not that I relish this, but I've tried a few times to draw a distinction between what Kurt Warner says after a big win & what other Christian athletes typically say...and yesterday J-ville's David Garrard gave the perfect example during the NBC pre-game for the Indy/NE clash. On camera, in a live feed to Dan Patrick, Garrard said, "Well, the Lord was on my side today and he really came through for me." [emphasis added] Uhhhh, no. That is a huge example of precisely the kind of pseudo-religious hubris that keeps getting our country in trouble. I mean...I want to gnash my teeth and rend my robes when I hear this f***ing s***. As Bono once famously said, "the God I believe in isn't short of cash, mister!" I rather doubt God had the Jaguars in His Vegas parlay yesterday, so this gets my Trot Nixon Memorial award for 2009.
Now I believe there exists a road-less-taken in this example, and I could be wrong, but I think it is actually exemplified by Kurt Warner. I have never heard him say anything other than, in response to a lead-in question about how he feels after one of his several MVP performances, "I give all glory to God". There might not be that many theologians in this forum, but this is in fact quite precisely what Jesus actually preached: Whatever you achieve, be humble and give glory to God. Do not tell everyone that God favored you & that your success is due to your having special status in God's eyes. In other words, there is a way to thank God without claiming that God wanted you to win. One of the many idiosyncracies of Christianity is that a true believer has to thank God no matter what, win or lose, live or die.
So I give a big middle finger to David Garrard, and I'm very close to giving one to Tim Tebow. But by the same token, I give Warner props for relative restraint in this area.
Now if you want to argue that we should have a comprehensive separation of Church & Sports the way we're supposed to have one between Church & State...all I can say is that I agree in principle, but after 8 years of GWB, I think the Church/State question remains far more dire.