DownshoreDrift

When Football Becomes Idolatry: Dead Trees at Auburn's Toomer's Corner

Wow.  Again, wow. It just got real in the state of Alabama. Harvey Updike, 62, from Dadeville, AL was arrested early this morning for poisoning the famous oak trees at Toomer's Corner in Auburn, AL.  These trees are very important to fans of Auburn University and they are traditionally rolled with toilet paper after big Auburn victories, especially in football. They are also a traditional gathering point for thousands upon thousands of Auburn fans and are greatly associated with Auburn tradition. Updike is a fan of the University of Alabama, Auburn's rival, and poisoned the 130 year old oak trees in anger after Auburn defeated Alabama in football in late November.  The state of Alabama has gone crazy over this affront.

Okay. I just summarized what is happening here in this state today and it makes no sense whatsoever. How foolish was Updike (to the right)?  Why would anyone do anything like this?  I'm no Auburn fan, but I understand that they have their own traditions that are important to them, just like every community/culture of people.  What kind of peson would take that tradition away because he was angry over the loss of a FOOTBALL game?  Really? It's a game.  Apparently, Updike has so completely attached his identity to how Alabama does in football, that he became unhinged. That is really sad.

To the credit of Alabama fans everywhere, I have heard an almost universal denunciation of this act. EVERYONE that I have heard from sees poisioning the trees at Toomer's Corner as being an act that takes the rivalry too far. That is a VERY good sign. I'm glad that reasonable people are speaking up.  There is now a lot of fear that some fans of Auburn will retaliate with a destructive act against a University of Alabama landmark.  Some are even professing concern that at some point, a human life could be taken over this.  I heard that concern expressed on the radio today on 740AM in Montgomery.

I love college football. Pro football, too.  I am a big LSU fan as well as a fan of Miss. St., my alma mater. I totally get the passion behind SEC football and that it is fun for a lot of people. Fanaticism is not relegated to Auburn/Alabama fans nor do most Auburn/Alabama fans or SEC fans that I know take their fanhood to anything resembling the level of Updike.  But, even though being a football fan can be fun, it can also be dangerous. While 99.9% of all fans would never think of doing anything close to what Updike did, there is still a danger that Updike's over-the-top actions can illuminate in all of us.

We can make sports too big of a deal.

I think that for the Christian, especially, we need to consider how much time, energy, passion, attention, joy, sorrow, grief, and excitement we give to our sports teams.  How much of our identity gets wrapped up in whether or not OUR team won the game?  It can quickly become an idol in our lives. I know people who have had relationships broken with other people because they are fans of rival teams. I know people who can't take their team losing and it puts them into a funk. But, the point is, in the vast (or even small) scheme of things, none of this really matters. Not really. It is fun and it is a great cultural touchpoint and activity where people can connect. I am one who believes that games are important. As a New Orleans Saints fan, I completely understand how important the Saints winning the Super Bowl was to New Orleans residents and people all over the Gulf Coast. But, if the Saints had not won the Super Bowl, my life would not be that different today.  Football is fun, but it is not an ultimate thing.

Most people get that. Harvey Updike lost touch with reality. But, idols (lesser things that we make ultimate things) cause us to start traveling down that road. It becomes an issue of degree. You might not name your children "Crimson" and "Bear" like Updike did in his devotion to Alabama, but you might care more about if your team wins emotionally than you do about other people or the things that matter to God. Many Christians would not dare miss a football game for their favorite team, but they think nothing of missing things related to the God that they claim to worship. Football idolatry is insidious because it seems innocent (and it can be). It seems like good fun (and it can be).  But, we all need to guard our hearts and make sure that lesser things do not take a preeminent place in our emotions and affections.

Maybe you would never do what Harvey Updike did. I hope not. But, maybe we all need to reel in the amount of money, time, passion, and emotion that we expend towards something that is just a game, after all. Maybe there are more ultimate things that we could give our time and attention to. I'm not saying to not watch football or root for your favorite team. I think that cultural festivities like this are important and that God created us to play games (it is a universal phenomenon that is not morally wrong). But, when it gets out of place, it becomes a problem.  It just seems like things are getting out of whack when it comes to sports. We should all remember what is most important.

