The Reason For Sports: A Christian Fanifesto

Three cheers for . . . cheating, pride, and greed?

This book is for the avid sports fan who loves Jesus. Let’s face it: Sports—with the scandals, cheating, arrogance, and more that often accompany them—are complicated to watch. How should Christian sports fans enjoy the good in the game amidst all the bad?

There are books on how to worship God with our marriages, our money, and our sex lives. Books on how to “think biblically” about movies, television, and the arts. Books on how to vote and how not to vote as a Christian. But there is little thoughtful, Christ-centered writing on the subject that drives most of men’s banter with each other and consumes the bulk of their free time: sports.

Learn from a Pro.

Author Ted Kluck understands these complications with being a Christian sports fan—and a Christian athlete. He played professional indoor football, coached high school football, and trained as a professional wrestler.

He knows how to write well about sports because of these experiences and also because he watches them (dedicatedly), and has written about them. Ted’s award-winning writing has appeared in ESPN The Magazine, Sports Spectrum magazine, and on ESPN.com’s Page 2.

Written in the vein of Rick Reilly (Sports Illustrated), Chuck Klosterman (Spin, Esquire), and David Foster Wallace (A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again), The Reason for Sports will both entertain and shed light on some of today’s most pertinent sports issues (race, drugs, hero worship, and more) all through a biblical lens.

Enjoy His Expert and Humorous Articles.

In twelve articles, Ted humorously and honestly investigates the world of sports from a Christian perspective. Through a Biblical lens, he examines topics such as:

• Jock Apologies
• Steroids
• Stories about famous athletes such as Mike Tyson and Tom Brady
• Fantasy Football
• Sports, film, sexuality, and humility
• Racial reconciliation

Not only will you be entertained as you read this book, but also you will be trained to think Christianly about many of today’s most pertinent issues in sports.

“There are plenty of books about Christian athletes, and plenty of books by Christian superstars. But there is precious little writing on sports from a Christian perspective. It’s amazing really. Americans are obsessed with sports, especially men, and yet Christians haven’t done much to reflect on the good and bad of sports. That’s why I love Ted’s writing. He knows sports. He’s played sports. He’s done real sports reporting. And he’s a strong Christian who knows how to write.”

Book review by Kevin DeYoung on TheGospelCoalition.com

A Short Excerpt from Ted’s Introduction:

Sports are a huge part of the lives of American men, including church men. Our churches have informal basketball, golf, and softball leagues. Guys talk about sports in the church lobby. Yet with all the books teaching us how to worship with our marriage, our money, our “quiet times,” and our sex lives, little is written about the subject that drives most of our banter with each other and around which much of our free time revolves.

How do we worship God with this part of our lives? How do sports help us to grow in sanctification? How do we think theologically about the myriad of moral dilemmas in sports?

On the pages that follow, hopefully, you’ll be able to enjoy sports with me as I try to find the good in a sports world that at times has gone bad. I’m not going to try to convince you that Mike Tyson or Ricky Williams should be your spiritual guide, or that you shouldn’t cheer for Mike Vick because he drowns puppies, or that you should cheer for all American QB Tim Tebow because he etches a Bible verse on his eye-black before every game. I’ll let you draw your own conclusions about all of these people. But I’ll invite you to begin formulating your own theology of sports with me.