The Lead

The Rockies sponsored the Faith Day at Coors Field but forgot to invite all faiths -- a day of celebration at the ball park for Christians with Christian rock band, testimony by a Christian player, Christian prayers. A great day for Christian ecumenism but not really a "faith" day for anyone else:

Presbyterians, Catholics, Evangelicals, Episcopalians, Baptists, Methodists, Lutherans and more spent Sunday together at the shared altar of the national pastime — baseball. Faith Day gives churchgoing fans a greater awareness of the interdenominational fellowship that naturally and inadvertently occurs each game day at Coors Field. The Rockies' eighth annual Faith Day was a promotional event like any of the others — group discounts, block seating and special scoreboard messages, Rockies communications vice president Jay Alves said.

"All our positive energy will help the (Rockies) do their best," 32-year-old Marianne Young of Denver said before the game.

With a disappointing, injury-plagued season that has left the Rockies 19½ games out of first place, it's harder for some to have faith in the team.
...
Win or lose, the almost 44,000 people in attendance knew they would get a concert — included in the price of admission — by Grammy-winning Christian rock group Third Day.

"People of all faiths (sic) together on a Sunday (afternoon) — how cool is it to have a community of faith come together and publicly celebrate a sports team ... and good music," Anderson said. "We have a beautiful night here in Denver."

I dunno - I love baseball and love Jesus - but this makes me feel creeped out. ~ed.

Comments (7)

Count me creeped out, too. Part of it is the use of Jesus to promote a commercial enterprise. Too, there's a self-congratulatory aspect to it, like those "I heart Jesus" bumper stickers you used to see a lot (as if we were the primary agents in the God/us relationship).

Posted by Bill Dilworth | August 20, 2012 4:40 PM

I am not as concerned about a private business having a "faith day" event, as long as their employment practices are not discriminatory. A concern for me is that most professional sports franchisees benefit greatly from public subsidies in the form of publicly funded stadiums and infrastructure, so events like the one described seem to promote a specific religion in a public arena.

Posted by David O'Rourke | August 20, 2012 5:12 PM

Inasmuch as I like to think the prayers of Il Poverello lift up his namesake (and my beloved) San Francisco Giants, in reality I don't think God takes sides in athletic competitions.

And Christians really don't need another excuse for self-congratulatory chumminess in a secular setting, where they're really celebrating their cultural hegemony, not Oneness-in-Christ.

JC Fisher

Posted by tgflux | August 20, 2012 5:20 PM

Mark me down as creeped out, too. Prayer, positive energy and all that...I'm with JCF: God does not take sides in athletic contests.

The day should be renamed Christian Denominations Day. It's cumbersome, but at least it's true.

June Butler

Posted by GrandmèreMimi | August 20, 2012 6:14 PM

When leaders encourage the flock to attend a diocesan day at the nearest baseball stadium, as I know occurs in the Diocese of Texas and the Diocese of Virginia, is that somehow more broad-minded or less creepy? Or is the assumption that Episcopalians will have the good taste not to favor either team?

It's a bit of a leap from "All our positive energy will help the (Rockies) do their best" to believing that God takes sides. The emphasis is on "our positive energy," not on God's divine intervention. That's called prosperity theology.

Indeed, nobody in the article even implies that God takes sides or cares who wins the game.

Posted by Douglas LeBlanc | August 21, 2012 1:45 PM

Hope you all got to read the entire article. I agree Doug- nobody says God is on one side or another. I think I am creeped out by thinking about those who were going to the baseball game for baseball and were treated to a big dose of religion. And calling it Faith Day when really it is Christian Day. Truth in advertising.

Posted by Ann Fontaine | August 21, 2012 1:49 PM

Definitely less creepy---no matter which faith group(s) are attending.

The latter is FELLOWSHIP, not promulgating hegemony! [Even "Jewish Heritage Days"---which I know my Giants have, among many other ethnic celebration events---is about non-religious aspects of Jewish culture. It does not ask the entire stadium to pray "Next Year in Jerusalem!" ;-/]

Posted by tgflux | August 21, 2012 3:29 PM

Add your comments

(If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.)

Reminder: At Episcopal Café, we hope to establish an ethic of transparency by requiring all contributors and commentators to make submissions under their real names. For more details see our Feedback Policy.

Name:

Email Address:

URL:

Remember personal info?

Comments: (you may use HTML tags for style)

CATEGORIES

Organizations