Brunet’s lecture, titled “I Am Not a Role Model: Why We Should Have Listened to Charles Barkley 20 Years Ago,” suggested society puts inappropriate pressure on professional athletes to be role models.
He said Christians may be setting athletes up to fail by expecting someone who does not know Jesus to be a role model for their children. “Here’s a bag of money, adoring fans, and lots of free time. Oh, and by the way, stay out of trouble!” he said.
Brunet also cited statistics revealing that NFL and NBA players are arrested at a lower rate than the general public in all major areas of crime, including domestic violence, assault and DUI. He said the 98 percent of professional athletes who abide by the law rarely receive media coverage.
“Unless you’re a high profile celebrity or you’re getting arrested, you don’t get talked about. And that’s unfortunate,” Brunet said.
Brunet said every person is a role model because every person has others who imitate them. The question is whether we are good or bad role models, he said.
Parents can use athletes’ failings as teachable moments for their kids, Brunet said, but should remember to practice grace and forgiveness.
“Have realistic expectations for professional athletes. They are human. They will fail at times,” Brunet said. “But how do they respond? And how do you respond?”
Micah Watson spoke on “Sanctified Idolatry: The Virtues and Vices of Sports.”
“Talking about sports is like talking about comedy,” Watson said. “It’s one of those things that is so much better to do or watch than to talk about or try to understand.”
Watson said sports can be good or bad depending on the way people interact with them.
On one hand, he said, people are created to enjoy fellowship and recreation, and the Bible itself uses sports metaphors to describe spiritual truth. Sports “teaches us what it is like to try and to fail,” Watson said. He said athletics can also teach the value of hard work, humility and community, as well as remind us of our mortality.
“Who has beat Father Time one-on-one?” Watson said. “No one. He’s undefeated.”
“God delights in our delight in sports when it’s properly ordered,” he said. “I do think there will be sports in heaven. At least I hope so.”
Conversely, Watson said obsession with sports can become idolatry, usurping our worship and disrupting community as fans war against one another. This idolatry can lead to further vices of pride, strife, bitterness and anger. “It’s good until it’s not,” Watson said.
The key, he said, is to keep all passions subordinated to God.
“Any sort of sin is something that’s out of its proper order,” Watson said. “It’s when things get out of order that we run into problems. The good news is that God is in the business of sanctifying idolatry. He redeems things when you hand them over to him.”
