Religion And Popular Culture In America Summary

Sports are something that everyone in the world, regardless of age, sex, or nationality, can enjoy. Whether it's a child playing in his first t-ball game or a professional athlete swimming in the Olympics and everyone in between, sports can connect almost everyone. Fan support and overall devotion for athletic competition has raised professional athletes to superstars and national icons; Super Bowl Sunday is a national holiday to some, and sports are one of the largest moneymakers in the economy.

Sports of old were merely competitive activities rooted in heroism and romanticism. Sports activities today, however, have no such innocence or simplicity. Currently in America, the activities that make up our sports culture is not only the competitive events themselves but the processes and issues that underlie and surround them. Entwined in our sports culture is the giant business of mass broadcasting. Indeed, sports and the media go hand in hand like peanut butter and jelly, like Mickey and Minnie, Darth Vader and Luke. They are intertwined and depend on each other to continue to grow. Sports media includes television, radio, magazines, newspapers, books, films, and, now, most importantly, social media devices provided by the

In 1975, Robert Lipsyte wrote “Jock Culture” which was in “The Sportsmaster.” It didn’t appear in “The Nation” until 2011. Analysis will examine the credibility of the examples used by the author to stage his claims.

In the book “Winning Is the Only Thing”, Randy Roberts and James Olsen unravel the true origins of sports and the post war effects on American sports. The book reveals the social, economic, racial, and worldly affairs that shaped sports in the U.S. Roberts and Olsen also explain how sports went from fun and games to winning being the only importance. The book begins with the cold war and its effects on the Olympic Games, demonstrating how the games were politicized. It then transitions with racial integration becoming a thing of the past, to the modernization of sports through mass media and technology. “Winning is the Only Thing” offers a variety of the historical stories, giving the readers factual insight on the controversial and scandalous sides behind the transformation of American sports. The book was informative and quickly covered the historical and evolutionary aspects of sports, keeping the book short, sweet and easy to read.

In the Article, “Professional Athletes Should Not Engage in Excessive Religious Expression,” author Jonathan Zimmerman believes that religious expression should not be involved in sports. When most players express Christian faith, it alienates other religions. Schools banned religious acts, so should sports. Zimmerman thinks that if other faiths practiced their religion on the field, the news announcers wouldn’t celebrate them as men of faith. He believes there is favoritism to one religion over the others. Zimmerman says the problem isn’t their religion but assuming that everyone follows the Christian belief.

In modern day America sports are a very important part of our culture, because we are constantly watching sports and participating in sports. In any sport we watch mythology is present. The very act itself of playing the sport is reflective of old roman times when gladiators would kill for the crowds entertainment although today instead of killing its by hitting a home run or scoring a goal. “At their best, sports are about the extraordinary capacities of the human spirit.”(Wolter). These athletes can become extremely popular to the point were they are viewed as superhuman just like in myths, and there is a reason because the best athletes in their respective sport do what no average person could do. “The most legendary performances speak of almost super-human feats: the sub 4 minute mile, Michael Jordan’s flu stricken playoff

Throughout the semester we have read a variety of books with different themes. One book that really caught my eye was The Natural by Bernard Malamud. It was a book on how the sport of baseball really impacted a life and how it helped him understand the way of life. That is why I chose an article written by Kent Cartwright and Mary McElroy called “Malamud’s “The Natural” and the appeal of baseball in American culture. The title of this article caught my attention because we all see baseball as an American sport and I wanted to see how that affects the American culture. Throughout the article they talk about how baseball could be seen similar to American culture in the individuality aspect. It is also seen how the sport is related to the real

In this article Michael Serazio, an associate professor in the department of communications at Boston College informs that Sports culture has become the new religion, but he questions why people are so faithful. Serazio demonstrates that in our culture, humans have created a new meaning and devotion to sports. Stating that totems are an obvious and noticeable form that a society interpreters to be different and shows its personality or beliefs. By creating such logos with distinct characteristics, patterns, and colors to form a physical illustration of sports teams it gives their supporters a recognizable sense of “identity and unity”. Much like religion, our sports teams are diminishing in faith. Serazio questions exactly what icons will continually

Christianity influences many people’s lives, and has for a number of years. It exists in many parts of world and is the most practiced religion in the U.S. This puts it in a place of severe scrutiny by America’s culture. The question that I am interested in researching is this: How has the view of Christianity in American culture changed throughout the years? In the fifteen page essay, I will research how the popularity of Christianity has changed and how it has been portrayed in media and pop culture.

