Fanaticism - or Fans - at their Best

Last Wednesday, around two hours before heading off to see the Inter vs. Barcelona game, I was speaking to a friend of mine (ahem, before she rudely abandoned me in mid-conversation!) who asked me if I was going to the Red Carpet Event later on that evening. I promptly replied that I had opted to see the match instead and while she seemed to be a bit disappointed that I was going to watch football instead of spending a night out with friends, she then pondered why it is fine for someone to be a football fanatic and not fine for them to be a God fanatic. This got me thinking a bit.

First, however, before moving onto my arguments, I would like to set the record straight slightly. This argument, I believe, was not intended for me but was very much a generalisation. I believe that in such scenarios, we have to distinguish fully between events that are completely intended for God, such as Youth Meetings and the Mass, and social events that are designed to spend time amongst your friends, even if the majority of these form part of a community. In the case presented here, we are clearly speaking about the latter. It is clearly wrong and irresponsible, especially if you are building up a relationship with God, to abandon Him to watch a football match or do some sort of social activity that would overlap one's participation in getting closer to Him. It goes against the grain of making God the centre-focus of one's life; by doing something such as the above, one is simply placing materialistic items before God. Furthermore, to also close a point that has been lingering on for quite a while, not going a community-based social event does not mean that you are choosing other things, such as football, over Jesus. While the latter point was not a problem with my friend, who didn't even bring this argument up, I have heard it one too many times from certain people in the past to not mention it; so doing so now will indefinitely clear things up.

Having said that (and that indeed was an argument in itself, and probably part of my argument too for that matter), I will tackle the argument of fanaticism. For a start, I'm not of the school of thought that fanaticism, is positive. Fanaticism shows that something is needed in excess; you cannot live without this something in life; it leads you to do things that you might not even want to do. Of course, there is something that we cannot live without in life, and that thing is God. Actually, the word 'thing', I believe, is incorrectly used - I'd rather use the term 'entity' instead. Anyway, some people, in all fairness, opt to do so and survive accordingly, but as practicing Christians, we cannot live without God at any moment in our lives because otherwise our lives will be empty and void. Our lives, in a nutshell, would not be worth living at any moment, any time, and any day. Hence, by elimination, we can say that being a football fanatic is something that is not even a tenth as critical as being a fan of God*. Indeed, nothing is as critical as that.

Therefore, why do we seem to be fine with being football fanatics and not fine with being fans of God? It ultimately boils down to the same issue as always - God seems to be a taboo among people in general, and when people openly admit that they are Christians and that they love living in the Christian way because they really do experience God fully, then they get condemned, criticised and often emarginated for it. Placing football ahead of God is ultimately that that I mentioned earlier - giving an increased level of importance to something materialistic as opposed to giving that increased level of importance to Him. It seems as if for the most part, the general societal perception is that God is not 'cool' enough for such people, and hence society finds it easy to take the mickey out of the segment of society that really does make an effort to be better Christians and incorporate Him more in their lives. While this isn't right, it's unfortunately reality - and as we all know, reality is something that we have to live with.

We, as Christians, must try to change this perception as much as we can; but while it isn't impossible (as nothing is impossible for God), we have to acknowledge fully that we have a major battle on our hands to do so.

God Bless You all!
Matti

*Following an important distinction between 'fanaticism' and 'fan', it is important to realise that I have been referring to the latter all throughout. The context has been edited to reflect this.