Yes, I’m Haunted By A Giant(s) Religion Ghost
(ANALYSIS) I have, over the past week or so, spent lots of time trying to avoid commenting on the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 cataclysm, which — depending on the news source you consult — was or was not an act of “terrorism.”
Of course, I have I read lots of 9/11 news and commentary, producing both emotion and frustration. Truth is, I don’t know what I want to say that would be specific and constructive. I can’t get my act together. Patience, please.
So, I think I will do what many of us do when we’re trying to avoid dealing with something important that’s having an impact on our lives. We do something else that’s easy for us to do — like watch sports.
Yes, I’m a sports fan. I have discovered, over the years, that many of my readers do not care much about sports, at least not enough to pay attention to news coverage of sports. This is interesting, since sports is a powerful force in the lives of ordinary folks in America and around the world. On the negative side of things, look at the explosive growth in online sports gambling. It’s everywhere.
Sports is more than entertainment. In many ZIP codes it’s the closest thing that exists to being a uniting force in local “culture.” While living in Colorado, I told my editors that if the Broncos were not a “religion” in Denver, or a local “cult” in the best sense of that word, then Denver didn’t have a religion.
In terms of the National Football League, I remain a Broncos fan — but living in greater Baltimore for 12 years connected me, big time, to the Ravens.
You can read the rest of this post on Substack.
Terry Mattingly is Senior Fellow on Communications and Culture at Saint Constantine College in Houston. He lives in Elizabethton, Tennessee, and writes Rational Sheep, a Substack newsletter on faith and mass media.