Lately there's been a lot of cultural interest in Tim Tebow's faith - Tebow is the quarterback for the Denver Broncos and a professed evangelical Christian. He has become famous for "Tebowing" - bowing in prayer after making a touchdown or other particularly good play. I've never seen him bow in prayer after a bad play or after losing a game - but he does like to publicly give thanks when he plays well. In "Missing the Extra Point: The Real Cause of Tebow Fever," Carter Turner writes, "For a lot of people, the intrigue with Tebow is less about appropriate on-field manners, and more about theology. People are watching because for many, his games are about whether or not a God exists who intervenes in human history—even in the mundane, like football."
And these are important questions of faith - does God intervene in mundane events? Does God decide who should win or lose a football game? These questions come up in other arenas in our culture - Does God tell Pat Robertson who the next president will be, because God has already chosen that person? Or to take it even further, does God choose which children eat and which children go hungry?
Theologians have asked these kinds of questions for millenia. What is God's role in the world? What is our role? How does prayer work? I can't definitively answer all of these questions, but I will say this: I don't think God cares which football team wins or loses. But I do think that God cares that we pray, that we seek relationship with God. And I do believe that God responds to our prayers, but I'm not entirely sure what that looks like. I welcome your own thoughts and comments below.
Theologian Marjorie Suchocki writes that prayer is "an openness to God’s own creative energy, and to the good that God intends for us. It is also an offering back to God, giving God the gift of ourselves” (Marjorie Hewitt Suchocki, In God’s Presence: Theological Reflections on Prayer, page 26).
This week, I invite you to be in prayer, opening yourselves to God's goodness and creativity, and offering God the gift of yourself.
Have a great week!
Manda
Theologians have asked these kinds of questions for millenia. What is God's role in the world? What is our role? How does prayer work? I can't definitively answer all of these questions, but I will say this: I don't think God cares which football team wins or loses. But I do think that God cares that we pray, that we seek relationship with God. And I do believe that God responds to our prayers, but I'm not entirely sure what that looks like. I welcome your own thoughts and comments below.
Theologian Marjorie Suchocki writes that prayer is "an openness to God’s own creative energy, and to the good that God intends for us. It is also an offering back to God, giving God the gift of ourselves” (Marjorie Hewitt Suchocki, In God’s Presence: Theological Reflections on Prayer, page 26).
This week, I invite you to be in prayer, opening yourselves to God's goodness and creativity, and offering God the gift of yourself.
Have a great week!
Manda
Manda,
ReplyDeleteI'm delighted you've shared my article. My goal was to generate some conversation about faith in this country, and I appreciate your honest theological introspection. Are you personally surprised by the number of people (43%) who believe god intervenes in football games? What does it mean for this country to have such a stark theological division within society? It seems to me the Tebow affair reveals a serious schism over the fundamental nature of our world and our place in it. My feeling is that we need to shine a very bright light on that schism if we're to have any hope of navigating our way through our collective problems. Then again, maybe I'm over-blowing the significance of American's theological split. What do you think?
Thanks,
Carter Turner
Hi Carter, thanks for your response. Because I grew up in an evangelical tradition, I have to say I'm not surprised at the number of Americans who believe God personally intervenes in things like football games. I think that perhaps this theological divide has been around for as long as humans have conceived of God, and that the larger issue in our society is how and why certain voices are privileged over others. The media gives a lot of attention to people like Tebow, yet, as you point out, they don't (can't?) probe the deeper theological questions. But there are many progressive voices of faith, and I think the internet is providing a forum for these kinds of questions to be raised in more visible ways. It's difficult, however, to challenge societal norms, and it seems to me that a certain segment of society simply doesn't want to ask troubling theological questions, and that segment seems to have more power. But then again, I'm not sure that's fundamentally different from the challenges other societies have faced - perhaps our media culture just makes it more "in your face." Those are my rambling thoughts - what do you think?
ReplyDeleteI'm a bit more cynical when it comes to the media in the USA, as it's all about the money in America.
ReplyDeleteTim Tiebow was doing this throughout his college football career, but it wasn't noticed until he became Heisman trophy material.
Now that he is playing professionally, while Tim has devout reasons for what he does, his kneeling in prayer is no more than a marketing schtick for the media to sell football (and alternatively beer, nachos, etc.)
Ray
The media is driven by profits and they're not about to attack evangelicals knowing how quickly they can mobilize in protest. The God divide isn't new, but the current stakes are. We have to find solutions to our nation's problems soon, and if one segment of the population claims that the solution to ALL problems is to promote more faith - return prayer to school, hang the 10 commandments, only elect evangelical Christians - and an equally large segment believes the answer is more educations and better communication, the outlook isn't very good. We have very little common ground to even begin a conversation at the point.
ReplyDeleteI just did an interview with Welton Gaddy for his show State of Belief and we discussed some of this. I hope you'll check it out this weekend.
Take care.
CT
Carter, please provide us with the Who, What, When, & Where we canlisten to your interview.
ReplyDeleteThanks,
Ray
Here you go, Ray. You can listen directly from their website.
ReplyDeletehttp://stateofbelief.com/
CT