THE IDOL of SPORTS

THE IDOL of SPORTS
-extract by Chuck Baldwin.

Millions and millions of Americans (especially males) are literally
intoxicated with sports. Sports are no longer a great American
pastime; they are now a great American obsession.

Mind you, this writer has been a sports fan all of his life. I began
playing organized basketball in the fifth grade; I was on the high
school wrestling team; I played football in high school and college...

I am not talking about sports in general; I am talking about the way
many American men have allowed sports to control and dominate
their lives. With many, sports are not just a hobby; they are a
religion. I cannot count the number of conversations between men
that I overhear in restaurants, airplanes, boardrooms, and, yes,
even church houses, in which every man in the circle is literally
consumed with all sorts of sports facts, information, and opinions.
In many such discussions, these men will talk about nothing else.
To these men, there is absolutely nothing in the world more
important than the latest sports score, announcement, or trade.
NOTHING!

And there is also a very real psychological pitfall associated with
a man's intoxication with sports. I submit that an obsession with
sports gives men a false sense of masculinity and actually serves
to steal true manhood from them.

For example, it used to be when men stripped their shirts off and
painted their faces, they were heading to the battlefield to kill the
tyrant's troops. Now they are headed off to the sports coliseum
to watch a football game. A man's ego and machismo was once
used to protect his family and freedom; now it's used to tout batting
averages and box scores...