Worldly Sports by F. M. W.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Tacoma Park Station, Washington, D.C. · Nov 2, 1911

Worldly Sports

By F. M. W.

The apostle Paul declares that the last days will be marked by a love of pleasure more than a love of God. 2 Tim. 3:1-5. In the world's excitement, in the thrill and sensation of new pleasures, men forget God. Failing to obtain from the service of righteousness and sober, industrious living, joy and satisfaction, because they seek it with perverted hearts, they plunge into wild extravagance and license, in order to gratify their desires. One has only to look out into the great wide world at the present time to see the fulfilment of prophetic prediction. The multitude is becoming infatuated; the wild, mad pursuit of pleasure is apparent on every hand. National games, like baseball, football, boat-races, together with theater parties, and moving-picture shows, to say nothing of the grosser forms of dissipation, like horse-racing, and the wild, reckless sports connected with the more questionable resorts through the land,—all have their devotees. Fortunes in the aggregate are spent every day. The hours of the night are turned from sleep into a wild carnival, health is undermined, reputations blasted, characters ruined.

According to the Christian Work and Evangelist there is spent in New York City every night for pleasure alone the sum of one million dollars. This is divided as follows: For dinners, $125,000; suppers and wine, $125,000; theaters, $175,000; taxicabs, $175,000; hotels, $100,000; cafés, flowers, and in questionable ways, $300,000.

It seems almost incredible that this enormous amount could be spent day after day in one city for pleasure alone. And when we take into account the fact that this is being repeated in every city in the land, although perhaps on a somewhat smaller scale, we can see something of the stupendous amount of money which is being squandered in these ways. But the money consideration is the smallest one after all. To this should be added an education most evil in its influence upon those who participate in this fast life,—an education fraught in too many instances with ruined characters and blasted life hopes.

The Lutheran of August 17 speaks of some of these conditions which exist. Its testimony is so clear as to these evils that we reproduce the larger part of the article:—

Cheap Fun

One who is in a position to observe and judge the nature and effects of some of our popular amusements has spoken in no uncertain notes of warning against some of the tendencies of the day. Among other things he says: “Some have lost their grip on God, and America's greatest danger to-day lies in the onsweep of the fun zone. We are reaching out after the cheapest, lowest kind of fun. The cry for the cheapest brand of fun is robbing this country of its very vitality, and any nation that has young men standing in line for the five- and ten-cent shows would better wake up. Nothing but cheap men are the product of the cheap theaters of to-day.”

Men wish to be amused rather than edified. “It takes effort to think, but the laugh breaks forth of itself.” The moving picture could be the means of a most valuable education, and it is so used; but the prevailing “picture show” is light, frivolous, sensational, and even degrading. Some of them are actually immoral.

Baseball is a national sport. Many get real recreation through it. But it does seem to be a pitiable waste of time and belittling of manhood for thousands of men to stand for hours in great crowds in a hot street to watch a few figures being posted to indicate “the score.”

The average American loves to play. He turns readily from most strenuous duty to most frivolous fun. The cheaper it is, the better for the majority.

Churches have found that if they amuse people, they draw crowds. The preacher has forgotten that he is called to deliver a message, and caters to those who have itching ears. The musical concert, the social hour, the stereopticon entertainment, lawn parties, and picnics are in evidence, and so are the crowds. The church has gone into the amusement business. It is cheap fun. The crowds come not to be saved, but to be amused. Alas! what is becoming of the religion which saves souls?

Paul, the greatest of the missionaries, says: “When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.” The church that will succeed is the church that does not cater to the craze for “cheap fun,” but realizes and fulfils its mission to feed souls, and, convicting men of their sins, brings them to the foot of the cross.

As the Lutheran truly says, the desire

for cheap fun is the prevailing tendency of this age. It has not only pervaded the circles of the world, but has even entered the portals of the great Christian church. The following scripture indicates that this would be so: “Men shall be . . . lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God, having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof.”

It is to be regretted that the professed followers of Christ are so often found aiding and abetting the spirit of cheap fun in the world. We find professed Christians attending the theater, going to the circus, some of them on the specious plea that they must take their children to see the animals, frequenting the moving-picture shows, in the front seats of the grand stand watching the great professional ball games, attending cheap parties of pleasure in their home community. These are the people who prefer the sporting page of the newspaper to the Word of God, who would rather read the latest sensational scandal than their church paper.

