An Olympic athlete who's also a pretty good theologian

I have never known quite what to do with athletes who publicly praise God for what they achieve in competition.

That's because it always has seemed presumptuous to me to imagine that God cares even a little whether the Tigers beat the Royals or the Blue Streaks smash the Lasers or Jill beats LaToya in a 100-meter dash.

And yet there must be -- and are -- successful athletes who are grateful to have a generative relationship with God but who don't praise God for helping them win or blame God if they lose.

Maybe I've found such an athlete in four-time Olympic gold medalist Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone (pictured here).

As this story recounts, she says her growing Christian faith helped her see that her self-worth wasn't based on whether she won when she was racing or hurdling on the track. She came to grasp the idea that her value as a human didn't depend on whether she won fancy metals.

She now understands that her value is, instead, rooted in knowing that she is loved by God.

Learning that, she says, "really just washed me clean of a lot of those thoughts and feelings and emotions that I had, and it’s my source now of how I overcome fear.”

As a multi-metal winner at this year's summer Olympic games, she naturally has gained more media attention and has not shied away from trying to explain what part faith plays in her life. That advantage often seems to turn athletes into misguided theologians who think they won because God preferred that result. Athletes who talk about their faith in God can lead people to imagine that they are crediting God for their victories.

I don't think that's what McLaughlin-Levrone is saying. And if I'm right about that, good for her.

The flip side of all this is about religious leaders using the language of athletics to encourage their followers. For instance, in I Corinthians 9:24, the Apostle Paul says to those receiving his letter, "Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it."

Not all such language is theologically silly. But it's easy to imagine that the vicissitudes of life are some kind of athletic challenge for which we just need better shoes or more aerobic training. The comparison of life to an athletic contest almost inevitably breaks down.

But sometimes athletes -- and achievers in any field -- come to understand that they aren't worthy human beings just because they won a gold medal or a Pulitzer Prize. Rather, their lives are precious because they are made in the image of God, who loves them without reserve.

* * *

MORE QUESTIONS ABOUT THE SHROUD OF TURIN

Yet another investigation into the mysterious Shroud of Turin, which some people think is the burial cloth of Jesus, has been completed. To the surprise of many, as this story reports, this time researchers suggest the cloth may really be about 2,000 years old and might actually be Christ's burial cloth. All of which raises the question of how much actual, verifiable history is required for the claims of Christianity to be true. Might it be possible for followers of Jesus today simply to adhere to his moral teachings and ignore the faith tradition's claims of history -- his birth, ministry, death, resurrection? Or is the incarnation incomprehensible without verification of historical events surrounding Jesus?

Oh, and this New York Post story describes how artificial intelligence has been used to show us the face of the man on the Shroud of Turin. To me, the image looks a little too much like a white man who has had a hard day wrestling cattle, but I'll check that out if and when I get to see Jesus.

* * *

P.S.: You can get an email with a link to my blog every time it publishes by registering here. It's free and easy.

* * *

ANOTHER P.S.: Here's a link to a Zoom gathering (about an hour long) in which Mindy Corporon and I participated a few days ago. The subject was religion-based violence and how to respond to it. The gathering was sponsored by the Interfaith Center of Miami University in Ohio. Mindy founded the SevenDays organization about 10 years ago after a neo-Nazi murdered her father, son and another person at Jewish facilities in the K.C. area. I serve on the SevenDays board.