Sport & Church. Final essay about sport & church.

Sport and Church
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Physical recreation and sporting activities in particular have been part and parcel of communities around the world for many centuries. They have been used as platforms that bring people together despite their differences to cheer and celebrate their favorite players and teams to victory. Communities used sports as a platform to not only interact but also compete and where victors receive accolades, prizes and recognition in society. They have also served as avenues that help individuals relax and work through some stressing situations. Over the years, sports have also been used as ways to counsel and guide young people on the right path to becoming responsible members of society. Institutions including governments and the church have also used sports to unite communities and consequently, further their agendas. While it is evident that sporting activities are as old as humanity, there are suggestions that the Catholic Church embraced them only recently. The logic behind the resistance stemmed from the fact that the Catholic Church perceived the body and soul as being two different entities. It is shared that according to Catholic faithful’s during the early periods, the body was sinful and evil and as such, was always considered to be inferior to the spirit and soul. With majority of the sporting activities requiring substantial use of the body and muscles and which by the Catholic account were evil, engagements in physical activities and sports would lead people away from God and His teachings. These sentiments coupled by the influence of the Puritans are believed to have contributed significant to the initial resistant stand taken by the Catholic Church towards sports. However, there is a section in society that believes that different sporting elements evident on the window and other artifacts in the medieval Church prove that sports were being practiced. There are also proponents of a school of thought that suggest that it is not until Pope Leo III through his Encyclical Letter of 1891 where he encouraged the establishment of Catholic Sports Organizations that Catholic faithful’s begun to embrace sporting activities to develop the youth. During the same period, the Catholic Church had also changed its stand associating the body with sin. The research paper seeks to examine and describe the development of sports in the Catholic faith and provide several factors that support play and games being present during the early church.
Understanding the Benefits and Association of Sports and Church based on the Poster
The Church has for many centuries been a platform that seeks to guide people in society to live in accordance to God’s teachings and proposed way of life. Through sentiments and scriptures in the bible, society has been directed on the right path. However, it has not always been easy to get people to embrace these biblical and religious perspectives let alone to attend church forums including the daily and weekly church service. With the hustles and bustles of everyday life, many individuals consider going to church as a waste of time since they would be better placed working or trying to improve their livelihoods. It is in this regard that t...