A REPORT of the 1973 Indianapolis 500 mile auto race in the June 11, 1973, issue of Time, mentions that it is the world's largest, richest, and costliest racing event of its kind. The story went on to say: "One rationale for the Indy has been that it encourages innovations in auto design, especially in safety devices. It is also supposed to be a stellar sporting event, a contest of skill. Neither is true. Rather, the Indy has become a vast ritual of the auto culture, with violence and increasing speed goals as the icons."
The 300,000 spectators that showed up paid up to $40 a ticket and more than five times the usual fare for a cab. Motel owners were charging $150 and up for a minimum three-day stay. The spectators went there "knowing that they will watch more of an attrition process than a race," and "that most drivers will never finish the 200 laps." The reporter deplored the fact that fifty-eight fatalities have occurred in the history of the Indy and that a dozen spectators were injured in the 1973 car race alone. One thing seemed to have pleased him in the whole affair the cancellation of the victory banquet. This cancellation he considered "one of the few smart moves of the entire event."
It is always heartening to see the world endorse our philosophy. What a difference there is be tween this kind of acceptance and that of watching the church copy after the world!
Years ago we as a church took our stand with reference to competitive sports. Ellen White, speaking of football and boxing, said that these sports have become "schools of brutality" that encourage "the love of domination" (The Adventist Home, p. 500). She was not in favor of other competitive sports as well, whether or not physically brutal. She condemned "the burning passion cultivated for supremacy in the games" (ibid.), and discouraged the granting of rewards and honors for achievements in various activities in our schools. (See Fundamentals of Christian Education, pp. 285-290.) She wrote: "Have not the playing of games and rewards, and the using of the boxing glove been educating and training after Satan's direction to lead to the possession of his attributes?" --Selected Messages, book 1, p. 132.
As far back as 1893 our educational leaders took their stand against competitive sports. In that year Mrs. White wrote to W. W. Prescott words of reproof because of the games that were conducted at Battle Creek College. In his reply of October 5, 1893, he wrote: "I wish to say that the reproof given us in reference to our games, and the spirit which was in the work last year, is timely and accepted. The evening after your letters arrived, I had a special meeting of the faculty and read these things to them. . . . We have decided to have no more match games of any kind on the grounds. Our recreation will be planned in such a way as to give the physical benefit desired without arousing up a spirit of contest, and without having it on the basis of athletic sports."
Quoting from the Educational Code of 1966 of one of our conferences with reference to sports, the following appears, which at least indicates the attitude at that time: "The promotion of certain activities by competitive contests and by awarding prizes and honors often causes rivalry and pride and may lead to unwholesome emotional stress. Such practices are contrary to inspired instruction and the true Christian spirit." 1
We are living in an age when men according to prophecy are "lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God" (2 Tim. 3:4). "The amusements," said Mrs. White, "and expenditures of means for self-pleasing, which lead on step by step to self-glorifying, and the educating in these games for pleasure produce a love and passion for such things that is not favorable to the perfection of Christian character. . . . There are threads leading out through the habits and customs and worldly practices, and the actors become so engrossed and infatuated that they are pronounced in heaven lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God." --The Adventist Home, p. 499.
Speaking of parents and guardians who encourage self-esteem and self-importance in the children under their care, Mrs. White pointed out the attitude this would encourage in the youth, in the following statement:
"They pursue a course of petting, gratifying every whim, and thus foster the desire for self-gratification so that the youth receive a mold of character that unfits them for the commonplace duties of practical life. When these students come to our schools, they do not appreciate their privileges; they do not consider that the purpose of education is to qualify them for usefulness in this life and for the future life in the kingdom of God. They act as if the school were a place where they were to perfect them selves in sports, as if this was an important branch of their education, and they come armed and equipped for this kind of training. This is all wrong, from beginning to end. It is not in any way appropriate for this time, it is not qualifying the youth to go forth as missionaries, to endure hardship and privation, and to use their powers for the glory of God.
"Amusement that serves as exercise and recreation is not to be discarded; nevertheless it must be kept strictly within bounds, else it leads to love of amusement for its own sake, and nourishes the desire for selfish gratification." --Ellen G. White, Letter 47, 1893.
Thinkers and decision makers in the world today are more and more coming to see that the lofty ideals for which we stand have far more merit in them than they were at first able to detect. There seems to be a growing understanding among educators that competition and failure-orientation are not essential to learning, but are, in fact, damaging. Lehner and Kube delineate these harmful aspects as follows:
"Pupils are constantly contending for the highest grades, for the awards and prizes, for the increased status, that are be stowed on the most successful. Athletic contests re-inforce this tendency. It is an alarming emphasis. Competition for grades in college is a source of marked anxiety to many and may become so intense that some students strive not so much to learn as to get grades regardless of whether they have to cheat or crib in the process." 2
A recent report appearing in the American Journal of College Health Associations, signed by five M.D.'s and one Dr. P.H., reports that the intense competition and drive for achievement that characterizes college life is having adverse psychological impact on students in American colleges.
One of every ten students seeks help for emotional problems before he graduates. Approximately twelve in ten thousand find their troubles so unbearable that they attempt suicide. Ten to 15 per cent of freshmen classes fail to return for a second year. Up to 25 per cent of the student body may be on academic probation at any one time. Only 30 per cent of those initially enrolled graduate in four years from the college of their first attendance. What's behind it all. This is what they found:
"Unfortunately, all too often scholarship is a competitive type of enterprise where, in every class, each student competes with his colleagues. The student is forced to be a competitor, and some students are afraid to compete while others do not want to run in the 'rat race.' " 3
Shouldn't that encourage us to stand firm in upholding our inspired principles rather than conforming step by step to the already decaying standards of the world?
FOOTNOTES
1. Pacific Union Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, Education Code, Section 3102-03, 1966, p. 30.
2. George I. Lehner and Ella Kube, The Dynamics of Personal Adjustment (New York: Prentice-Hall, 1955), p. 251.
3. Lewis Barbato, et al. "An Interpretation of Academic Underachievement," American Journal of College Health Associations. XVIII, December, 1969, p. 112.