In Neusner’s book World Religions in America, Gerald James Larson explains what the Hinduism is as a religion. He starts mentioning that the Indian population is the second most populous nation in the world; it reached 1.3 billion people in 2008 and that represents about 16% of the global population. Their country has twenty-eight states and seven Union Territories; it has eighteen official languages and Hindi is the most common one. The ones who live outside their country are also considered Asian Indians and they might be different but they are equally important. According to the 2000 U.S. Census, they represent the fourth largest asian community with about two million people and Asian Indians that live here and in other industrialized Western nations are mostly

This writing is based on the YouTube video posted on Blackboard, responding all the question posted on the same site. First of all, the conversation A Back Pew, exploring the spiritual but not religious trend arises from a book written by Tim O'Donnell, a view from A Back Pew. This conversation analyzes insight on matters religion and spirituality. According to the conversation, 91% of Americans, claim to know God. 44% of Americans have switched religion at least once, and 71% which make up the majority population (18 years to 30 years) claim to be spiritual but not religious. The number of individuals with no religious has doubled in the United States since the 1990s, most of whom are no longer atheists, but individuals who refer to themselves as spiritual but not religious. This raises concern, as from the statistics, seems more people are drifting away from religiosity.

Christians need teachings that can help them be aware of the popular culture on religion. Christians should be aware of how strongly they feel about sports that it begins to verge on being a form of religion for them.

According to Achebe (1980) the elders of the two communities involved in the wrestling contest visited the shrines and consulted their gods, offering sacrifices, led by their priests and priestesses, for blessings to ensure they won the contest. During the contest, the drummers beat their drums like those possessed and this it was believed signified the presence of the spirits who were the determining factors in the results of the contest. In the modern society today, there are a number of interesting likes between sports and religion, including the "worship" of athletes as gods and heroes (e.g. LeBron James, Tom Brady, etc.), of "symbols of Faith" such as trophies, baseballs, game balls, and sport-related souvenirs, and the charisma that is attached to the elites and leaders in the sport world. Sports and religion have often been used to create strong emotions and celebrate selected group values through rituals and public events. There are many subjective examples of how religion has been used to simply reaffirm and intensify angles that lead to success in competitive sports. Some pastors challenge those with doubts on the co-existence of sport and religion by emphasizing dimensions of training and sport participation that fit well with the certain aspects of the Protestant Ethic.

Sports and religion share a very important modern day relationship. Some would say it is a positive one, while others would say otherwise. With sports being such a huge part of our modern day culture it seems only natural that religion would also play a huge role in sports. It has always gone hand in hand in my family. We get up on Sunday, go to church and then come home and watch the Colts, when it’s football season of course. I always correlated my Sundays to consist of religion and sports, so the idea of them being completely interrelated is nothing new to me. It seems I am not alone. We see regular examples of religion and sports almost on a daily basis.

Sports, admittedly, have had a huge impact on our culture. Some of us even use sports as an excuse to gather our family for some quality time with each other, whether they just hangout for the sake of entertainment or engage in a meaningful conversation full of fervid passion when discussing spectacular plays, athletes, and coaches. However, people talk about the multitude of positive traits that sports are associated with, one must be informed about the abundance of issues that sports face; issues that keep sports from being what we want it to be- free from malicious intent and more along the lines of a peaceful collaboration perpetuated by authentic equality; coming together to proclaim our love for the game. Inequality, for example, is