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Think of the similarities. Crowds coming together, music bringin’ them into the building. Everyone knows their ‘label’ and each has superstars they follow. When it all starts up, hands are raised, shouts happen and the ‘service’ is underway. There’s a tempo to the Super Bowl and a general ‘feel’ as to whether it’ll be a great event…or not. Like being at a really good church service. What? Yeah, read on … A communion of sorts happens, food is shared, drink too. People hang out. And they love each other. It’s church with a pigskin. And our whole nation attends the ‘service’. Well almost all. Some idiots fish…or read/Dennis Mansfield. More here.
Question: Can the Super Bowl be viewed as our nation’s ‘worship service’?
D.F. Oliveria is a columnist and blogger for The Spokesman-Review. Huckleberries Online was judged the best 2008 Idaho newspaper blog by the Idaho Press Club. And the best 2007 news blog in the Pacific Northwest by the Society for Professional Journalist. Print Huckleberries is a past winner of the Herb Caen Memorial Column contest by the National Association of Newspaper Columnists. The Readership Institute of Northwestern University cited this blog as a good example of online community journalism.
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moscow_minidoka on February 02 at 9:45 a.m.
“Mansfield: The Super Bowl as our nation’s annual church service”
So what does this make those of us who don’t give a rip about the Super Bowl and don’t watch it? Are we atheists? Agnostics? Radical Islamic terrorists?
Just curious…
Kage_Mann on February 02 at 9:55 a.m.
So what does this make those of us who don’t give a rip about the Super Bowl and don’t watch it? Are we atheists? Agnostics? Radical Islamic terrorists?
Just curious…
Let me guess.’Anti-social personalities’?
moscow_minidoka on February 02 at 10:00 a.m.
Anti-social? Not in the least. I love parties - just not ones that center on television.
But I really, really don’t enjoy the Super Bowl, and never have. I don’t like professional football (especially since they added the yellow line of scrimmage and the ridiculous dancing robot football dude - just let us watch the dang game!), don’t appreciate TV advertisements, and don’t like “stars” lip-syncing to music. The “excitement” of Super Bowl Sunday is entirely wasted on me.
It just all seems like such a prepackaged plastic orgy of nonsense.
Sisyphus on February 02 at 12:58 p.m.
“Can the Super Bowl be viewed as our nation’s ‘worship service’?”—that would involve me having to make a leap of faith that Mansfield could make a valid point. I’ve never felt that I was on the verge of a great event at a church service. But beyond that, while I can see the allure of evangelicals salivating on how to tap into the popularity of the Super Bowl, the analogy is pathetically odious and demeans the underlying purpose of religion.
Escapee on February 02 at 6:54 p.m.
The Super Bowl as worship? That’s one of the more idiotic things I’ve read lately. It’s a football game that a lot of folks watch, ‘tis all. Sometimes people try to connect too many things to too many other things, and as a result, end up in left field. Sounds like Mr. Mansfield is one of those people.