Should the NFL Consider All Religious Gesters Banned?

[King Colt]

I am not saying one way or another but praying during a sporting event because you hit the ball or caught the ball or kicked the ball ias pretty petty to me. It cheapens religion as it would if you prayed when you got your work done in the alloted time at your job. There is a time and place for everything and religion and politics should have their spot as well. Celebrating today is as much a part of the fottball game and other games as is taking a drink of water. Taking helmets off after scoring was banned to stop the players from saying "everyone look at me" after they got in the endzone and all of the rediculous celebrations now are equally annoying. Religion should be more sacred than anything that can come out of a sporting event. This not an issue of freedom iof religious expression rather one of reducing God to merely being a fan in the stadium. The prayer thing needs to be reviewed.

[Synthetic]

Never going to happen because it infringes on their religious rights.

 

 

Mind you not, there are many, many players in the NFL that thank God and are Christian and Islamic, and this was not even a conversation until the Tebow train took off in 2011. Don't blame the players, blame the sports media for turning him into such a show and glorifying him as a saint just cause he won some games.

 

Sporting events are not religious in the least concern. Just cause a few players thank God or whatever, so what? I don't see where it's a problem unless the league is marketing religion directly to you, and they are not doing that in the least bit.

[Valpo2004]

I'm pretty religious and I'm not the least bit offended.  I pray at work and at home.  

 

Everyone has different reasons to thank God.  

 

Honestly religion is cheapened by so many other things these days that I just can't even consider being offended by that.

 

You know what upsets me more?

 

Everytime a politician cheats on his spouse and then comes back and says that God forgave them and then spends the whole campaign preaching about God and family.  God may have forgiven you, but that doesn't mean that you also inherit the right to preach to me, the man who hasn't cheated on his spouse about God and family.  That is quite frankly insulting.  

 

The night after Thankgiving people push, shove, fight and sometimes trample their fellow human beings in order to get their hands on cheap crap in order to celebrate the birthday of the man who told us to love our neighbors as ourselves.

 

Or how no matter what every year I always am at some store between the day after thanksgiving and December 25th and I see one person make an inappropriate gesture at another person in some conflict over a parking space.  And usually they are both there to celebrate the birthday of the man said to forgive others as we have been forgiven. 

 

Or when I listen to a person who thinks that God doesn't think their sins are that serious (or sometimes even existent) but that other person must be the devil incarnate because of their sins.

 

I'm sorry when I see those things on a regular basis I've no capacity to be offended by a guy thanking God for touchdowns or whatever.

[Valpo2004]

Also worthwhile pointing out that you would have trouble determining what constitutes a religious gesture.  

 

If a player points towards the sky for example . . . is he thanking God. . . Maybe.  Or is he trying to acknowledge a passed on friend or relative?  

 

Is it a religious gesture to acknowledge a passed on friend or relative in that way?

[crazycolt1]

I'm pretty religious and I'm not the least bit offended.  I pray at work and at home.  

 

Everyone has different reasons to thank God.  

 

Honestly religion is cheapened by so many other things these days that I just can't even consider being offended by that.

 

You know what upsets me more?

 

Everytime a politician cheats on his spouse and then comes back and says that God forgave them and then spends the whole campaign preaching about God and family.  God may have forgiven you, but that doesn't mean that you also inherit the right to preach to me, the man who hasn't cheated on his spouse about God and family.  

 

The night after Thankgiving people push, shove, fight and sometimes trample their fellow human beings in order to get their hands on cheap crap in order to celebrate the birthday of the man who told us to love our neighbors as ourselves.

 

Or how no matter what every year I always am at some store between the day after thanksgiving and December 25th and I see one person make an inappropriate gesture at another person in some conflict over a parking space.  And usually they are both there to celebrate the birthday of the man said to forgive others as we have been forgiven. 

 

Or when I listen to a person who thinks that God doesn't think their sins are that serious (or sometimes even existent) but that other person must be the devil incarnate because of their sins.

 

I'm sorry when I see those things on a regular basis I've no capacity to be offended by a guy thanking God for touchdowns or whatever.

Well said. I have no problem with anyone making the praises to their god at any time. I find it more offensive when as you say a person may or not be forgiven in their minds when they are not speaking for God. The so called holidays have become nothing but a material money grab. Going to your final resting place has nothing to do with giving money to a church or going to church. You will be judged as a person and how you lived your life. I also find it offensive for one religion to automatically think theirs is the only way. There have been more people lose their life over so called religion than any war or sicknesses. No matter what you believe in it don't give you the right to force your religion on anyone. This is a never ending debate where there is no clear answers.

