God has a plan: Moral values and beliefs of Christian athletes in competitive sports

Abstract

Kretschmann R, Benz C. God has a Plan: moral values and beliefs of Christian athletes in competitive sports. J. Hum. Sport Exerc. Vol. 7, No. 2, pp. 495-519, 2012. Christian athletes are people with specific and distinctive moral guidelines in everyday life as well as in competitive sports. No matter if they are competing in triathlon, athletics, or playing soccer, if they are playing in the lowest or highest division of their sport, or if they are being faced with unmoral situations, that is what we expect. They therefore stand in contrast to some athletes of today's competitive sports who do not seem to have any guideline at all anymore, who would not shy at anything to win a competition and who therefore give competitive sports a rather negative touch. But is that really the case? Do Christian athletes fulfil this expectation? In the following study some light will be shed on the world of Christian sportsmen. Their ways of thinking, coping and acting in regard to morality in sports will be explored, interpreted and analyzed. © Faculty of Education. University of Alicante.