Its football season and while I’ll admit I love football I have a nagging voice in the back of my head that wonders if this love of football is not such a good thing. Violence permeates our society and our sports are just one example. If you don’t think violence is part of the draw of sports imagine all of football going to flag rather then full contact rules. With out the violent contact would any of us watch? How about if Nascar ran restrictor plates that limited speeds to 35-mph., which would effectively, remove the thrill of the crash and the danger of the sport. All the other elements would still be there, strategy, skill and luck but the violence would be taken away. Who would want to watch that?

How do we as disciples of Christ deal with all this violence? If violence is O.K. in some areas who to say where its not O.K? If I can have violence in my sporting entertainment why not in my personal relationships. If my nation can use violence to achieve its own ends why can’t I do the same as an individual? If violence is an acceptable alternative one area why can’t it be in all areas?

I for one have a growing fear that violence in all its forms is sin. You have to understand I don’t like where this is taking me and my mind is working over time to find a way out of it but I keep coming back to the same place. When Jesus calls us to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us his goal is not to change the persecutors but to change the disciple into a child of God. While the world may hold violence up as a viable alternative, a tool to be used in certain places at certain times, I’m afraid that train of thought is starting to come unwound in my mind.