{"id":6065,"date":"2014-10-07T11:14:02","date_gmt":"2014-10-07T17:14:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/?p=6065"},"modified":"2014-10-07T11:14:02","modified_gmt":"2014-10-07T17:14:02","slug":"vice-sports-on-football-christianity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/2014\/10\/vice-sports-on-football-christianity\/","title":{"rendered":"Vice Sports on Football & Christianity"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"football\"<\/a>A Vice Sports<\/i>\u00a0piece by writer Patrick Sauer entitled, \u201cWhat Would Jesus Think About Football?,\u201d<\/a> just posed the question to a number of Catholic and evangelical ministry workers. Here\u2019s how Sauer set up the piece:<\/p>\n

One in three retired NFL players will suffer long-term cognitive damage.<\/a>\u00a0The question of football\u2019s morality\u2014or immorality\u2014becomes even more fraught when posed to people who live a life in which the sport and Christianity are intertwined. With that in mind, I asked several football chaplains and other Christians affiliated with the sport a complicated question: What would Jesus think about football?\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Read the whole thing.<\/a><\/p>\n

I was interviewed for Sauer\u2019s article and had a great time talking with him; I must say, I never thought I would be interviewed for a Vice\u00a0<\/i>story\u2013CBMW and Southern Seminary aren\u2019t exactly common fodder for\u00a0Vice<\/em>. Sauer has\u00a0put together an impressive long-form piece of\u00a0reportage\u00a0<\/em>on a highly controversial issue. Before he reached out, I was not seeking to talk with a reporter about football and its violent nature; much like the\u00a0Christianity Today\u00a0<\/em>piece<\/a> I wrote a year ago, I was asked to speak on the matter. Generally speaking, this isn\u2019t an issue that I\u2019ve sought out in recent years, though it is one that keeps\u00a0seeking me out.<\/p>\n

As I said to Sauer, and as I\u2019ve said elsewhere, I am not anti-football. I personally enjoy football. I love that Christians are using the sport to teach character and share the gospel. I think that\u2019s terrific. I am not anti-football, then, but I am pro-imago dei.<\/em>\u00a0I want to do what very little I can to help promote sound ethical thinking about all of life, including America\u2019s game.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Vice Sports\u00a0piece by writer Patrick Sauer entitled, \u201cWhat Would Jesus Think About Football?,\u201d just posed the question to a number of Catholic and evangelical ministry workers. Here\u2019s how Sauer set up the piece: One in three retired NFL players will suffer long-term cognitive damage.\u00a0The question of football\u2019s morality\u2014or immorality\u2014becomes even more fraught when posed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1217,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[141],"tags":[845,13146,1296,3712],"class_list":["post-6065","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-football","tag-christianity","tag-football","tag-football-violence","tag-patrick-sauer"],"yoast_head":"\nVice Sports on Football & Christianity<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A Vice Sports\u00a0piece by writer Patrick Sauer entitled, "What Would Jesus Think About Football?," just posed the question to a number of Catholic and\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/2014\/10\/vice-sports-on-football-christianity\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Vice Sports on Football & Christianity\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A Vice Sports\u00a0piece by writer Patrick Sauer entitled, "What Would Jesus Think About Football?," just posed the question to a number of Catholic and\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/2014\/10\/vice-sports-on-football-christianity\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Thought Life\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-10-07T17:14:02+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/wp.production.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/files\/2014\/10\/football-300x200.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Owen Strachan\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Owen Strachan\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/2014\/10\/vice-sports-on-football-christianity\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/2014\/10\/vice-sports-on-football-christianity\/\",\"name\":\"Vice Sports on Football & Christianity\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2014-10-07T17:14:02+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-10-07T17:14:02+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/#\/schema\/person\/75c661f536302cda0daa8b7615fd8e53\"},\"description\":\"A Vice Sports\u00a0piece by writer Patrick Sauer entitled, \\\"What Would Jesus Think About Football?,\\\" just posed the question to a number of Catholic and\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/2014\/10\/vice-sports-on-football-christianity\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/2014\/10\/vice-sports-on-football-christianity\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/2014\/10\/vice-sports-on-football-christianity\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Vice Sports on Football & Christianity\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/\",\"name\":\"Thought Life\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/#\/schema\/person\/75c661f536302cda0daa8b7615fd8e53\",\"name\":\"Owen Strachan\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2dbab262f37be4cfe0660ee979173e8f?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2dbab262f37be4cfe0660ee979173e8f?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Owen Strachan\"},\"sameAs\":[\"brandygrenier\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/author\/ostrachan\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Vice Sports on Football & Christianity","description":"A Vice Sports\u00a0piece by writer Patrick Sauer entitled, \"What Would Jesus Think About Football?,\" just posed the question to a number of Catholic and","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/2014\/10\/vice-sports-on-football-christianity\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Vice Sports on Football & Christianity","og_description":"A Vice Sports\u00a0piece by writer Patrick Sauer entitled, \"What Would Jesus Think About Football?,\" just posed the question to a number of Catholic and","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/2014\/10\/vice-sports-on-football-christianity\/","og_site_name":"Thought Life","article_published_time":"2014-10-07T17:14:02+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/wp.production.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/files\/2014\/10\/football-300x200.jpg"}],"author":"Owen Strachan","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Owen Strachan","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/2014\/10\/vice-sports-on-football-christianity\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/2014\/10\/vice-sports-on-football-christianity\/","name":"Vice Sports on Football & Christianity","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/#website"},"datePublished":"2014-10-07T17:14:02+00:00","dateModified":"2014-10-07T17:14:02+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/#\/schema\/person\/75c661f536302cda0daa8b7615fd8e53"},"description":"A Vice Sports\u00a0piece by writer Patrick Sauer entitled, \"What Would Jesus Think About Football?,\" just posed the question to a number of Catholic and","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/2014\/10\/vice-sports-on-football-christianity\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/2014\/10\/vice-sports-on-football-christianity\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/2014\/10\/vice-sports-on-football-christianity\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Vice Sports on Football & Christianity"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/","name":"Thought Life","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/#\/schema\/person\/75c661f536302cda0daa8b7615fd8e53","name":"Owen Strachan","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2dbab262f37be4cfe0660ee979173e8f?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2dbab262f37be4cfe0660ee979173e8f?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Owen Strachan"},"sameAs":["brandygrenier"],"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/author\/ostrachan\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6065","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1217"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6065"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6065\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6065"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6065"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6065"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}