Relaxation or false religion?

So Manchester United won their third European Cup to go alongside the Premier league Championship they secured a couple of weeks to go.

I promised myself that at the end of this season I would re-examine my commitment to football… so here goes.

Football is played on a Sunday and to watch it on a Sunday is breaking the Sabbath (I know we’re under grace not law but shouldn’t we have at least one day set apart for God?)

Many football teams are sponsored by Gambling companies or breweries.

A lot of people bet on football games (with the advent of spread betting done over the internet this has bound many people in serious addictions).

Footballers are paid obscene amounts of money.

Watching football doesn’t get anyone saved.

The early Salvationists were obsessed with saving the lost! They didn’t have any other interests apart from soul saving. They didn’t go to the theatre or watch football or spend time at parties - all their time was given to the task of getting people saved.

Football and the whole culture that surrounds it, is definitely of the world and in 1 John 2:15-17 it says:

“Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world—the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does—comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.”


If we really desire to see the onset of revival, doesn’t the fulfilment of that desire demand that we focus on the job in hand and turn our attention away from the ‘tempting sounds’ and the ‘sights that dazzle.’

Tuesday night I went to a united church prayer meeting and on Wednesday I watched the European Cup – which made me feel more intense, which roused my passions more?

I recently said that I was going to attempt to live like a 1908 Salvation Army Officer – such a man certainly wouldn’t have wasted his time watching football.

I’m not saying that watching football is a sin but perhaps it is doubtful and holiness demands that I surrender everything that is both sinful and doubtful.


So I’ve got three months before the new season starts – three months to consider whether this is a healthy hobby or a debilitating distraction.


One thing however seems certain – I can’t really sing ‘my all is on the altar’ if a little bit of my heart is always at Old Trafford!

Love and prayers

World Cup Woe!

In 2004 when South Africa landed the 2010 World Cup, it estimated that costs would be around $300 million. Today, the organizing committee reports it is going to cost $1.5 billion to host a one month long football competition. That is merely five times the original estimate!

South Africa, a poor country by anyone’s standards is spending quite a bit of money building new stadiums, a questionable move considering how these stadiums end up largely redundant when all the fans go home.

Despite being Africa's superpower (having the continent's biggest economy, strong financial and manufacturing sectors, rich mineral resources and a strong tourist industry) many South Africans remain poor and unemployment is high.

The redistribution of land from white colonists back to the indigenous population is slow - most farmland is still white-owned. The government is committed to transferring 30% of farmland to black South Africans by 2014.

South Africa has the second-highest number of HIV/Aids patients in the world. Around one in seven of its citizens is infected with HIV.

Whilst some will argue that the World Cup will do much to boost the economy will these benefits ever filter down to those in the shanty towns? The country gets richer and the gulf between rich and poor seems to increase proportionately.

Maybe Salvationists should boycott the world cup and thereby draw the world’s attention to AIDS and poverty?

Love and prayers