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You are here: Home / Opinion / Columns / Praying for the Super Bowl

Praying for the Super Bowl

February 4, 2014 by Marissa Jones

On Sunday 111.5 million of us gathered together to witness miracles. We partook of the game day snacks. Some even tithed $2000 and made the pilgrimage to be there in person.

And 33 percent of football fans prayed to God to help their team win, according to a poll conducted by the Public Religion Research Institute.

This bothers me.

The thing is, I completely understand this. I regularly pray for trivial things. Traffic, an overloaded schedule, public speaking – they’re high stress situations, and I often have a knee jerk reaction to pray. It’s a comfort thing, and I think there are good intentions behind finding comfort in prayer.

But it’s dangerous as well because I think our prayers reveal our priorities. I think what bothers me most about this statistic about prayer is what it says about our priorities.

My history teaches once said: You can tell what a society cares about most by looking at what its biggest, most elaborate buildings are. Our stadiums make a statement. One of NASA’s satellites captured a photo of the clearly visible MetLife Stadium the Super Bowl was played in. Our priorities are clear even from space.

Follow the money – I’d say that’s a pretty accurate cliche and is another reliable way to reveal society’s values.

At first, I empathized immensely with the Broncos and the embarrassment they must have been feeling. I mean, just the look of utter defeat on Peyton Manning’s face was heart-breaking. But then I remembered how much money they were probably still getting. A $46,000 bonus for loosing to be exact. That was enough to dry up my pity. Winning is significantly more profitable though, and the Seahawks received a bonus of $92,000.

Now, I don’ think the Super Bowl is bad. (Even though the painful 43-8 blowout makes that harder to say.) And I’m not trying to make anyone feel overly self-conscious or inhibited about how they pray – I think that’s also dangerous – but I think prayer gives us a beautiful and valuable opportunity to cultivate our priorities. I don’t think football should make our top ten list, or even our top fifty. Society has made it clear what it values, and we should make a conscious effort to push against that.

I prefer to think God is more of a soccer fan, anyways.

Filed Under: Columns, Opinion Tagged With: Spiritual Life, Super Bowl

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About Marissa Jones

You are here: Home / Opinion / Columns / Praying for the Super Bowl

Other Opinion:

  • Analyzing the Capitol riots through both lenses

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