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The PFB Sports Survey is a weekly feature here at Prayers For Blowouts where we throw a few sports related questions at some of the most notable voices among Christian authors, pastors, musicians, and coffee baristas to see if they like sports as much as we do.
Today’s spotlight is on Becky Garrison, who’ll take a flyrod and some fresh air to a couch and a television any day.
Becky Garrison’s recent books include The New Atheist Crusaders and Their Unholy Grail and Rising from the Ashes: Rethinking Church. She will be featured in the upcoming documentary The Ordinary Radicals. For more information log on to her website (www.beckygarrison.com)
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1. What number best describes the role sports play in your life on a scale of 1 to 10?
BG: Outdoor sports 8; amateur spectator sports 5; professional spectator sports 3
2. Rank your 3 overall favorite sports, college or pro.
BG: Amateur FDNY vs. NYPD games - football (including Gaelic football), baseball, hockey - they play for the love of the game, the crowds are friendly and the proceeds go to a grassroots cause. Sounds like a win-win situation for me.
3. What is the one team that you root for more passionately than any other, and is there a team that you hate, maybe a little too much?
BG: As I live in New York City, I follow the area teams somewhat. I don’t “hate” a particular team though I roll my eyes in disgust when management turns a blind eye to criminal behavior.
4. Do you play fantasy sports?
BG: Something tells me I lack the necessary ontological equipment needed to enjoy playing sports with myself.
5. What is the most memorable sporting event you have ever attended in person?
BG: The 2002 FDNY v. NYPD hockey game - it was the first sporting match-up post 9/11 and it was moving beyond belief in helping the city heal and move forward.
6. What is the best highlight and/or worst lowlight of your sports playing career as a child or as an adult?
BG: I was participating in the CCA Manhattan Cup Fishing Tournament a few years ago when I won an award for largest striped bass and largest bluefish caught with bait. Nothing but nothing beats reeling in a big one with Lady Liberty in the background going “you go girl!”
7. If you could change one thing about sports, what would it be?
BG: My late grandfather Roy Clogston lived and breathed amateur athletics. I know we can’t turn back the hands of time and no one is going to give up all the endorsements and glitz that have come to be identified with athletics these days. But I seldom see college or professional athletes who expressed such a heartfelt joy for sports as Grandpa did. How can we recapture that spirit?
8. Do you have an opinion on Christian athletes who, without being prompted, talk about their faith in post-game interviews?
BG: Why do they praise God when they win a game but never thank God when they lose? Since when did the Almighty become their personal bookie?
9. High school gym class…your favorite 45 minutes of the day or the source of countless nightmares and embarrassments?
BG: I was a writer not a jock - this was the one time during the day when all the ‘cool kids’ would rag on us braniacs. I didn’t develop my interest in outdoor sports until my twenties.
10. Sports are often the whipping boy of pastors and clergy because so much passion, money, time, and energy is poured into them. Do you think this criticism is valid, or are sports okay as a diversion from the stresses of life.
BG: Well some pastors would beg to differ with that assessment. For instance, Mark Driscoll has made it clear he won’t worship anyplace where he can beat up the pastor. So my hunch is he and others of his ilk celebrate the machismo that has come to define sports. Also, it depends on the nature of how the game is played. For example, I saw a documentary at the Tribeca Film Festival called Kicking It narrated by Colin Farrell that showed how men’s lives were turned around through their participation in the Homeless World Cup. Another documentary I saw at this same festival titled Football Under Cover brought together German and Iranian girls in Iran so they could play the first game the Iranian soccer team has ever played.
11. If you had to compete against other media folk, in which of these 5 competitions would you have the best chance of winning? 5-mile run, 18 holes of golf, free throw shooting contest, arm wrestling match, or a game of bowling.
BG: None of them - now give me a flyrod and now you’re talking. I recently learned I’m a pretty good skeet shooter too.
12. What is your favorite sports movie of all-time?
BG: Probably Bull Durham though I just saw David Mamet’s Redbelt recently and am still reveling in that story of redemption.
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You can click here for an exhaustive (but not exhausting) list of everyone who’s been featured as a PFB Sports Survey participant.
If you’d like to be considered for the PFB Sports Survey, or know someone who should be, send along a name and email address to prayersforblowouts(at)gmail(dot)com.
Tags: Becky Garrison