Worship vs sports

THE EDITOR, Sir:

There is a serious and distressing new development in the sporting world in that because many official sporting events, especially those involving young people, are now being held on Sundays, this is discouraging many young people from attending worship.

This is a serious departure from what was established policy and practice, that official sporting events involving young people were not held on Sundays. I wish to use this medium to protest against this new policy. Persons will immediately claim that I am protesting against this because I am a minister of religion, and ministers only care about the Church, not about sports. However, I am also a sportsman.

I am protesting the change in policy because this forces the Christian young person who is talented in sports to make a choice - between sports and worship. When an official competition begins at 10 a.m. on a Sunday, as many now do, that prevents the young person from attending worship. It would seem as if because the adults who are organising the competitions do not attend church themselves, it does not matter to them whether young people are prevented from attending worship also.

The effect of this is simple: if a young person aspires to develop his talent in sports, and to represent his or her country, or in some cases even his or her school, that young person has to give up worship! This never used to happen. The policy was that, unlike unofficial competitions, official competitions were never held on a Sunday.

This new policy means that we are now developing a godless generation who will be good at sports. It also means that a non-Sabbath-keeping Christian young person will not be able to represent the country, as the competitions which would enable him to qualify are held on a Sunday.

The serious consequences of this are not realised by most persons. Jamaica is in a state of moral collapse. Many do not link the brutal cutting off of people's heads and the stabbing of little children with the dreadful moral and spiritual decline in our nation. The link, however, is obvious.

The choice between worship and sports forces the young person to make another choice - between good and evil. Under the previous policy, it was possible for young people to be both dedicated Christians and outstanding sportsmen and sportswomen. This is now becoming impossible. One can only hope and pray that the new policy will be deeply re-examined, and that worship and sports will not be set in opposition to each other.

EARL THAMES (Rev)

earlthames@yahoo.com

Spaldings, Clarendon