Morality is a product of living with other beings and not necessarily the exclusive derivative of religions. However, conservative religious folks find comfort in conforming to their teachings and that is the right thing to do for them. Each person has a right to the pursuit of his or her happiness without messing up with others.  Mike Ghouse

TEXAS FAITH: Has college football become too violent for the faithful?

By Bill McKenzie / Editorial Columnist
wmckenzie@dallasnews.com
4:14 pm on September 17, 2013 | Permalink

Let’s take a break from the weariness of finding the right strategy for the Mideast and deal with sports. Namely, football. I confess that I have — again — grown to love college football. I enjoy going to TCU games with my 10-year old son, who loves to run the field before the game and root loudly for the Horned Frogs. In fact, it is hard getting him out of a TCU T-shirt these days. I enjoy the game because it is fast, exciting and strategic. It also is just fun watching the bands and streamers and frivolity. And, being a fan, I like to see my team(s) do well. (As a graduate of theUniversity of Texas who grew up attending TCU games, I spread my cheering around each weekend!) But as I watch these games, and see players carted off the field, I often inwardly wince. Am I participating in some kind of modern lions-and-Christians blood-lust? And I am doing this at someone else’s expense? The NFL just settled with retired football players to the tune of $750 million over the concussions some of them received. For some players, they have been life-altering concussions. Related to all this, I felt sick when I picked up our paper and read that CBS Sports was putting a “Johnny Cam” to cover every move of A&M’s Johnny Manziel in his game against Alabama. The guy is a showboat, but he is still only a kid. So, are we reaching the point where rooting for college football teams is too much? In this Christianity Today essay, Owen Strachan raises the penetrating question: Should Christian fans step away from such a physically devastating, violent sport? I would broaden his question to ask this question: Should people of faith who love college football step away from such a physically devastating, violent sport? MIKE GHOUSE, President, Foundation for Pluralism and speaker on interfaith affairs The Abrahamic faiths in particular are run by an amazing group of people. They slap religion onto everything we do. The people of other faiths are no different. They also poke into every aspect of life. The only group of people who seem to be free are Atheists, Earth-based and perhaps Native American traditions. At one time, Buddhism was a free-style way of life built on pleasure principles, but not any more. My fellow Muslims are bent on declaring what is acceptable (Halal) and what is not (Haram) in their daily life. And the Muslim clergy have made a business out of making those decisions. The Jewish clergy are no different in nit-picking on the details either. It appears that conservative religious folks are conditioned to be binary, to see life in black and white. But, heavens, life is full of colors! For a long time, I thought Christianity was free from such routine pronouncements, but the conservative ones constrict the limits. The statements made by Rick Santorum, Michelle Bachman, Robert Jeffress and their likes were beyond common sense during the primaries last year. Should people of faith who love college football step away from such a physically devastating, violent sport? If the violence is intentional or was commercialized to increase the revenues, I would say, stay away from it, we should not be drawing pleasure from someone getting beat up, it almost equates with the Gladiators. Enjoyment at the cost of someone’s pain is not kosher whether we are religious or not, as it cannot be universalized. But that is not the case. There are penalties built in for intentionally hurting the other player, so what happens is usually accidental. There is a positive side to it as well, in how players refrain from reflexively from hurting the other. No matter what the religions says there will always be people across the family of faiths who will cherish gore and violence. Morality is a product of living with other beings and not necessarily the exclusive derivative of religions. However, conservative religious folks find comfort in conforming to their teachings and that is the right thing to do for them. Each person has a right to the pursuit of his or her happiness without messing up with others. To read other contributors go to Dallas Morning News at:  http://dallasmorningviewsblog.dallasnews.com/2013/09/texas-faith-has-college-football-become-too-violent-for-the-faithful.html/ Mike Ghouse is a speaker, thinker and a writer on pluralism, politics, peace, Islam, Israel, India, interfaith, and cohesion at work place. He is committed to building a Cohesive America and offers pluralistic solutions on issues of the day at www.TheGhousediary.com. He believes in Standing up for others and has done that throughout his life as an activist. Mike has a presence on national and local TV, Radio and Print Media. He is a frequent guest on Sean Hannity show on Fox TV, and a commentator on national radio networks, he contributes weekly to the Texas Faith Column at Dallas Morning News; fortnightly at Huffington post; and several other periodicals across the world. His personal site www.MikeGhouse.net indexes all his work through many links.