Chapter 15

Traditional Protestant beliefs favor competitive sports over spontaneous play because sports are

oriented around work and achievement.

Christians and Christian organizations have used sports to

recruit new members to their organizations and belief systems.

When sociologists study religion and religious beliefs, they often distinguish the sacred from the secular. According to this distinction,

religions are always associated with the sacred.

Religion is related to gender issues in sports because

religious beliefs often influence opportunities for females to play sports.

Magic is different than religion in that it consists of

rituals designed to produce practical results in the material world.

Taoist, Confucian, and Buddhist ideas in China emphasize the importance of

seeking harmony with nature.

Those who say there are essential and unchanging differences between sport and religion believe that sport is essentially

self-promotional, whereas religion is service- and love-oriented.

Religion can become a means of social control in sports when

sport performances are connected with the moral worth of athletes.

Traditional Protestant religious beliefs emphasize a set of key virtues that

support the spirit of modern sports.

In the box, Allah's Will, the experiences of Hassiba Boulmerka illustrate that

the bodies of Muslim women are at the center of struggles over values.

Religions share certain characteristics with ideologies, but they differ in that ideologies focus mostly on

the material world.

In the box, Allah's Will, the experiences of Ruqaya Al Ghasara from Bahrain show that some Muslim women avoid common objections to their participation in sports by

wearing athletic apparel that covers their bodies and hair.

Which of the following is NOT one of the strategies used by Christian athletes use when they doubt the worth of their sport participation as an act of worship?

Developing friendships with non-Christian athletes.

When people argue that sport is religion-like which of the following is NOT one of the similarities they identify?

Both trace their origins to rituals practiced in the Garden of Eden.

Sumo, or traditional Japanese wrestling, has strong historical ties to

Shinto religious rituals and ceremonies.

Sumo wrestlers take great care to preserve the sacredness of the dohyo (wrestling ring). They do this because

it is a tradition that they do not questions as wrestlers.

Some athletes have used religion to deal with the uncertainty they face during sport participation. When this is done, it becomes difficult to distinguish religion from

magic and superstition.

In India, the Hindus who are most likely to participate in sports are those with

middle or upper caste status.

Mainstream Buddhism and Hinduism don't support competitive sports because they emphasize

transcending the self and the material world.

When elite athletes experience a crisis of meaning in sports, research suggests that they

use sport participation as a platform to promote their religious beliefs.

The combination of sports and Christianity has usually led to

a reaffirmation of the status quo in mainstream sports.

In the box, Public Prayers at Sport Events, it states that in 2000 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that public prayers at sport event sponsored by public schools are

a violation of the U.S. Constitution.

In sociological terms, religions are socially shared beliefs and rituals that people

accept on faith and use as a source of meaning.

The policies of major Christian organizations in the United States are based on the assumption that the social and ethical problems in sports will continue to exist until

all people in sports accept Christ into their lives.

Traditional games among Native Americans were often connected with

animistic beliefs linking the material and supernatural worlds.

Muslim women in sports are active subjects who introduce new ideas about what it means to be a Muslim woman. At the same time, these women

are objects used by people as they debate issues of morality and change.

In Islamic countries, norms regulating the body are closely tied to

beliefs about the kinds of physical actions that displease Allah.

When social constructionists study sports and religions, they assume that meanings associated with each of these spheres of life

change over time and vary from one group to another.

Some people believe that religion and sport each have essential and unchanging qualities that are different. They usually say that the rituals and beliefs of religion are

connected with the sacred and supernatural.

A social constructionist approach to sports and religions is based primarily on

cultural and interactionist theories.

Robert Higgs argues that the combination of sports and Christian beliefs has led religion to become "muscularized" in a way that emphasizes

discipline and duty.

When Jews in the United States have played and excelled in sports during the last century, their motivation often was to

disrupt anti-Semitic stereotypes.

The major religious-sport organizations in the U.S. tend to

emphasize conservative, fundamentalist Christian orientations.

The popularity of sports among men in Islamic nations is often tied to

expressions of political and cultural nationalism.

In the section on sports and world religions, it is noted that

few female athletes come from traditionally Islamic countries.

Those most likely to use the Olympics as sites for spreading religious beliefs are

fundamentalist Christians.

In sports that are associated with risky lifestyles, athletes sometimes use religion to

generally stay out of trouble.

Because sport participation is based on self-promotion, athletes may sometimes combine sport participation with religious beliefs to

give sport participation special spiritual meaning.

Combining traditional Christian religious beliefs with the dominant forms of sports sometimes creates challenges for athletes because Christianity emphasizes

humility and service, whereas sports emphasize personal success.

Sociologists study religion because religious beliefs and meanings

influence the ways that people think about and make sense of the world.

When people define sport as a form of religion they identify similarities between sport and religion. For example, they note that both

invoke intense excitement and emotional commitment.

The recent Olympic teams that have been least likely to have women athletes are from nations where

most people hold fundamentalist Muslim beliefs.

The rapid global diffusion of work-related achievement values has

muted the influence of religious beliefs on athletic success.

The self-proclaimed Christian athlete is unique because

no other religion has an equivalent religious identity.