The High Holy Days of the American Experience

With the emergence of Black Friday as an unofficial American holiday (holy day), I have been giving some thought to the purpose of holidays in the experience of a culture/people.  The word “holiday” comes from the concept of a “holy day,” or a day of commemoration, celebration, or observance. Every religion has its holy days and feast days that commemorate different aspects of their religion or cultural/national story. America, being a secular culture, also has no shortage of holidays to mark the year, give meaning to people’s lives, and to serve as touchstones for our shared cultural experience.  Watching the crowds of people overwhelm shopping malls and stores today causes me to the think that Black Friday (the day after Thanksgiving when retailers put on massive sales to clear out inventory and put their books “in the black”) has now been added to the pantheon of American holidays.  Some of these days are purely secular and some have religious overtones, but all exist currently because they support some aspect of the American story.

The American Dream, as introduced by James Truslow Adams in his 1931 book, The American Epic, went something like this: "life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement."  This opportunity was to be available to all irrespective of race, creed, gender, or class. In other words, America was to be an egalitarian society where anyone could achieve their goals of personal advancement, prosperity, safety, and security. This became the definition of freedom and was, in many ways, a good thing. Basically, the American Dream involves the hope that every person can advance, improve themselves, and live their best life possible in a nation that is established for that purpose. All of society is to align itself with the goal of helping the individual live out the American Ethos of the pursuit of personal happiness.  As the Dream has grown, it has slowly pushed out care for the other.  Consumerism and individualism have become manifestations of this pursuit, and education, family, community, and even God/religion are seen as valuable so long as they help us achieve the fulfillment of our dreams.

Because of this, I firmly believe that the American Experience is not secular at all. It is highly religious in the ways that all religions are. Regarding consumerism as a manifestation of the American Dream gone mad, Anthony B. Robinson says,

Is it too much to suggest that consumerism has become a kind of alternative faith, a religion of sorts? Religions are characterized by some vision of a good life, by their rituals and by a particular language. Consumerism seems to be developing all three apace.

Consumerism's vision of the good life is the gaining of goods and experiences. Consumerism also has its own rituals that form and promote consumer character. The acquisition of credit cards and debit cards by the young becomes some sort of rite of passage. The Friday after Thanksgiving is consumerism's high holy day, the No. 1 shopping day of the year. How much we shop during the Christmas season is an indicator of our national health. Television offers the liturgy of consumerism 24/7, and wonder of wonders, we consent to having it piped into our homes!

One might even do a compare- and-contrast between religion's historic and characteristic virtues and consumerism's virtues or qualities of character. For faith and religion, the crowning virtue is love, a capacity for other regard. For consumerism, self-regard would lead the list. No. 2 in a listing of religious virtues would be joy with the associated notion of contentment. Yet for consumerism, discontent is essential. One must be in a constant state of anxiety about keeping up, having the newest and the latest. Virtue No. 3 of the spiritual life is peace and harmony with others. But for consumerism, envy is to be preferred. (http://www.seattlepi.com/local/350593_faith09.html)

Vote for Me in a March Madness Blog Contest

Okay, a bit of shameless promotion here. Every year, SBCVoices.com has a March Madness tournament to vote for the top blogs amongst Southern Baptist bloggers. Out of over 500 Southern Baptist blogs, I have qualified each year and even made the Sweet 16 a couple of years ago. I am in the South Region with a couple of monster-blogs - it is like playing against Duke and Kentucky. I am a real underdog, but if you vote for me, you are voting for the little guy, and well, that will be your good deed for the day! Or, A good deed for the day. So, vote for the little guy and send me to the next round! 

Vote HERE:  http://sbcvoices.com/sbc-blog-madness-2010/#comments

Have You Decorated For Christmas Yet? When Do You Start?

