Brigham Young University plays for me. Vicariously, but they do all the same.
Like a lot of sports teams that we sports fans identify with, like being American or anything else during the Olympics, BYU does that for me. I am from Indiana, so I definitely identify with my Hoosiers and other Indiana sports teams. I like to see a lot of Indiana people do well in life and in sports competition, sometimes not really shaking up the world but interesting to me all the same.
Identity.
But my religious school where I attended and graduated in the 1990s is different than just a geographical connection. Even before I was accepted there as an undergraduate in 1992, I liked the school and rooted for their teams because the institution represents my faith.
Faith is active, some more than others.
Mine, the faith of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, is more active than some.
How so? Many people know...
We have a health code called the Word of Wisdom that prohibits alcohol, tobacco, coffee and tea and eschews poor diet in general. Maybe the last item is the one we struggle the most with.
But we do emphasize athletics, and therefore the BYU Cougar athletes, some of whom are not members of our faith but represent us by following the same rules of the Church, are a sub-set of our visible heroes.
We don't play on Sundays. We pay a robust tithing from our incomes. We have many meetings and outreaches that require our time and resources. We abstain from pre-marital sexual relationships, and we have courts of discipline for those who have broken these commitments.
We, speaking for Latter-day Saints or Mormons, have large commitments to Scouting and Youth organizations, we have food programs that require our time and sacrifice, we have family history centers where we work and serve, temples that require extra devotion, part and full-time missions that take significant parts of our lives...
So those who follow these strictures and rules are the vicarious embodiment of our values.
BYU represents who we are.
The Pacific Ten, a major conference consortium of mostly state schools in the west (plus USC and Stanford), invited two new members to their fold a few years ago. They were Utah and Colorado. State and obviously secular schools. BYU has always wanted to be part of the PAC-10, but when not invited in 2010 decided to run independent in football and linked up to the Catholic league of the West Coast Conference in all other sports.
Perhaps more fitting, since those schools are religious as well and respect the Sunday no-play rule. There is also Pepperdine, which belongs to the Church of Christ, and now newly accepted Pacific University, which is apparently a private secular place of higher learning.
But it is not the PAC-12. This is what BYU-Provo had aspired to be a part of athletically since at least the 1970s when that group was expanding into Arizona, going from eight to ten.
Nevertheless, BYU sports teams still schedule all the "big boys" (and girls) as possible, and still tries to compete at a national level in most sports.
And sometimes they courageously succeed. Despite the extra rules placed on its athletes.
Some of them are my heroes, because I know what they stand for and live for.
Jesus Christ. The Church we understand that He directs. Jesus' principles. Sacrifice. Testimony. A fully invested commitment to serve God.
Go BYU.
And no, Utah, or UCLA, or UNLV fans, I am not claiming that God favors the Cougars to win its games over your teams. No, Notre Dame and BYU, or even Army, Navy and Air Force, despite our love and appreciation for extra duties are not favored from on high like David over Goliath in the Old Testament.
But the principle of what the sacrifice and identity is about is acknowledged.
I love to see BYU win, because when they win, they are justifying a bit of my faith.
No recreational sport on the Sabbath? Check.
No alcohol or tea? Coffee? Check.
No carousing as a young college age student? Check.
Go on a volunteer religious mission for two years? Check.
Go Cougs. Beat your competition and live happy.
Or lose and live happy. Long live the dream.
Blog it, EMC.
Like a lot of sports teams that we sports fans identify with, like being American or anything else during the Olympics, BYU does that for me. I am from Indiana, so I definitely identify with my Hoosiers and other Indiana sports teams. I like to see a lot of Indiana people do well in life and in sports competition, sometimes not really shaking up the world but interesting to me all the same.
Identity.
But my religious school where I attended and graduated in the 1990s is different than just a geographical connection. Even before I was accepted there as an undergraduate in 1992, I liked the school and rooted for their teams because the institution represents my faith.
Faith is active, some more than others.
Mine, the faith of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, is more active than some.
How so? Many people know...
We have a health code called the Word of Wisdom that prohibits alcohol, tobacco, coffee and tea and eschews poor diet in general. Maybe the last item is the one we struggle the most with.
But we do emphasize athletics, and therefore the BYU Cougar athletes, some of whom are not members of our faith but represent us by following the same rules of the Church, are a sub-set of our visible heroes.
We don't play on Sundays. We pay a robust tithing from our incomes. We have many meetings and outreaches that require our time and resources. We abstain from pre-marital sexual relationships, and we have courts of discipline for those who have broken these commitments.
We, speaking for Latter-day Saints or Mormons, have large commitments to Scouting and Youth organizations, we have food programs that require our time and sacrifice, we have family history centers where we work and serve, temples that require extra devotion, part and full-time missions that take significant parts of our lives...
So those who follow these strictures and rules are the vicarious embodiment of our values.
BYU represents who we are.
The Pacific Ten, a major conference consortium of mostly state schools in the west (plus USC and Stanford), invited two new members to their fold a few years ago. They were Utah and Colorado. State and obviously secular schools. BYU has always wanted to be part of the PAC-10, but when not invited in 2010 decided to run independent in football and linked up to the Catholic league of the West Coast Conference in all other sports.
Perhaps more fitting, since those schools are religious as well and respect the Sunday no-play rule. There is also Pepperdine, which belongs to the Church of Christ, and now newly accepted Pacific University, which is apparently a private secular place of higher learning.
But it is not the PAC-12. This is what BYU-Provo had aspired to be a part of athletically since at least the 1970s when that group was expanding into Arizona, going from eight to ten.
Nevertheless, BYU sports teams still schedule all the "big boys" (and girls) as possible, and still tries to compete at a national level in most sports.
And sometimes they courageously succeed. Despite the extra rules placed on its athletes.
Some of them are my heroes, because I know what they stand for and live for.
Jesus Christ. The Church we understand that He directs. Jesus' principles. Sacrifice. Testimony. A fully invested commitment to serve God.
Go BYU.
And no, Utah, or UCLA, or UNLV fans, I am not claiming that God favors the Cougars to win its games over your teams. No, Notre Dame and BYU, or even Army, Navy and Air Force, despite our love and appreciation for extra duties are not favored from on high like David over Goliath in the Old Testament.
But the principle of what the sacrifice and identity is about is acknowledged.
I love to see BYU win, because when they win, they are justifying a bit of my faith.
No recreational sport on the Sabbath? Check.
No alcohol or tea? Coffee? Check.
No carousing as a young college age student? Check.
Go on a volunteer religious mission for two years? Check.
Go Cougs. Beat your competition and live happy.
Or lose and live happy. Long live the dream.
Blog it, EMC.
Does this have some value for something artistic? Or of some humanistic passion or something worth something?
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