Customer Reviews

Onward Christian Athletes: Turning Ballparks into Pulpits and Players into Preachers

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Insightful journalist and commentator Tom Krattenmaker has given us a steady diet of compelling, nuanced snapshots of the changing role of conservative Christianity in America through his USA Today columns for years. Now, with his lens tightened to the professional sports arena, he gives us a detailed portrait of how conservative Christianity has taken on (and taken over) professional sports, transposing athletic field to mission field.

One of the strengths of this book is Krattenmaker's careful construction of the recent history, beginning in the 1990s of well-organized, well-financed sports ministries that encouraged (and sometimes expected) athletes to use their pre- and post-game cameos as opportunities for religious testimonies and evangelistic appeals. One contribution of Krattenmaker's analysis is that it shows that the seemingly spontaneous religious overtures by individual players and prayer huddles after games are supported and encouraged by a conservative Christian institutions, deploying a cadre of chaplains in ballparks on each Sunday of the season, that often remain out of view of the cameras.

One of the original contributions of this book is the integrated way Krattenmaker wields investigative journalism, fair-handed social critique funded by empathy for a world that is not his own, and an appeal to democratic values that undergird a free, pluralistic society. Krattenmaker is not out to undo religion, or even conservative Christianity, in sports. Rather the book aims to bring it out into the light and make it more accountable and representative of the wider religious public. Krattenmaker convincingly argues that because professional sports are not only among our most popular public rituals but also often the recipient of public financing, a reform resulting in more inclusivity is the only way to bring "fair play" to the intersection of sports and religion.

Dr. Robert P. Jones
President, Public Religion Research ([...])
Author, Progressive & Religious: How Christian, Jewish, Muslim, and Buddhist Leaders are Moving Beyond the Culture Wars and Transforming American Public Life

As an observer and commentator on the precarious intersection of faith and culture in America, Tom Krattenmaker has established a reputation as fair, thoughtful and controversial. Controversial in this sense: Tom is convinced it is better to talk about things, particularly the things we don't agree on, than it is to divide into teams and shout each other down. From his excellent USA Today columns, to his pivotal interview in the award winning documentary Lord, Save Us From Your Followers to his insightful new book Onward Christian Athletes, Tom helps us connect the dots and provides much needed perspective. Tom's exploration into the corner of the public square known as professional sports is expertly researched and well written. By turns the book is challenging and generous - depending on where you stand personally and it's this dynamic that gives Onward Christian Athletes it's staying power. If you don't understand why Jesus let Kurt Warner throw a game changing pick-six to James Harrison just before halftime in the Super Bowl then you need to read Onward Christian Athletes. Okay, in all fairness, the author doesn't know why either, but we can decide God loves the Steelers best or we can discuss it civilly. You make the call.

- D.M.

I was impressed -- but not surprised -- when I heard that Tom Krattenmaker was one of four finalists for the Oregon Book Award in General Nonfiction. This is a strong and balanced book, a sober-minded look at a topic -- the use and abuse of religion by athletes -- that doesn't get much middle-of-the-road coverage. Here's someone who's not afraid to discuss the importance of religion, but also willing to criticize, where it's necessary. This is as close to an unbiased book about religious belief as can be written, and it strikes me as a very honest book.

The book takes a fascinating look at how some athletes wear their lifestyle choice on their sleeve. It seems truly odd that they flamboyently demand acknowledgment of their behavioral choices. With the recent interviews of Tiger Woods saying he always puts family first, it makes you wonder. How can an athlete truly believe that the Lord chose him to win like some Vegas oddsmaker?

I found this book while perusing the shelves at my local Borders Bookstore. I spent the next hour reading snippets of it and getting more horrified with every page that I turned.

Here was an author that was, in effect, advocating the end of the coverage to professional athletes of at least two (or possibly more)of their basic constitutional rights: freedom of religion and freedom of speech. I actually started wondering what the author would advocate to punish the athletes who were so overtly religious. Would he simply push for warning them or would further infractions lead their removal from the team and possible blacklisting. The fact that some publisher actually paid to have such a book published angered me because it is yet another example of the the increasingly virulent attacks on Christianity that are becoming more and more common. I cannot imagine such a book being published by a mainstream publisher fifty or a hundred years ago simply because publishers back then were much more sensitive to (and afraid of) the sensibilities of the Christian majority.

When I got home from Borders I immediately got on a computer to discover more about this author. His website quotes him as saying "As a progressive, I have also found pro sports disturbingly complicit in the promotion of militaristic patriotism and religious nationalism."

Really! I would have though that the main reason that for the "militaristic patriotism" that exists today was more the result of the constant propagation of it the the mainstream media (MSM)whose leaders definitely aren't evangelicals. The MSM has far more influence over common Americans than any evangelical like a John Hagee or talk show host like a Rush Limbaugh. It was the MSM as a whole (and not just Fox News) that encouraged both Bush Sr.'s and Bush Jr.'s separate attacks on Iraq. It wasn't the evangelicals but rather the MSM that covertly encouraged Bill Clinton to institute the genocidal sanctions on the people of Iraq in the 1990's. And it wasn't the evangelicals but the MSM that covered up the effects of these sanctions. It is also not the evangelicals but rather the MSM who are presently the greatest force in covering up the continuing atrocities in Gaza and Afghanistan.

What little influence the evangelicals have over foreign policy is entirely the result of their continuing support for Israel. If their support for Israel were to wane, they would soon become nonpersons in the eyes of the MSM. John Hagee's media empire would simply disappear like a wisp of smoke, a fact he knows full well.