The man upstairs didn’t play during the Green Bay Packers’ 27-17 win over the Seattle Seahawks on Sunday night, but didn’t stop the team’s quietly Christian quarterback from taking a subtle God-related shot at the openly Christian quarterback on the other side. After throwing two touchdowns against the Seahawks at Lambeau Field in Green Bay, Wisconsin, Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers credited God in his postgame press conference. “I think God was a Packer fan tonight,” he told reporters. Chalking the results of sports games up to faith is a common practice for religious athletes — something that Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson did after beating Rodgers’ Packers in last season’s NFC Championship game in January…. “That’s God setting it up, to make it so dramatic, so rewarding, so special,” Wilson told reporters after snatching a Super Bowl trip away from the Packers. Two days after that game, Rodgers, a Christian man himself, disagreed with Wilson’s belief that God had intervened to set up an NFC Championship victory…. “I don’t think God cares a whole lot about the outcome. He cares about the people involved, but I don’t think he’s a big football fan,” Rodgers told ESPN Wisconsin.
There are few things more predictable in professional football than the prayer circle at midfield at game’s end. Following closely behind in the inevitability department is a player thanking God after a victory or stellar performance.
Does God care enough about football to decide who’s going to win and lose? I admire Russell Wilson’s skill as a quarterback, but I’d be lying if I didn’t admit to finding his public proclamations of his Christianity to be tiresome and self-serving. To honestly believe and publicly proclaim that God caused four interceptions, “setting it up” to make the last moments of last year’s NFC Championship Game “so dramatic, so rewarding, so special,” borders on the absurd. Being openly Christian is one thing- and Wilson has every right to his faith- but when it’s flaunted in such a public manner, portraying oneself as the beneficiary of God’s preference for your team…well, I’m at a loss for words to describe that sort of arrogant hypocrisy.
Aaron Rodgers’ subtle trolling of Wilson after Green Bay’s 27-17 victory of Seattle speaks volumes, primarily because Rodgers is also a man of faith. That he’s far more low-key about his Christianity speaks to a person of class and dignity, as opposed to Wilson’s showy, almost comical displays of public religiosity. I know nothing of how Wilson lives his faith away from the cameras. He may well be the most generous, altruistic Christian Mankind has known…but his public displays of religiosity are as embarrassing as they are un-Christian. To believe that God supports your team is to imply that he is against your opponent, which, besides being just plain arrogant and self-absorbed, displays a stunning ignorance of what your God is supposed to be about.
Before you speak to me about your religion, first show it to me in how you treat other people; before you tell me how much you love your God, show me in how much you love all His children; before you preach to me of your passion for your faith, teach me about it through your compassion for your neighbors. In the end, I’m not as interested in what you have to tell or sell as in how you choose to live and give.
For athletes like Wilson (and before him, Tim Tebow), whose faith informs every aspect of his life (at least outwardly), there may be a perceived obligation to put his faith on display in the hopes of bringing people to Jesus Christ. In reality, it looks as if he’s trying too hard to convince people of his righteousness. Turns out that Rodgers’ trolling of Wilson has a basis in Scripture. Matthew 6:5-6 addresses this very subject:
When thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.
But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.
I don’t believe in God, but I do admire people who, like Aaron Rodgers, try to live their faith authentically without the showiness of a Russell Wilson or Tim Tebow. Rodgers seems to understand the private, individual nature of faith, and that ostentatious displays of religiosity are very often nothing if not hypocritical. If you believe your faith in Jesus Christ to be strong and what gives your life meaning and purpose, live in a manner that shows it. Demonstrate your commitment to your faith by actually living it. For Russell Wilson and other athletes who “love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets,” ostentatious displays of religiosity do nothing to demonstrate their commitment to their faith. Indeed, crediting God for helping you win a football game only demonstrates that you really don’t understand that God probably doesn’t care who wins or loses. At least Aaron Rodgers has figured that out.
