Monday, 12 March 2012

Angels in the Outfield: Christianity in a Film about Sports!


Angels in the Outfield (1994) is a lovely Disney film about a young orphan boy named Roger who prays to Heaven that his favourite team, the California Angels, will come up from last place after his father sarcastically tells him that they will become a family again when the Angels win the pennant. As a young hopeful boy, he believes him and begins to pray for his team in hopes that his faith will bring his team to victory, and his family back together again.

As a film that mixes Christian faith and sports, I feel that this is an interesting movie to discuss with regards to the convergence of religion and sports.

Religion and Sports within the Film
Right from the start of the film, the themes of faith and Catholicism becomes a major theme. In fact, the first line of the movie, said by PJ (Roger's orphan friend) is, “Roger, do you believe in heaven?” With Roger responding “I guess...”. As the film progresses, religious themes become more intermingled with sports when Roger prays that his favourite team will win the championship, not only because of his father's commitment, but because they are his favourite team. By praying for his sports team, Roger represents an entire society of sports fans. These individuals are strongly connected to their favourite teams and they use their faith and spirituality to support their teams. The ritual of prayer is a very spiritual act in the Christian community. This film demonstrates that sports have become so important to people that the spiritual actions are being used for non-tradition intentions.

Religious function in Sports
This film also puts forth the idea of sports emulating the social function of religion. At the beginning of the film, Roger is a lonely young boy without a family, and he relies on sports to provide him with some sort of belonging. As the film progresses, and his gift of seeing Angels becomes known by the coach and the team, Roger is welcome by the California Angels and they treat as though he is a part of the team. To take this idea of community and family even further, the coach of the California Angels adopts Roger, making the theme of family and collectivity even clearer. This literal community-building in the film demonstrates the wider connection individuals have with sports teams. Individuals feel they are a part of the team, and the collective excitement, as Eric Bain-Selbo explains, exudes a temporary notion of intense community [1].

I would argue that this film demonstrates that sports and religion has developed an interesting relationship, whereby sports has become such an important component in many people's lives that religion and sports have become equal. Interestingly enough, religion has accepted this correlation and association. Society is mixing religious rituals with sports, while sports have begun to take on many of the functions of religion.

[1] Bain-Selbo, Eric.“Ecstasy, Joy, and Sorrow: The Religious Experience of Southern College Football.” Journal of Religion and Popular Culture 20 (2008), 13p

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