Basketball and Bad Religion

One of the few sports I played in school, at least when it came to officially joining the school team, was basketball. I’ll admit, I wasn’t the best at it. Shooting and dribbling were my biggest struggles (pretty sure I made about 6 points in the four years I played). That didn’t stop me from trying, of course. I focused more on defense and rebounding. Sure, I didn’t get the glory of making baskets, but my contributions still benefited the team.

My 6th and 7th grade years were nothing special. My 8th grade and high school teams, however, were very memorable, and for very, very opposite reasons. In 8th grade, my team dominated. We lost to one team during the regular season, then we beat them during the playoffs and knocked them out of the quarterfinals. Sadly, we lost the next round because over half the team got sick, myself included. High school, on the other hand, was terrible, and that’s putting it nicely. We won only a single game in the entire season, and I still think that our winning basket was too long after the buzzer to have counted.

And now, over a decade since then, I’ve realized that my time on the court created a striking reflection of Bad Religion.

To clarify before we dive too deep, what do I mean by “bad religion?” Bad religion is a type of religion that leads to frustration, unhappiness, and, ultimately, death. Its antithesis, good religion, brings light, freedom, and life. Of course, I know some people would argue that all religion is just a bunch of rules that you’re forced to follow under the threat of eternal damnation. Many religions, including some Christians, will preach that.

However, the difference that people miss is the mindset, the reason why we choose to follow these rules. The mindset under bad religion bogs you down, while the mindset under good religion liberates. What are these mindsets?

Those who follow the rules of bad religion do so because they have to, while those who follow the rules of good religion do so because they want to.

A key factor that influenced my 8th grade and high school basketball teams was the reason we played. In 8th grade, we signed up voluntarily. We all wanted to be there. We practiced because we wanted to improve our game. I was rarely in the starting five, but I still worked hard with my teammates so we could all succeed.

High school didn’t work like that. We were a very small school, so sports were mandatory for freshmen. Some of said freshmen had barely touched a basketball in their lives. The worst part was the apathy and the egos, especially from the upperclassmen. No matter how loudly coach called the plays, no matter how much I tried to encourage, most of the team played like they were the only ones on the court and gave up when things weren’t going their way.

You can kind of see how this illustration ties into religion now. My high school team was bad religion, while my 8th grade team was good religion. So many people treat the rules of religion like my fellow freshmen: it’s just another thing I have to do.

It’s even more frustrating when you consider the standard we’re measuring up against. Most religions say that our good deeds need to cancel out and outweigh the bad ones. Yet, there’s no way to accurately measure the value or gravity of one’s actions. The religious waters get muddled further when you stumble and sin. “Sin” is an old archery term for “missing the mark.” In this case, “the mark” is “moral and spiritual perfection.”

For the freshmen of bad religion, you may get into a conversation like this:

“Sir, I have sinned because I did this.”
“Cool, do X, Y, and Z, and you will be forgiven.”

So, you do X, Y, and Z, and you try to get back on track toward that standard of goodness. But then, you mess up again, and you go back to where you started. Over and over, time after time. After enough cycles, some get fed up and quit religion altogether.

We, as human beings, utterly suck when it comes to following rules. We can’t even follow rules we set for ourselves, much less from a book of holy text. “Stealing is bad, so I won’t do that” (proceeds to snag a potato chip from a sibling’s bowl). “Adultery is bad, so I won’t be promiscuous” (boots up laptop to search for porn). The slightest slip in any moral code automatically disqualifies us from the benefits of a religious life. Therefore, we keep jumping though these hoops in order to “get right with god.”

Living under this system affects not just ourselves, but the people around us, as well.

There was one point, when my high school team was loading the bus after another hard loss, where our coach singled me out for being “the only one who gave it 100%, even though he was on the bench.” That comment didn’t just rub my teammates the wrong way; even though his comment painted me in a positive light, it irked me, too. I got upset because, despite how diligently I worked, the people around me did not apply the same amount of effort (especially the guys who did have skill!). The rest of the guys got upset because they were being shamed for not being as diligent as someone else. All of this ultimately resulted in me no longer playing, not just basketball, but sports in general.

Bad religion does the exact same thing. In the burdensome attempt to work towards perfection, frustrations rise until our drive and willpower run out.

But, what if we didn’t need to do all that?

In Christianity, there are two things that are essential for us to get right with God: confess with your mouths that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead. That’s it. That’s the base requirement. No balancing act, no blood sacrifice; just faith and belief. If following all those rules doesn’t dictate our qualification for Heaven, why do we still follow them? Why make things harder for ourselves?

Well, why do children imitate superheroes? Because they think they’re cool. Why do younger siblings copy their older siblings’ style? Because they like them.

Why do Christians still follow all those rules? Because we love the One who gave them to us, and because we love Him, we want to be more like Him. Christians try to emulate Christ because of how grateful we are for the salvation He provides. That is good religion. Good, life fulfilling, and life enriching, religion.

The question I pose to you is this: How will you approach religion? Is it going to be a chore? Just another things we have to do? Or are you going to be inspired by an act of God to be more like Him? The ball is in your court.