So, three weeks ago when we were putting up our Christmas tree, playing a little Bing on the old turn table, warming chestnuts over the fire, and sipping Egg Nog, I couldn't help but think about just how much I love Christmas.  All the presents were bought, wrapped, and under the tree and we had already purchased the Christmas goose and cranberries.  Each night thereafter, I cuddled with my kids and read "'Twas the Night Before Christmas" to them. We pulled out the Christmas programs on DVD and watched them all. Then, about a week ago we went and had our picture taken with Santa at the mall.  Finally, the big day will come tomorrow and we will open all the presents. We'll have grandparents over and we'll have a big feast. Everyone will wear their Christmas sweaters and we'll really "Deck the Halls," so to speak! 

We've decided to follow the lead of the retailers and start doing Christmas early this year to avoid the rush.  Next year, I think that we'll move it up to October. You can't get started too early, now, can you?

Seriously, guys, this is getting ridiculous. Everywhere I go, I am already seeing Christmas stuff. People are starting to shut down and get ready for the holidays. Folks all over our city are already putting up Christmas trees and are decorating in their yards. Plastic snowmen are beginning to dot the landscape. The insanity of it all!  The whole month of December is wiped out with Christmas celebrations and it is next to impossible to schedule anything that is unrelated. I was at a local Baptist association meeting last week and we were talking about some initiatives for 2009. We wanted to get some pastors together and everyone agreed that if we wanted to do it before January, we had to have the meeting before Thanksgiving. That is how it is with my church and just about everyone else that I know as well.  I stopped the meeting and asked everyone if things were like this when they were younger. Basically, people are out of pocket for about 6 weeks. Everyone agreed that it was not this way years ago. Christmas celebrations did not start up until about two-three weeks before Christmas. That's how I remember it as well.

There are some reasons for this, I think.  Some of them good, some bad. Here we go:

1. As people live further and further away from their families, Christmas is the one time of the year when everyone gets together, so it has become a REALLY big deal.  "I'll Be Home For Christmas" puts more of a lump in our throat now than it ever has. Christmas' little brother, Thanksgiving, is an alternate Christmas for many families that are split because of divorce or it is a time to meet with one side of the family or the other. Our family rotates Christmas and Thanksgiving between my wife's side and mine. But, gifts are exchanged over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend every year now.
2. The commercialization of Christmas is completely out of hand. Our consumeristic economy depends on us spending truckloads of money on stuff that few of us really need or want. I recently saw that Americans spend $500 billion a year on Christmas!  Alternatively, $10 billion would provide clean drinking water for every person on the planet and would help prevent the deaths of 1.6 million children a year that occur from lack of access to clean drinking water. Shocking, isn't it?
3. I think that a lot of people are looking for the "perfect Christmas."  There is this ideal that is promoted that has you gathered with your family and friends experiencing warmth, peace, and comfort. There are so many different ways to experience Christmas now that you can't possibly do all of them, so, you have to spread it out for six weeks or so to get it all in. It seems that we aren't getting enough of what we are supposed to be getting during the year, so we try to get it all in at Christmas. Or, we are so empty as a culture that we can't wait to start celebrating something that makes us feel loved. 

Is any of what is driving the expansion of Christmas into November even remotely related to the birth of Jesus Christ?  Remember Him? He is the "Reason for the Season," isn't He? It seems that Jesus isn't talked about much until right around the actual day of Christmas.  We kind of wear ourselves out regarding Christmas and then remember that this is supposed to be about Jesus (or for most, family) after all. I know that I just explained the plot line of just about every Christmas movie ever made, but there is some truth to it.

So, this year I have decided to NOT celebrate Christmas at all until 18 days before.  Why 18 days? Because that is when our church Christmas Party is. On December 7th, we will gather with Family Life Bible Fellowship and have our annual Christmas Extravaganza. If I can't fit it in in 18 days, then it is too much, right? 

Everything else, I'm calling Festivus after the Seinfeld episode where George's father came up with a different holiday besides Christmas. I don't think that we'll do the "airing of grievances," the "festivus pole," or the "feats of strength," but I am going to survive this year by recognizing that everything that is not fairly close to the holiday or is not related to Jesus in some way is just Festivus. 

In case you're wondering about Festivus, here's a clip:

So, no Christmas for me until the time is right. I think that I'm actually going to enjoy Thanksgiving!

Poll: When do you decorate for Christmas?