[Valpo2004]

Well said. I have no problem with anyone making the praises to their god at any time. I find it more offensive when as you say a person may or not be forgiven in their minds when they are not speaking for God. The so called holidays have become nothing but a material money grab. Going to your final resting place has nothing to do with giving money to a church or going to church. You will be judged as a person and how you lived your life. I also find it offensive for one religion to automatically think theirs is the only way. There have been more people lose their life over so called religion than any war or sicknesses. No matter what you believe in it don't give you the right to force your religion on anyone. This is a never ending debate where there is no clear answers.

 

eh it's the nature of religion to set up a pattern for how one obtains atonement and thinking theirs is the only way.  You are in a sense telling people as to how they will be judged which not all people agree with you there.  I for one don't at all agree with you on that.  People's views on religion are by nature mutually exclusive.  We often like to pretend they arn't but they just are.  If I believe in one God and he is different from the God that you believe in then our religious views are mutually exclusive.  That doesn't mean I don't respect your right to believe in that God, nor does that mean I'm going to start an argument over something which as you say has no conclusive answers.  But you can't reconcile two monotheistic religions.  Either one is true and the other is not or they are both false.  But they can not both be true.  

 

I think giving to a church is a good thing so long as the church is using the money in a responsible manner.  (Any church I've been to can provide any member a report on how it's money is spent.)

 

As I said I AM religious

 

That said I don't believe in insulting another person's bona-fide religious views, no matter how strange they seem to others.  Certainly nothing to kill others over. 

 

But what hurts the most is not what outsiders say about my religion so much as what people who are nominally speaking in my religion do to it.  

 

And the Christmas stuff just depresses me a lot at times.  People talk about the Christmas spirit, and don't get me wrong there is some good stuff that happens around this time too.  But the holiday does something to other people that just makes them more selfish then usual (Everyone including myself is selfish to a point, I only know of one selfless person in all of human history.) and it is a sad thing considering what Christmas is ment to celebrate within my faith. 

[OffensivelyPC]

But what hurts the most is not what outsiders say about my religion so much as what people who are nominally speaking in my religion do to it.  

 

And the Christmas stuff just depresses me a lot at times.  People talk about the Christmas spirit, and don't get me wrong there is some good stuff that happens around this time too.  But the holiday does something to other people that just makes them more selfish then usual (Everyone including myself is selfish to a point, I only know of one selfless person in all of human history.) and it is a sad thing considering what Christmas is ment to celebrate within my faith. 

Two things:

 

To the first paragraph, that is so painfully true.  We don't need science, other religions, atheists, or anyone else to ruin the perception of God and whether he exists.  We do such a good job on our own, it's quite frankly embarrassing.  Thankfully, if you're Christian, anyway, your salvation isn't dependent on others.

 

To the second paragraph and, again, if you're christian or your religions makes provision for a god and devil, some of the greatest "victories" for satan have been transforming things like Christmas and Easter into things that depart from it's original intention, replacing Jesus with fictional figures such as the easter bunny and santa claus.  When we pair Jesus with a guy who leaves presents for children and a bunny who gives candy eggs, it's no wonder people expect god to give them what they ask and criticize him when bad things happen.

[buccolts]

Tebow, Abdullah, Neon Deion, any hispanic baseball player............

Hmm, I always thought those were gang signs.

Now I'm thinkin' Deion was just paying homage to himself the the great gifts he gave himself.

[Valpo2004]

Two things:

 

To the first paragraph, that is so painfully true.  We don't need science, other religions, atheists, or anyone else to ruin the perception of God and whether he exists.  We do such a good job on our own, it's quite frankly embarrassing.  Thankfully, if you're Christian, anyway, your salvation isn't dependent on others.

 

To the second paragraph and, again, if you're christian or your religions makes provision for a god and devil, some of the greatest "victories" for satan have been transforming things like Christmas and Easter into things that depart from it's original intention, replacing Jesus with fictional figures such as the easter bunny and santa claus.  When we pair Jesus with a guy who leaves presents for children and a bunny who gives candy eggs, it's no wonder people expect god to give them what they ask and criticize him when bad things happen.

 

Worthwhile point, however it was secular people who often created those things, although Christians have not done much to fight them.

 

Christians talked about St. Nicholas who was a real person who went around and gave presents to children (among other things) and once punched a heretic.  (not his best moment, but we somewhat enjoy the comedy of it.)  It was secular people who turned him into a supernatural being.  But Christians understand him to be completely human.  

[Nadine]

Sorry but we don't allow religious discussions........

 

I understand you tied it to the NFL but since the NFL isn't talking about this, in other words, it's not news, the thread is being locked because it's about religion