Sports and religion inherently also share certain characteristics. Firstly, both sports and religion are able to elicit reactions that are similar from their fans and followers respectively. These reactions stem from the passion these fans and followers have for their sports team or religion. Passion, without a doubt, spans beyond mere happiness and sadness; it is an all-consuming zeal that overcomes the fan or follower. On one hand, this passion results in fans treating their sports team or hero like God himself, because on top of the adulation, sacrifices are made and prayers are done wherein basically, a fan prays for his team to emerge victorious. Lever writes how the supporters of the Nacional tem in Amazonas offered a chicken, twelve black candles, a cross and a piece of paper with all the players’ names on it among other things at the team’s residence (102). Similarly, Catholic fans “believe prayers and sacrifices can influence the outcome of a soccer game” (102).
On the other hand, the very passion that pushes a fan to go for every match, rejoice over every victory and buy every memorabilia may be the same passion that pushes a fan to get into fights with the opposing team fans. Football hooliganism is a serious issue in countries like England where the riots often get out of hand, resulting in police intervention. Passion for one’s sport can push one to even commit suicide and Lever writes of a Flamengo fan who jumped off a building when his team lost in the 1969 state championship (102). Can one not see the similar phenomenon taking place in the religious arena? A follower’s passion translates positively when it encapsulates activities like attending religious classes or prayer sessions and fulfilling other religious duties but translates negatively, meaning that it brings harm upon himself or others, when a follower turns to violence to defend his religion’s name or commits suicide. Suicide bombers, who die in the name of their religion, believing that they are martyrs for their religion, are not a far cry from the abovementioned suicidal fans in that, both parties are willing to give up their lives for the passion they feel towards their sports team or religion. Hence, one can see passion and ritualistic behavior apparent in both religion and sports.
Hereafter, this paper will investigate the other meaning of “mix”, with particular reference to Christianity and Islam, and show how religion and sports combine to affect each other. Insofar, this paper has considered the team-fan and religion-follower relationships. Henceforth however, it will slightly shift from this perspective to consider players themselves, faith orientated sports organizations and media in this second part of its argument.
Personal religiosity becomes public religiosity when players bring their religious beliefs and practices to the field or court. Even in the simple gesture a player makes of looking heavenwards after scoring a goal has religious overtones. So when we consider legendary sportsman Eric Liddell, faith oriented sports organizations and teams like the Celtic Football Club and Rangers Football Club, we can see that sports invoke religion, in this case particularly Christianity.
Eric Liddell is legendary for his accomplishments on the track and off it. He was a gifted runner but beyond his athletic prowess, Liddell is well- known for his refusal to run in 100 metre event in the 1924 Paris Olympic Games because the final was to take place on a Sunday. Grant Jarvie writes how Liddell’s “faith was deep-rooted within a Scottish evangelical fundamentalist tradition” and it is this tradition, which observes the Sabbath piously, truly believing that it is a day meant only for rest and worship, that lies behind Liddell’s decision (254). In fact, Liddell’s life and his evangelical beliefs were immortalized in the 1981 film Chariots of Fire. So Liddell combined his religious worldview with his professional career such that the former influenced his decision-making in the latter.
While Liddell was only influenced by religion in sports matters, certain groups of individuals actively tapped into sports as a way of vocalizing or spreading their religious views to society and, formed faith oriented sports organizations. Jarvie writes how
“Many fundamentalist Christian groups have embraced sport as mechanism for reducing their separation and exclusion from society from society while increasing their legitimacy and power within it” (254).
A few such organizations would be Athletes for Action(AIA), The Promise Keepers and The Fellowship of Christian Athletes(FCA). AIA declares in its website that the organization aims to “utilize the platform (of sports) given to the athletes to reach the world for Jesus Christ” so as “to bring Jesus Christ and His message of victory into the hearts, homes, and communities of millions around the world”. The Promise Keepers “reject secularism, use sporting symbols to reach a broader audience and promote an overt relationship between religion and sport” (Jarvie, 258). FCA’s vision is “To see the world impacted for Jesus Christ through the influence of athletes and coaches”. So not only do these groups of people combine sports and religion, they use sports as if it were a tool, a medium to disseminate their religious ideas. Considering the above then, this paper reiterates its position that is unable to agree with the statement posed that religion and sports do not mix.