There is great danger in these times of evil that some Seventh-day Adventists will be found among the class that find the chief pleasure of life in the cheap fun of the age. Some doubtless feel that sports like baseball, moving-picture shows, and amusements of this character should not be classed with the grosser forms of evil. We are willing to admit that there is a difference in degree, but not in classification. These lie on the border-land of the great sporting evils by which Satan is seeking to lead men to forget God. They are the advance guards, the subtle influences, which seek to prepare the way for their stronger fellows. And the difference in degree is becoming every year less and less marked. The spirit that controls the multitude attending the great national games of baseball, football, etc., is the same spirit that controls habitués of the race-track. No Christian would frequent the latter place; and the child of God who makes a practise of attending the former, will find his love of the sober, earnest things of God and of this message waning in consequence.

There may have been in the past, exhibitions of clean, wholesome moving pictures that were educational as well as entertaining. But few, if any, of these may be found to-day. The great majority of moving pictures presented to the public at the present time are demoralizing in their influence. This can be proved by the testimonies of scores of men and women who have witnessed them in different sections of the country. While some of these forms of entertainment may be less objectionable than others, the fact still remains that on the whole they belong to the great classification of worldly sports. When one begins the downward road, the influence of these times, the spirit of the sport, with the tendency of human nature in seeking something more and more fascinating, make it difficult to call a halt, and check the growing impulse. It is like the young man who takes his first glass. The liquid he drinks may be but slightly intoxicating; but the exhilarating effect, the environment under which it is taken, the association of hail-fellows-well-met have their influence. Something stronger and more stimulating is desired, former companionship is craved, he returns again and again to the old environment; the end is a drunkard's grave.

In the same way the excitement of some outdoor sport, which of itself might be harmless, but engaged in under the influence and fascination of excitement, striving for the mastery, and worldly association, appeals in the end for something still more exciting. Similarly the moving-picture show leads in natural order to vaudeville and theatrical performance.

The direct effect on the one participating in such sports is not the only consideration. The indirect effect, the influence on some other life, may be even more marked with evil consequences. Every Seventh-day Adventist who enters upon these worldly sports gives to worldly sports as a whole his influence. He may attend only the less objectionable, those that he considers clean and wholesome. He may differentiate, and hold himself in check, and not enter upon the more questionable amusements. But a weaker brother, following in his steps, may become dizzy, lose his bearings, and be swept into the great whirlpool of evil dissipation. Thus, the stronger one has unmeaningly and perhaps unconsciously thrown his influence into the whole scale of worldly sports, and has become the cause of his brother's undoing.

For our young men to play by themselves a game of ball is quite another thing than that to which we have referred. The spirit present is entirely different, the association is different. One is harmless, outdoor recreation for physical benefit; the other is mingling with the world, and drinking in the spirit of the world. This we can not safely do. The great national match games, in which there is a striving for the mastery, with the creation of class or party spirit, are evil in their influence on the participants.

We question if any sincere Christian can kneel down before starting to some of the great national sports or attending a theater or cheap moving-picture show, and ask and believe that the Lord Jesus will accompany him to the entertainment. We do not say that no Christian ever attended these amusements. Some, perhaps through ignorance of their character, have at times so far forgotten their high and holy calling as to do so, but they were not led of the Spirit of the Master thus to do.

We recognize the natural demand that exists for relaxation, and for pleasurable recreation. This should be met by such gatherings and outings as will furnish both pleasure and physical and spiritual benefit and at the same time exclude evil influences. Parents and church officers should give careful study to this question as related to local conditions, and while avoiding the license and extravagance of the age, seek to meet consistently the needs of the younger members of the household. Some suggestions will be offered through the REVIEW on the positive side of the question in the near future.

There needs to be sounded, even among Seventh-day Adventists, a warning against permitting the spirit of worldly sports to enter our lives. We are in the world, but may God grant that we shall not partake of its spirit. Needed recreation may be found in harmless ways apart from the spirit of wild excitement and cheap fun that permeates the very atmosphere around us. Let us keep our hearts pure, our lives unsullied, our influence on the side of purity and truth. If we are unable to see now that it makes any great difference, we shall find in the end that it has abundantly paid. In God and in his service we may find sweet and abiding joy.

F. M. W.