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Hockey Idolatry?

I came to Canada in 1967.  As part of becoming a new Canadian, I became a Toronto Maple Leafs fan.  (That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it.)  However, I have had to stop watching Maple Leafs games on Saturday nights (hockey night in Canada). The reason? - I was getting so depressed by their dismal performances that it was affecting my spirit for ministry on Sunday morning.  In order to be in the right place for Sunday morning I have had to give up the Leafs on Saturday night.

Kevin DeYoung speaks of the same malady from an American football perspective in this article:

I don’t think being a huge football fan is automatically, or even normally, idolatrous. I’ve loved watching football as long as I can remember. It’s one of the many habits of sports fandom I picked up from my dad. Each year when I start to get sad about the inevitable ending of summer, I am cheered to think that with everything we start to lose in the month of September–daylight, heat, leaves, pool time, vacations, sleeping in–at least we gain football.

Americans love football like the rest of the world loves. . . .football. Except in our football the actions takes place six seconds at a time and the players pretend they are NOT hurt.
Wherever there is a consuming passion for anything that is not God there is the danger of idolatry. And football is certainly a consuming passion for many in this country. So what are some of the signs that football has grown to idolatrous proportions in the heart of the Christian?

Here are three questions to help in your self-diagnosis:

1. Is ministry and worship on the Lord’s Day compromised by my allegiance to football on Saturday and Sunday?

Read the rest of the article here

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