Time to Separate Church and Sports? A New Agenda Takes Shape

Sam Cook has had enough. A sports columnist for theFort Myers [FL] News-Press, Cook recently referred to quarterback Tim Tebow of the University of Florida Gators and told his readers: "I don't know how many more 'God bless' comments I can stand from the 2007 Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback." Tebow, Cook argued, should play football and forget about his religious beliefs while he is wearing the Gator uniform.

"Somehow, we'll survive without him displaying a 'John 3:16' Bible verse under his eyes," Cook wrote. "We separate church and state. Why not church and sports?"

Sam Cook's column was prompted by a far more prominent essay published in Monday's edition of USA Today. In "And I'd Like to Thank God Almighty," Tom Krattenmaker leveled a comprehensive critique of the evangelical Christian message that, as he laments, permeates so much of the sporting world at both the college and professional levels.

The Bible verses painted in eye-black, fingers pointed heavenward, and expressions of thankfulness to God at the conclusion of a big game amount, Krattenmaker argues, to "a faith surge that has made big-time sports one of the most outwardly religious sectors of American culture."

Read the rest here.