In an interview with ESPN over the weekend, NFL player Ray Lewis predicted that crime would rise if there was no upcoming NFL football season. He suggested that many people have made NFL football their whole lives, and if that was gone from their lives then they would experience extreme boredom and disorientation to the point that they would just give up on life. In Lewis' own words referring to fans of the NFL, "Do this research if we don't have a season -- watch how much evil, which we call crime, watch how much crime picks up, if you take away our game. There's too many people that live through us, people live through us... it takes away from life, itself. There's people who are really struggling for real. There's real struggles out there."
It's easy to point out how outrageous Lewis' comments are, but there is also a lot of sad, ironic truth to what he is saying. Many people in America have made the NFL their idol. Grown men live their lives through the teams they love so much. How sad it is that we would elevate a sport into something that we worship. And in America, we love our idolatry. Although we call ourselves a "Christian nation," many Christians in America are still desperately searching for meaning in their lives because they have no idea about what it means to follow Christ. Human beings are all searching for a transcendent purpose to our lives because that is how God made us. When we miss the point of the transcendent purpose that God provides for us, then we search for other smaller stories to live in and we create little idols for ourselves. Maybe it's the NFL, reality TV shows like Dancing With The Stars or American Idol, technology, shopping, going out to eat, money, work, celebrity gossip, or any other number of ridiculous things that people try to find meaning in. I have nothing against entertainment, but I have everything against idolatry. In America we may not be worshipping golden calves like the ancient Israelites did, but we have made idolatry our own art form in our modern context.
So maybe losing the NFL season might not be such a bad thing after all. Maybe it would force some grown men to look at themselves in the mirror and stop trying to live their lives through other people. Maybe it might force them to give up an idol, and instead find meaning in the transcendent purpose that God has for them in his mission to redeem all of humanity. Or, maybe crime would go up and society would be driven further into despair. Either way, there is a thin line between entertainment and idolatry that all Christians living in America must be aware of on a daily basis. Will we choose to follow Christ or follow our idols?
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