Naturalism for Football Fans
Francis has a Message for Super Bowl Sunday
Today is February 5, 2017, and in the United States this happens to be Super Bowl Sunday this year, the day on which the American football season closes with its annual championship game.
The ever-talkative “Pope” Francis (Mr. Jorge Bergoglio) used this opportunity to bring more of his Naturalist twaddle to a wider audience. In a spiritual equivalent of the smutty Super Bowl half-time show, Francis once again promoted sports as a great way to practice his “culture of encounter” that, so he thinks, will lead to world peace.
Thankfully, the message is very brief, and it can be watched here (original in Spanish, with English subtitles):
Here is a transcript of the English translation:
Great sporting events like today’s Super Bowl are highly symbolic, showing that it is possible to build a culture of encounter and a world of peace. By participating in sport, we are able to go beyond our own self interest – and in a healthy way – we learn to sacrifice, to grow in fidelity and respect the rules. May this year’s Super Bowl be a sign of peace, friendship and solidarity to the world. Thank you!
Francis uses every opportunity he has, not to tell the world about Jesus Christ and the necessity of supernatural grace to obtain genuine peace and, even more importantly, eternal salvation. (He even goes out of his way to explicitly hide Jesus Christ when “necessary”.)
But even from a merely natural perspective, sports are not simply means for peace and harmony per se. Since sports typically involve competition and contention among at least two parties, it can easily bring out the worst in people. Francis ignores entirely what most people know from experience, namely, that competitive sports often give rise to anger, blasphemy, vanity, envy, discord, and other vices. We remember the following “encounter” at the Soccer World Cup Final in 2006 in Berlin:
Culture of Encounter:
Zidane head-butts Materazzi in Soccer World Cup Final 2006
Back in August 2016, Francis had made one of his legendary “Pope Videos” which also focused on sports as a means to encounter and peace. We covered this in a blog post in which we explained at length why such a Naturalist effort at peace — despite good intentions — cannot work and how it contradicts the teaching of our Lord Jesus Christ and the Catholic Magisterium:
Prior Bergoglian efforts to bring about peace and harmony the Naturalist way didn’t work very well either, incidentally. In 2014, Francis had invited Muslims and Jews to “pray for peace” together at the Vatican, which is exactly what they did — but their way, of course. Shortly after, all hell broke loose in the Middle East. The interreligious soccer match with Plim-Plim and Tini Stoessel later in the year didn’t help things, either.
In any case, we can all sleep better tonight knowing that Francis has once again managed to send out a message of deep spirituality and über-Catholic theology to millions of people.
It’s amazing he didn’t have something to say for Groundhog Day. But then there’s always next year.
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The other vices/sins include: Drug use especially steroids, lying about the drug use, cheating-steroids is one example, forgetting the Lord’s Day for pro football, gambling away necessary income, immodesty from the cheerleaders, lusting after the cheerleaders, over drinking alcohol, and overeating junk food.
And let us not forget imbibing the Satanic-themed half-time show with Goo Goo, two Jewish owners employing their plantation-hand athletes to see who is ‘da best, and other affronts to decent human beings.
Yes, I forgot Idolatry of the half-time rock star and of course the MVP.
It was Super Bowl ‘LI’ after all. Just one letter ‘O’ short of Francis’ famous (¡Vaya) lío! The ‘O’ is out of office now so someone had to carry the ball for chaos.
To repeat a phrase used here before, more of Francis’ usual “Chicken Soup for the Soul” theology.
You mean “Non-Catholic Lite”?
Sports, particularly American Football, along with lawn mowing the other half of the year, have become the average person’s Sunday sacrament. The one reedeeming thing about sports is that they are metaphors for life, but in the case of football, it is war. Baseball’s goal is getting home. And football exposes the player to potentially crippling violence and the spectators to the cheerleader. Ugh. Whatever may be good about it is so outweighed by the bad. Soccer seems to bring out the worst behavior in crowds, too.
