Question: If BYU athletics creates hate for the school in those not affiliated with the school, is it bad for the church, either directly or indirectly?
Reason: I have to watch what I say about the school and athletic programs because I fear tarnishing my own faith indirectly. I know many people that aren't LDS and because of rivalries and other reasons do not like BYU in the slightest and, coincidentally or not, have a similar opinion of the church itself.
This was going to be a lengthy article with quotes, examples, and reasoning but it came across as if I was superimposing my opinion over that of a sustained leader and so I withheld any proposal or recommendation.
It's great.
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What's great?
This:
I have more zits on my face right now than i did between the ages 12-18 put
together!
5!
btw it's not great, it's sarcasm.
(the pa...
13 years ago
Thanks for writing about this Nate, you already know a lot about my feelings on this subject. I won't say how I feel about BYU athletics, that might get ugly but I will offer a couple of viewpoints. There are instances when it can be beneficial. Some examples are the fact that their athletes don't compete on sunday, that provides a powerful example, another could be times when athletes demonstrate good sportsmanship. I think the fact that it brings so much attention to our faith is a positive thing. It helps differentiate us from the FLDS and other more radical groups. It gives the average person something non threatening to identify the church with. This could likely give a foot in the door for lots of missionary efforts. On the other hand that attention and press can be very bad as well. BYU athletes are far from perfect and many people judge the entire church based on those few because they are the only contact they have with the church. I believe that it demands a much higher level of behavior from them. Not just from the football players to go on missions and not get caught drinking or partying. I think it requires realizing that whether they want to or not by choosing BYU they chose to represent the church and live as examples of Christ. It requires humility and respect for others that goes in many ways contrary to the competitiveness and ego in college sports. Sometimes putting winning aside and agreeing that even in sports when representing the church there are more important victories to be won. That win or lose, even against the U of U, if all that is seen before, during, and after competition is belittling comments and/or resentment then it is a loss. This is just my opinion but if everyone, athletes, coaches, and especially fans thought about doing things like this it could go a long way. I think there are other problems at BYU as well, for example recruiting, but if the attitudes were to change and make those subtle improvements then it would go a long way towards presenting an undeniably positive image for the church and the school. This isn't easy because nearly always it would be going against what everyone else is doing, not returning the trash talk, meeting haughtiness and rivalry with friendship. Maybe I'm wrong but I know for myself I would be much more inclined to support BYU if I saw this kind of thing happening.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteSorry, that was me who posted/deleted that last comment. I was logged into the wrong account. But...
ReplyDeleteI absolutely agree that it can be a positive it utilized correctly but even the smallest misstep gets exaggerated and becomes a negative very, very quickly. Even if a 'misstep' by a BYU athlete isn't really anything wrong, it completely depends on the viewer and their interpretation of the situation. For example, let's use Nigel (albeit he's an extreme case) and the situation with Rex. Perhaps BYU didn't do anything 'wrong' in getting him after his mission but just the fact that he is leaving puts a bad light on the school and of course the church as being dishonest and deceitful. Something that 'insignificant' obviously has had a fairly large effect on Nigel and I'm sure his opinion of the church has definitely not improved is response to this. You basically mentioned this in your response but I wanted to reiterate your point. So essentially I believe the athletes would have to be next to perfect for there to be no repercussions.
However, I do want to bring up another point which is the nature of athletics in general. Sport was probably originally meant to push individual limits but as soon as it becomes a competitive event a person or team is pitted against a competitor. The nature of the competition promotes less than ideal feelings for your one's competitor in many circumstances and so JUST BY GETTING BEAT by one's competitor creates negative feeling. A lot of times that alone would be enough, imo, to consider the abolition of BYU intercollegiate athletics because the point is to win and so you can't please everyone.
This is obviously slightly extreme and definitely not the norm (especially in this valley) but I thought it was an interesting counter-point to bring up.
As a quick addition to my last point, when I said "you can't please everyone" of course you can't and that hasn't been the aim of the church ever. But, you have to weigh the +'s and -'s. Athletics develop character in those that participate in them. The goal is for it to engender the good ones although that doesn't always happen. But, rival and/or competitor schools of BYU are automatically 'against' BYU when they compete against them. We're not talking about a few individuals but entire populations which have negative feelings created just by the nature of the competition. The question is what positives outweigh that?
ReplyDeletebyu athletics suck...the church never will...end of story
ReplyDeleteLeif, how does this answer the question of the effect of BYU sports on the church's missionary efforts? I agree with your post though.
ReplyDeletei dont think a lot of people realize that byu is a lds school and the relationship between them. ive met a lot of people that don't even know what byu is. i dont think that many people around the country hate byu sports.....they might hate mormons and therefore hate byu but i dont think its the other way around..
ReplyDeleteEveryone I know that knows about BYU is familiar with the fact that it is an LDS institution. Also, beside members of the church, there is a very strong correlation between people's opinion of the church and people's opinion of BYU and so if they dislike BYU they dislike the church. Now, I'm sure everyone can think of people they know that have separate opinions of the two, but the vast majority of those I know are just like this.
ReplyDeletejust a small addition slightly off topic, at the byu invite saturday, 2 min before the gun the entire squad 20+ circle around and pray pretty loud so the audiance can hear etc. looked just bad, more of a "lets pray to be seen of men or this is how great we are at byu, we pray before the race." maybe that's just a tradition etc. who knows. my opinion, if you are going to pray as a team, pray at the camp discretly. however, there is the point on the other hand that that is missionary work. i thought it just looked tacky and didn't sit right with me.
ReplyDeletehowever, probably all of the other utah schools do the same thing, and other private institutions probably do as well, maybe its a stupid thought... who knows...
ReplyDeleteHey, I found your blog via Kyle's (your brother? friend?). Sorry my comment is a bit late.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, the thing that aggravates me about BYU athletics is the mere fact that BYU students/athletes are presumptuous enough to assume that BYU athletics is a missionary tool in the first place. If you want to be a missionary via your athletic talent, go somewhere, anywhere other than BYU. In my opinion, when most non-lds see a BYU team, their impression is that the BYU team puts the "tool" in missionary tool because let's face it, from most outsiders' perspectives, BYU students come across at best as a bunch of clones, at worst as exclusive and xenophobic. On the other hand, if you are an LDS athlete attending University of Florida for example, you actually stand out and have a chance to interact with non-lds people (novel concept for perfoming missionary work, I know). If the reason for keeping BYU athletics is so that it can be a missionary tool, the best thing to do would be to get abolish them and force lds athletes to go out into the rest of the world.
Now, if BYU would drop the whole "look at me, I'm a missionary" attitude about themselves, I think the public opinion would improve. I don't know what Graham's opinion is on BYU athletics, but statements like "by choosing BYU they chose to represent the church and live as examples of Christ. It requires humility and respect for others" bug me, because to me, you've just contradicted yourself. By presuming that an lds athlete at BYU is any more of an example of Christ than an lds athlete (or any athlete, for that matter) at a different school is anything but humble. And it's because so many BYU folks think this way is the reason so many people dislike BYU athletics, in my opinion.