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Image: Reg Mombassa
Living in the midst of Baylor, Texas A&M, UT, and Texas Tech, let alone Highschool football (Midway, Reichers, China Spring, University High).....is a little like stepping into a series of stereotypes. Friday Night Lights is more real than I ever thought possible.
So how does Sport and Religion interact in Australia and Texas?
Sport functions as a religion in Australia with its own set of rituals, acceptable behaviours, and focii of worship. Different codes of the same sport often function like different dominations. Prayer before games is limited to an individual spiritual expression or "church leagues" (which by the way always suprised me with their ironic lack of sportsmanship). Spectators approach sport with religious fervour, zealous in their support of the rightness of their team and finding common enemies (the teams one loves to hate).
In the US, especially in Texas, Sport becomes a religious act; an opportunity to play out one's beliefs. God and Christianity is invoked as though engaging in a much larger spiritually significant battle, rather than a group of men and boys simply running around hitting each other very hard. Winning is God's will. It always confused me a little how both teams could believe this simultaneously.
This is a simplistic overview, to be sure, but i think the distinctions are sound, and point to a more broadly applied distinction between culture and religion in both cases. To be Texan is to be Christian (and more likely Baptist); To be Australian does not necessarily have any religious assumption. There is no normative judgment cast here. I am not sure that it is either intrinsically good or bad to equate national identity with religious affiliation, but it is certainly an interesting phenomenon to observe.
Finally,
Tonight I watch Australia v Scotland at Murrayfield! And i'd really like Australia to win.
