Jeffrey Benson - Blog 2

Outside Reading

1. I recently read an interesting article about one of the best basketball players in the world. Kevin Durant is a world class athlete who plays for the Oklahoma City Thunder in the National Basketball Association. The article centered on his commitment to daily bible readings. Not only did this excite me but it also got me thinking, what if more of our young superstars in the sports field showed as much of a commitment and effort to religion as he did. Sports has been giving a bad rap because of the immature and bad role models who stand as the face of the game. Durant on the other hand is shedding positive light on how religion interwoven with athletics can be a strong influence on kids. When asked about his new commitment at a post-game press conference, Durant has this to say about his devotion, “I'm keeping strong at it, just trying to make my walk with faith a little better,” he said. “That's making me a better person, opening my eyes to things and I'm also maturing as a person. I'm just trying to grow.” This struck a cord with me because it shows the importance religion and faith still play in the world. If a superstar with so much pressure can do something so small as read the bible daily it should make us reevaluate our own lives as well.

Read more: http://newsok.com/thunders-kevin-durant-commits-to-daily-bible-reading/article/3560862#ixzz1KV6ed96v

2. In going along with the above theme, I have constantly made it a practice of mine to try and read at least one passage from the bible in the form of a daily devotional everyday. With that being said I believe the bible is a great source for me to reconnect with my life and the purpose and meaning that it has for me. Reading a passage a day helps me to interpret God's word and how it can impact my life through my daily actions. When internalizing the words I think about what they are saying and how they can be applied to others as well as myself. My favorite passage is Psalm 23 and this psalm speaks of the comfort and security of the child of God, even in the face of death. This has helped me through my life has I have always had God to lean on. My favorite verse from this passage is "I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for you are with me" (Verse 4). God will always be there for you no matter what and the Bible along with this verse are daily reminders of this constant protection.

3. In looking at my partner's research paper,I think the movie the Boondock Saints is a very interesting look at justice. The question he phrased about whether they were chosen or they chose the path of defending the city against evil is a complex one and hard to answer but it certainly makes you critically think. It is extremely enlightening and quite a different perspective to think about violence and killing in the face of religion. These men strongly believed that they were doing the right thing as stated by their religious beliefs and the interviews in the end of the film lend mixed messages to actually whether this is true. In a sense they tried to play God and I don’t necessarily believe that this can be done. To me the movie was enlightening because religion becomes a whole new ballgame when violence is brought into the equation. It reminded me a bit of the holy wars we have going on currently because those people (suicide bombers, etc.) also feel like they are doing what God is telling them by killing people. When looking at religion and violence I feel like they are two different realms that shouldn't be compared. Religion to me is a sacred thing but when conflicting views come into play that is when violence rains supreme. I believe God should be making these choices and not individuals who feel like they are empowered to make these choices based upon their beliefs.

4. A high profile incident I read about earlier this year was that of Brandon Davies being suspended. Brandon is a good college basketball player who plays (or should I say played) for the BYU Cougars. He played for Brigham Young until he was caught breaking the strict honor code employed by the school. He was then suspended for what it turned out to be having had premarital sex with his girlfriend. The stand that the university and athletic department made was very courageous because they kicked him off the team for the season even in the midst of one of the best years in program history. This stance is one often not seen in college or professional sports for two reasons. The first is that most colleges and no professional teams have honor codes for their players to live by, and secondly because most teams only care about success and would just sweep this kind of behavior under the rug. This incident brought sports and religion together and garnered quite a lot of media attention involving the way BYU handled the situation. While there was plenty who thought the penalty was too harsh and some not enough, I agreed with the decision the university made. By standing up for what they believed in they sent a message to the students and athletes on the team as well as others in the country that as an individual you must be held accountable for your decision even if your a star on a sports team.

http://bustingbrackets.com/2011/04/24/brandon-davies-pulls-out-plans-to-get-back-into-byu/

5. Much like the separation of church and state, there should also be the separation of sports and religion to an extent. I read an article about keeping the two separate and I agree with their points to a certain extent. The article discusses the Oakland Athletic's (professional baseball team) hosting a recent Jewish Heritage Night. This caused controversy because the Muslim's then wanted a Muslim night. Sports should be kept as an arena for enjoyment and viewing not a religious ceremony. While athlete's can display thankfulness to God and pray before and after the games having nights like the one mentioned above send the wrong message. The article says it perfect, "It is not about what race, ethnicity, or religion — people identify with the teams playing. That is what brings people to games.Athletes and observers love sports for that very reason. These divisive identifiers are absent. In our argumentative society, why risk ruining something which brings people together by singling out particular religions to honor?" There is a time and a place for everything and we don't need to bring religion into sports in this type of manner. While it not only ruins sports in my opinion it also waters down and in a sense trivialize religion. We should not be going to the baseball game to promote Christianity instead we should go to Church to do that.