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.
