It seems our current sports culture really is strikingly similar to ancient Rome. Maybe we’ve evolved a bit from lopping off limbs and heads to just inflicting as much pain as possible. In my mind, that’s not much of a graduation because it seems to me that based on some of Jesus’ teachings, what going on in our hearts and minds is intimately connected to those things we physically do with our bodies. As Rob Bell would claim, and I agree, everything is spiritual. My soul and body are both, equally, part of what makes me, me.

And so, we must ask ourselves if we can truly live lives of integrity, civility and purpose while we join the chants, “Go hit somebody!” “Go clean his clock!” or “Knock him into next week.” I would venture to say that at our core, though we claim to be following a non-violent revolutionary, we have become infected by the violence of our land, justifying it as sport. I would further argue that at some point, we are going to have to take care of the infection, but who knows what that’s gonna look like…

Anyway, good stuff. Thanks for the thoughts.