In some sports teams, religion is so infused that it is hard to say when religion ends and when the team starts. The Celtic Football Club and Rangers Football Club, the former which has always been perceived as the Catholic club and the latter always the Protestant club, has experienced religious rivalry historically and to this very day. BBC News in an online article aptly called this “a rivalry tied up in religion”, perpetuated by both players in the teams and the supporters of each club. The teams are so deeply rooted in their religious beliefs that during a match, players in the team readily embrace their religious identity before any other identity, for example national identity, and Lever comments accordingly how a Celtic fan “may feel his Catholicism most strongly” when he faces a Rangers fan (5). Both clubs are taking measures to curb this situation though interestingly enough, Celtic captain Neil Lennon told BBC News that he believes that this “bigotry thing is not going to go away, it'll be here a long time”. Again, this paper wishes to draw attention to how sports and religion do come together and to a point that they seem as one single unit.
So far we have seen how Christianity and sports come together but henceforth we will see how Islam and sports come together. There is overlapping between these two areas, like faith oriented sports organizations, but what this paper wishes to focus on about Islam and sports coming together is how the relationship is more one-way, such that one can clearly see how Islam affects sports but the not so much the other way around.
The issue of modesty is deeply ingrained in Islamic law, Sharia, and men and women alike are expected to cover up certain parts of their body, otherwise known as awrah. However, the rules for women are more stringent in that the definition of awrah changes with different contexts. While it is sufficient for men to cover up the area between the navel and knee at most times, women may have to cover up everything except their hands and their face, depending upon the company they are in. As such, sports like soccer and basketball appear out of reach to Muslim women because of their need to wear hijab, or headscarves, and cover up totally since spectators would consist of unrelated men. It is precisely this effect Islam has on sports that Gertrud Pfister explores in her article and in which, she is quick to point out that Islam itself has not ruled out sports on the whole or sports for the females; on the contrary, Islam encourages participation in sports (2-4). Walseth and Fasting’s study on Islam’s view on physical activity supports this in that they both concluded that Islam had
“a positive attitude towards participation in physical activity and physical activity could be interpreted as a way of pleasing of God”. (qtd in Jarvie, 260)
However, Pfister agrees that when it comes to Muslim women and sports, the issue has different reactions in different countries. In Iran, for example, “some flexibility has surfaced with the emergence of a women’s sports movement” (Pfister, 3). The formation of Muslim Women’s Games also stands testament to combining both Islamic beliefs and sports, without the female follower having to compromise on either aspect.
Religion, this paper contends, is a pervasive sentiment and it does color a follower’s worldview such that a follower brings his religiosity into different aspects of his life and sports are just one of the many areas that religion pervades. Beyond the fact that religion and sports inherently relate to each other such that connections can be drawn between them, as shown in the first half of this paper, religion and sports become so intertwined that sports are used as tools to spread religious views, or they come to represent one single unit to its followers and fans. So in conclusion, this paper stands by its contention that religion and sports do mix.
(2023 words, inclusive of in-text citations)
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Jarvie, Grant. Sport, Culture and Society: An Introduction. New York. Routledge. 2006.
Lever, Janet. Soccer Madness: Brazil’s Passion for the World’s Most Popular Sport. 1983. Preface. Illinois. Waveland Press. 1995.
Olson, Carl, ed. Theory and Method in the Study of Religion. Canada. Thomson Wadsworth. 2003.
Pfister, Gertrud. “Islam and Women’s Sports”. SangSaeng Vol 16. 2006.21 Sept 2007.
<>
“A rivalry tied up in religion”. BBC News. 26th Aug 2006. 21 Sept 2007.
<>
“Bigotry rife in Scotland- Lennon”. BBC News. 9th April 2006. 21 Sept 2007.
<>
Athletes in Action. About Atheletes in Action. 21 Sept 2007.
< >
Fellowship of Christian Athletes. About FCA. 21 Sept 2007.
< >
