Culture of Winning In Sports Means Taking Moral Shortcuts: Christians Need to Remind World That Winning Isn't Everything

Great article today in Christianity Today about how in the culture in sports, the idea of winning has trumped everything, including fair play and morality.

Taking steroids will kill you. It makes your brain slow down, damages your heart muscles, turns your testicles into chick peas, etc, etc, etc. But pro athletes continue to use them. Why? Because it allows them to continue to compete. And the attraction of being a sports star is so strong, the money so lucrative, the perks to apparent, that people are willing to give up years of their lives, or trade their character, for the limelight.

And in pro and college sports, the pressure to win at all costs causes people to...well, win at all costs. But this kind of action is really spiritually short-sighted. It assumes that what's important is results, instead of say, character.

The whole thing reminds me of Esau. Esau was the first born, and because of that, he had special privileges. He got a double portion of the family inheritance, which back then, was like a symbol of your family's legacy and history. It's like a destiny. But one day, Esau comes back from a hunt weary and starving and in a moment of desperation, sells his birthright to his brother for a bowl of stew. "Gimme a bowl of the red stuff" are his words, according to the ancient Hebrew. Esau trades his birthright - all that he could be, and all that he was - for a momentary fix.

Good thing we're nothing like that guy.