Because I am a masochist and have cheered for the Toronto Maple Leafs for a lifetime, the playoffs usually don't mean much to me. If I wanted to see the Leafs I would be better off searching a golf course than the television. But this year playoff hockey has been so exciting that I have watched a number of games featuring teams I couldn't care less about during the regular season.
Now we are down to just a few teams searching for the "holy grail" of the Stanley Cup.
Holy grail? The chalice Jesus used at the Last Supper? Yesterday a paper presented by a religious studies prof from St. Francis Xavier University in Nova Scotia at a conference at Carlton U. suggests that some fans treat sports like a religion and that there are rituals, including retiring a jersey or presenting trophies that are downright religious. To quote from the Toronto Star:
"It's not that hockey is a form of religion," Tekel said, "it's that hockey can be seen as part of the wide terrain of religious experiences."
Many people are moving away from institutionalized religion and into "marginalized religion," she said.
"What they're saying is that they want in some way to be connected with something beyond themselves, but they don't want ... organized religion."
Many people are moving away from institutionalized religion and into "marginalized religion," she said.
"What they're saying is that they want in some way to be connected with something beyond themselves, but they don't want ... organized religion."
There have been other studies suggesting that the cult of celebrity worship is a form of religious experience, and that attaining certain goals such as climbing Mount Everest might be in the same category. My thought is that even winning Lord Stanley's jug doesn't cut it as true faith.
Some of this blog's readers are men, and more inclined toward watching sports avidly. What do you think? And for others, would you like your channel-changer back?
2 comments:
I think Cathy said it well when she preached about the Bob Dylan song. (can't recall which song she used). She said something along the lines of 'many people are not conscious of what they have made their religion.' There seems to be an instinct to search out something worthy of our faith, and organized religion is a way of making a conscious decision to put our faith in God. (hope I paraphrased that well enough)
PS There are no big sports fans in our house so I guess I live in ignorant bliss of all this emotional turmoil
Some would say you are a lucky woman!
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