed as part of religious festivals; sport is often used as a metaphor for religious striving; sporting events can evoke passionate commitments similar to that of religious festivals; religion and sport are symbolic systems that emphasise similar values and goals, including transcendence of limited personal desires in favour of non-material achievements or experiences and an emphasis on cooperation and personal sacrifice for the good of the group and both religion and sport convey their message by means of powerful symbols.
This relationship goes as far back as the Native Americans and the Ancient Greeks. The Central American ball game, played by both the Aztec and Maya before the arrival of Spanish conquistadores in the 16th century, was associated with the ritual of human sacrifice. Ball courts were commonly located in the temple complex near the racks where skulls of human sacrificial victims were displayed. Players were sacrificed as food for the gods.
The divine origins of the ball game are recounted in the Mayan creation myth Popol Vuh, which describes the defeat in a ball game of the underworld gods of sickness and death by the hero twins Hunter (Hun Hunahpu) and Jaguar Deer (Xbalanke). In The Blood of Kings (1986), Linda Schele and Mary Ellen Miller suggest that, among the Maya, the ritual ball game provided a conquering ruler with a means of validating his reign and a defeated rival with an opportunity to achieve an honourable death.
The four great games of ancient Greece - the Olympian; the Pythian; the Isthmian and the Nemean - were associated with worship of the gods. The Olympian games were held in honour of Zeus, ruler of the sky, whose worship was centered on Mount Olympus, also the site of his marriage to Hera. The Pythian games were held at Delphi, the site of Apollo's oracle and were said to have been established by the god as compensation for his killing of the great serpent, Python. The Pythian games eventually came to include both physical and intellectual competitions, including musical, literary and dramatic events. The stadium at Delphi was also the site of religious rituals.
The Isthmian games, held on the Isthmus of Corinth every second year, included poetic and musical competitions as well as athletic events. According to one legend, the Isthmian games were initiated by the Greek hero, Theseus, who slew the Minotaur. Theseus was fabled to be the son of Poseidon, and the Isthmian games were dedicated to this god. The legendary origins of the Nemean games are traced to an event in which an army led by Polynices, a son of Oedipus, slew a serpent that had killed the infant Opheltes (Snake Man). The Nemean games, held in honour of Zeus, also included poetry and music competitions in addition to athletic contests.
Greek athletes were sometimes accorded the status of gods. Theogenes excelled both in boxing and the pankration, a virtually no-holds-barred sport that combined elements of boxing and wrestling. He was the son of a priest at a temple dedicated to Herakles in Thasos, on an island in the Aegean Sea. Theogenes, whose name means "god-born," claimed that he was the son of Herakles rather than the priest. Statues of Theogenes were erected at Olympia, Delphi and Thasos. By all accounts, Theogenes was an arrogant and unpleasant man who earned the wrath of a number of enemies. During his lifetime his enemies were powerless against him but after his death, one of them sneaked out at night and flogged his statue at Thasos. The statue fell on the man and killed him.
Since the statue was guilty of the man's death, it was taken out to sea and thrown overboard. Soon afterwards, Thasos was plagued by crop failures resulting in famine. A consultation with the oracle at Delphi resulted in the order that Thasians should recall their political exiles. All living political exiles were duly recalled but the famine continued. Another consultation with the oracle at Delphi produced the reminder that Theogenes remained at large. The statue of the athlete was restored to its base, and the famine ended.
Pesonally, I do have a strong faith. I believe that having a faith will protect you from danger. However, my religious beliefs don't rule my life. It's always there in the back of my mind and the background of my life. The only time my faith comes to the forefront is Yom Kippur. It's the the time to atone for any possible sins that I have committed over the year.
As it has been seen, religion plays a big part in sport. It looks like the two can't be separated. The two are like salt and pepper as well as peanut butter and jelly. At this point of time, it's near impossible to imagine the one without the other. The whole world will fall apart. We will have to see pigs fly and see reports of hell freezing over before that catastrophic event occurs.
Reference List
SS360 Staff. 2020. Religions in Sport. [online]. Available from: https://www.sportsspeakers360.com/blog/religion-in-sports#:~:text=Sporting%20events%20often%20had%20ties,than%20merely%20a%20sporting%20event (Accessed: 28 May 2024).
Encyclodia.com. no date. Sport and Religion. [online]. Available from: https://www.encyclopedia.com/environment/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/sports-and-religion (Accessed: 28 May 2024).