As one undertakes the challenge of writing a book, the job of the publisher and the six reviewers is to provide direction and feedback to the author. The back-and-forth process takes about a year. One of my book reviewers has asked me to write a chapter on the use of religion and prayer in sports.
My book is geared toward the way athletes use defense mechanisms to cope with competitive stress and honestly I had not given the connection between religion and sport much thought. I was aware that the Oscar-winning film “Charities of Fire” was all about religion and athletic excellence, but I had not seen that movie in years.
To approach research on this subject I began to talk to my patients and other professional athletes and I quickly realized that references to God and pleas to enlist his help are ubiquitous in sports. Cyclists say “Please God, get me up this hill” and golfers will bargain by saying “God, if I make this putt, I promise I will try to be a better person.” Before every game in every locker room, the coach will either bring in a cleric or will himself lead the team in a prayer.
Religion, prayer or a variety of quirky superstitions are tools many athletes rely upon to manage anxiety, bolster confidence and gain strength. As they say, “there are no atheists in foxholes.”
In my athletic career I will sometimes bargain with God. “OK, here’s the deal, God. If you help me to qualify for this tournament, I promise I will give $100 to the poor box. It’s kind of a win/win situation. If I qualify, God gets the $100 and if I don’t qualify, I get to save the $100.
I was raised as Catholic and went to Catholic grammar school and a Catholic college and I’m familiar with religious doctrinaire. However, my Ph.D work was from SUNY Stony Brook and my post-doctoral psychoanalytic degree was from the Long Island Institute of Psychoanalysis at Nassau County Medical Center, so part of my education was religious but part is science-based. And the religious paradigm is in conflict with the scientific paradigm.
Freud was very clear about religion. He felt religion is an illusion and a belief system that provides comfort and control. In his book “The Future of an Illusion,” he explains that civilization can only exist if it has strict rules about instinctual gratification. Our animal instinct is to engage in frequent, casual, promiscuous sex and to be very aggressive and to kill at will.
Civilization can only survive if these two basic drives are controlled. Freud suggested that religion is society’s primary upholder of social mores, ethics and the rules of suppression. The Ten Commandments emphasize sexual control: “Thou shall not commit adultery” and “Thou shall not covet thy neighbor’s wife” and they emphasize aggressive controls, “Thou shall not kill.”
Sports are all about the expression and the control of aggression. If the athlete represses his aggression too much, he loses power. But If he does not control his aggression enough, he breaks rules, and the referee calls an infraction.
The Freudian defense mechanisms explain the management of aggression without the help of religious rules or a God. Interestingly, the most mature defenses of sublimation, asceticism and altruism, have their roots in religion. Asceticism is the renunciation of worldly pleasure. Every famous religious figure has renounced worldly pleasures. Buddha renounced all of his wealth as did St. Francis of Assisi. And, by the way, this is exactly what professional athletes are required to do. They must lead ascetic lives of exercise, ice baths, a refusal to give in to laziness, and have the strength to avoid gluttony in order to stay trim and fit.
Altruism is a basic religious term for charity work or giving to others. Saints are canonized partly due to their charity work. Saint Francis of Assisi was born wealthy, eventually renounced it all and gave away his money to beggars. In sports, altruism, or the selfless giving to others, is the definition of teamwork. Every coaches preaches the mantra “there is no I in team,” which means don’t be selfish but instead be a team player, be generous with the ball and all will prosper.
Sublimation is defined as transforming one’s desire to kill or have sex into something more socially acceptable. Sublimation is considered by Freud to be one of the most mature forms of defense and the best way to deal with our base instincts.
In Christianity, the classification of vices, or the Seven Deadly Sins, includes Fornication, Gluttony, Wrath, Pride, Sloth, Envy and Greed. Mankind must figure out ways to manage these base desires or vices. A successful athlete’s life requires that they master all of these vices in an environment that tests them daily.
Tiger Woods is a good example of someone who managed these vices early on in his career. He led an ascetic life, rising at 4:30 a.m. every day to run six miles and he constantly watched his diet. He managed the sins of sloth, gluttony and wrath well, but the devil has a way of weaseling through. Jesus said, “It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.” And fornication, greed and pride seemed to have had their way with Woods.
It will be easy for me to produce a chapter or two on how athletes use religion and prayer to cope with their stress. Sports, and especially high level sports, is filled with anxiety, tension, pain and frustration, so it is no surprise that athletes use prayer, church going and looking to the heavens for some help. Praise the Lord!
