By Brad Locke
December 23, 2005

(AgapePress) - Guys aren't good at bonding, but if there is one thing that can draw us together, it's sports. Especially when we share team allegiances. When I see a stranger wearing a Cardinals jersey or an Ole Miss hat, I feel a certain connection with that person. I may think that fellow there is a sniffling liberal, but I could have a real friendly conversation with him about how our Cowboys are doing this season.

But can sports go beyond mere ice-breaking and actually bring about unity? The games we play are evidence of what we have in common as humans, and perhaps that can lead us in the direction of finding more similarities and, ultimately, an understanding of our respective differences. Perhaps sports can transcend those differences by showing us that we must be united in these tenuous times (e.g., united as Americans in the war against terror).

Of course, sports can seem divisive as well. Our playing fields and stadiums have often been a stage for angry division. Go to a typical Italian League soccer match between Lazio and Livorno, and you'll see one side's fans waving Nazi flags (Lazio) and the other side's waving red Communist flags. Lazio player Paulo Di Canio was recently fined and threatened with expulsion for a repeat offense of giving fans a salute associated with Mussolini's fascist regime.

Such phenomena tell me that sports doesn't significantly unite or divide, rather that it serves as a keyhole through which we can observe, in however limited a way, where we stand in relation to one another. Sports reveals our unity and division to varying degrees. Like I said, a sporting venue is a stage for more than just an athletic exhibition. It's more and more become a stage for all sorts of messages. Heck, Hitler might have been the originator of that idea with the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games.

As far as that goes, sports seems a more unifying vessel on the personal level, bringing together an eclectic group of people. The power of division is seen more visibly among large groups. I find this rather ironic, seeing as how it takes a large, concerted effort to establish unity, but relatively little effort to divide and conquer.

What sports ultimately teaches us is that the only way to succeed is through unity. Individuals must learn to harmonize their efforts so that the team can achieve great things. Even individualized sports, like golf or tennis, require such an effort. Golf depends so much on precision that even the slightest hitch can unravel an entire swing.

The world is fond of the unity ideal, but unfortunately, it's an ideal that when manifested forces all competing worldviews to capitulate to its tyranny. Those who resist are vilified as intolerant and divisive. This is completely illogical of course, but then logic can be rather exclusionary, so it must be tossed as well.

There is only one kind of unity I am concerned with, and that is the body of Christ. It's a body that's flogged and fractured itself over the centuries, but when all the parts are working together, on the universal or local level, wonderful things can be accomplished. Sports shows us how such a crystallization of elements is essential to our functionality as Christians.

Many would call Christians divisive and even dangerous to the world's well-being, but let me illustrate that falsity of that notion. You've got two teams on the football field, fighting it out. There is physical and mental conflict being waged, division if you will. Would anyone argue that these teams should stop, line up on one side of the ball, and together forge ahead toward the end zone unabated? How ridiculous. That's not the purpose of sports, because that does not resolve the conflict.

There is a very real spiritual battle taking place, and Christians should not seek unity with the enemy. We should seek to bring those on the enemy's side to our side, which through God's ineffable grace is possible. But never should we abandon our convictions for the sake of a disingenuous peace. Not even if we like the same team.