The game, if well-administered, is an outstanding teaching tool for young men. It is like war, no doubt. As a Catholic, I do not condone the entertainment and spectacle it has become, rife with totally immoral elements. That said, and I coach the game, I believe it is a healthy pursuit if it is done morally. Once the charlatans, most of whom are, wait for it, Jewish latch their blood-smeared hands onto some aspect of human life, it is almost certainly ruined. But what is a Satanic endeavor but the ape of the Creator’s Good Works? Is football corrupted by the love of glory, money and “success”? You better believe it has been. The game, well taught, well played and well governed is a noble pursuit. The perversion you have now is, well, just that, a perversion. The game of football is not, of itself, a perversion. Corrupted, morally degenerate men have made it so. For instance, I am willing to bet most people are not aware that the NFL High Priest, Roger Goodell, is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. That puts him in company with the likes of Hildebeast and her “husband”, Slick. And others who are so obviously corrupt the stench rises like a foul cloud from their Rotten Apple headquarters.
So, your argument seems to be that football is inherently good, it’s just that rotten people make it rotten. Well, I understand that, but would point out that to the man with a hammer evertything looks like a nail. Football is a game. The rules are, in a sense, arbitrary. One has to wonder after a while if it is the game itself that brings out the worst in people. Furthermore, it is a non-productive activity. Nothing is made, grown, or really learned by the end of it except the willingness of some players to commit violence on other players for what ammounts to amusement for a crowd. Fr. Cekada has a good sermon on the topic of professional sports. I suggest you take a look.
I detect a disdain in your reply? Or are you a purist? A non-athletic type? Please spare your me your judgment of me and a sport that does actually produce something. I despise the professional game. Have no patience for its money-mongering owners. However, that is not the only game of football. If you never played, or even if you did, please stifle yourself. You confuse the Jew-driven, retard-infested crowds of NFL fans with what the game, qua human activity, still is for many thousands of players, coaches and families. When young boys learn a game’s rules they learn to be good sports. When young men learn to drive toward a goal with other young men, they learn self-sacrifice. When young men set aside selfish pursuits to take direction from a good coach, they learn discipline and commitment. Your amateur attempt to condemn the game belongs in some 8th Grade Debate Contest. All rules in games, take the stock market, are arbitrary. Please grow up and take your “I suggest you take a look” with you.
Sir: do I detect disdain for Jews and right reason?
Sports are a relatively poor use of one’s leisure time at best. They are a spectacle and certainly not on the prioity list for a good Christian’s use of time. Any clear thinking person can see this. You need not be a “purist.”
I challenge you to demostrate in any way how team sports develop character, goalseeking, leadership, or sacrifice more than actually accomplishing something as a team. Like building a brick wall, bridge, or other such project!
I’ll have you know there is evidence that the longer one is involved in sports, the more one begins to align with the principle of the ends justify the means–winning is everything. This is, essentially, the definition of a “good coach”: one who wins.
Also, American Football is about a century old, its rules have changed many times since it started being played, and it has always been criticized for its hazards and cripplings. It isn’t some sacred cow, so get off your high horse and reason at an eighth grade level. Sheesh!
“to grow in fidelity and respect the rules” lol.
Coming from the Argentinian Buffoon? What fidelity does he demonstrate? What respect for God’s rules? The man should be ashamed of himself. Ah, but that would imply a well-formed conscience…
“Since sports typically involve competition and contention among at least two parties, it can easily bring out the worst in people.”
I would argue that playing sports can potentially train young people in good sportsmanship and other similar attitudes so as to actually mitigate the problem of conflating competition (good) and contention (bad). Plus, it can be good exercise. I’ve noticed that it isn’t generally sports players who have a bad attitude so much as the spectators who watch the sports but aren’t doing it themselves, but somehow get emotionally invested in (or sometimes, against) a particular team.
But yeah, this event is inappropriate for a pope.