Onward Christian Athletes

Book Reviewed
by Dwight A. Moody,

Onward Christian Athletes
By Tom Krattenmaker


Rowman & Littlefield, 2009. For nearly a decade I served as pastor  in the center of Pittsburgh Steelers  territory and counted as parishioners  and friends more than one professional football player (and family); that,  plus my friendship with USA Today columnist Tom Krattenmaker made  this book one of interest to me.

This book is worthy of interest for many people as it addresses  the remarkable success of evangelical sports organizations in the world  of professional baseball, football, and  basketball. Krattenmaker chronicles the formation and expansion of  Athletes in Action and Fellowship of  Christian Athletes and describes carefully their evangelistic orientation as  well as their political leanings. Story  after story narrates the role of team  chaplains, their relationships to owners, and players, and their success in  shaping players, especially but also  owners and coaches into public witnesses for Jesus Christ. The resultant  emphasis on personal morality has  brought a welcome balance to the  image for professional athletes as wild  and reckless; this helps explain the  support of owners, coaches, and wives!

Krattenmaker, associate vice president for public affairs and communications at Lewis and Clark College in  Portland, Oregon, is conversant with  evangelical culture in America, having  been shaped by a series of ministries  as a youth and young adult. He is,  quite frankly, irritated at the spreading practice of athletes turning postgame radio and television interviews  into witnessing sessions; neither does  he like the religious gestures that  accompany touchdowns: kneeling to  pray, pointing toward the heavens, etc.  Sport is a place to put aside things that  divide (religion) and focus on less serious things.

Krattenmaker recounts several stories that demonstrate how the narrow  theological (often fundamentalist) and  political (always republican) orientation of the chaplains and their players fail to do justice to the diversity of  players, owners, and fans. I welcome  his call for professionalizing the position of sport chaplain in ways similar  to the chaplaincy in medical, industrial, and military networks. I am not  surprised that this book has received  national attention. It deserves to be  read and shared. 

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