Though I have never met him, Ted Kluck and I share several common bonds. Both of us love Christ and love sports (and presumably the first far more than the second!). Both of us played sports in abundant amounts when we were younger. And both of us made money as young adults by attending sports events and writing stories about them. Knowing all of that, it was a foregone conclusion that I was going to like his latest book, The Reason for Sports: A Christian Fanifesto (Moody). And I do. It is a compelling read for men who like sports and desire to think about them through the lens of a Christian worldview. I mean, you can’t really go wrong with a book that quotes J.C. Ryle and Pete Rose on consecutive pages.

Reason for Sports is a collection of writings by Kluck that reflect on sports in light of the Gospel. Kluck has been a sportswriter, is a contributor to ESPN.com and is the author of several books, including Facing Tyson, Paper Tiger and Game Time. He also co-wrote Why We’re Not Emergent and Why We Love the Church with Kevin DeYoung.

Kluck addresses a wide variety of sports-related topics in a style that is often tongue-in-cheek, but in a way that also gives Christian sports fans plenty of food for thought where Scripture intersects with our games. Topics range from steroids, jock apologies, sports and sexuality sports busts (“bust” meaning failure, not a chest-up sculpture suitable for display in the foyer) to personalities such as Tony Dungy, Mike Tyson, Tom Brady (and his public admission that even winning the SuperBowl hasn’t brought much meaning to his life) and legendary boxer Muhammad Ali.

In a chapter on steroids, he argues that it is far better for fathers to teach their sons to be godly losers than it is to push them to embrace a “whatever it takes” toward achieving extreme athletic prowess:

“But I want my son to know that if he is a godly loser I will respect him deeply. I pray that he won’t be as shortsighted as his father, and he won’t, even for a year or two, find his identity in games or bench presses or 40-yard dash times. And I want him to know that he is to work as unto the Lord and play to win, but if he loses, and loses with integrity, that it will be an honor to go into that alley, just to carry him out.”

On sports and humility, Kluck addresses the ultra-ostentatious world of professional sports where Sportscenter highlights often focus on the latest end zone dance by Chad Ochocinco (the football artist formerly known as Chad Johnson) as much as the scores and stats from the games themselves. Kluck suggests that perhaps Christian athletes should be, of all things, different than their peers:

“So maybe instead of thumping our chests and pointing at the sky to ‘be a light’ in the football community, the Christian athlete simply walks back to the huddle. Maybe instead of soaking up the adulation of an unbelievable dunk, he just goes back and sits on the bench afterward. Maybe instead of kneeling in the end zone for an elaborate show of prayer, he just flips the ball to the ref and thanks God on his own for life, health, and the ability to play a fun game for money. Perhaps he does so, praying that God will give him grace, and striving after true humility to echo Proverbs 3:34 (Toward the scorners he is scornful, but to the humble, he gives favor.)”

Overall, Kluck’s book is probably a very different kind of read for the evangelical bibliophile, but it is an enjoyable and compelling one. It definitely provides some solid theological thinking about the games so many of us love.

[Editor's Note: This is the second part of our interview with Carolyn McCulley. You can read part 1 here.]

How has feminism effected the next generation of men and women?

By next, I assume you mean the rising generation. One of the most profound ways it has affected young adults is in the presentation of what is normative. Most of the young women I speak to have no idea about what happened in the feminist movement. They don't know there were three waves (the second wave was the women's liberation movement of the 1960s and 1970s, but that's not the only one), and because of that, they are unaware of the third wave that affects them now.

The third wave began in the 1990s as a rejection of the victim ideology of the second wave, which did briefly align with evangelicals in the anti-pornography movement. The daughters of second-wavers rejected this mentality and instead embraced a "pro-porn, pro-sex" ideology that has created the hyper-aggressive female sexuality that we live amongst today. Because it's not a politically visible movement, many people are unaware of it, but not of its effects. Third-wave feminism has contributed to the pornographication of our culture, to the immodesty of women's fashions and behavior, to the celebration of women's immorality in shows like Sex and the City and Girls Gone Wild, and so on. It is also decidedly anti-family and pro-pansexuality.

This affects both young men and women in widespread ways, from the hook-up culture to gender identity confusion.

What do people training for ministry need to be aware of when they are helping people think biblically through manhood and womanhood?

I think it is helpful to know how we got to where we are in our culture and to be able to explain that to others. Of course, the Word of God is all that is necessary to convict and convert people. But for those who oppose the authority of Scripture on this topic, I believe it is quite illuminating for them to understand the motivations behind certain aspects of the feminist movement. To be able to explain, for example, Margaret Sanger's embrace of eugenics, her racism, her harsh attitude toward children, and her lethal philosophies that are part of Planned Parenthood's legacy as their founder can open someone's eyes to the motives behind this pro-abortion business. To be able to understand the deep impact of Social Darwinism and the Industrial Revolution on our concept of the home can be helpful to someone who accepts the 20^th century's sea change of the home once being a place of productivity and now being a place of consumption. To know that helps women, especially, to understand why the home-or the private sphere, as I like to refer to it-is so important in the biblical framework.

But I think the most important thing for people in ministry to understand is that the seeds of feminism lie in all of our hearts. Apart from the grace of God, we are each rebels before God's authority. Feminism is just another expression of that indwelling rebellion. Therefore, our enemies are not the flesh-and-blood feminists, but the enemies listed in Scripture - our sin, our worldly, flesh-driven lusts, and our spiritual adversary. We must condemn the ideas but be merciful to those in captivity to them. I am appalled by Margaret Sanger's ideas and life, but if the Lord had not revealed Himself to me, I would be walking in lock-step with her philosophies.

In this installment of Unchanging Truth, we are highlighting this article from Ligon Duncan and Terry Johnson on family worship. We hope it will be of service to parents, fathers in particular, as they seek to lead their families in worship.

There has been a recent miniboom of interest in the renewal of family religion and family worship in the evangelical community. Perhaps fueled by (a) the sense of cultural assault upon the family, (b) the strong current emphasis on parental involvement in childhood education, and (c) in some quarters a recapturing of a covenantal vision of church and family life, many are open to and desirous of learning what the family as a unit ought to be doing together in the way of daily worshiping of God in the reading, singing and praying of Scripture. And not only is there a new impetus, but many helpful resources are now available that were nonexistent just a few years ago.

None too soon. The family itself is an endangered species in our culture, and the Christian family is under the severest of strains: the pace of life, the worldliness and materialism of church and society, the self-destructive freedoms in which we love to indulge, the capacity for temptations to access us even in the safety of our own homes through satellite television and the internet, mens loss of the sense of responsibility to take up the duty for spiritual leadership as fathers in the home, the culture of divorce, the culture of day care, and more. Furthermore, there are those who so undervalue the traditional family that they are seeking to redefine it, while at the same time some suggest that a day will come when biotechnology, community, and government programs will pave the way for the obsolescence of the traditional family.

God has never underestimated the importance of the family. After all, like marriage, he invented it. The family is the original society from which every other society emerges. This is seen in creation itself as unfolded in the early chapters of Genesis. Redemptive history and the covenant of grace both indicate the essential role of family in Gods program. Founded by a divine directive and regulated by divine ordinances, it is the normal school in which faith in God and obedience to his law are taught. Its suitability for this function is seen in its unique features: (1) it is small and close: no bureaucratic barriers impede the recognition of need and the application of discipline, no administrative distance prevents the identification of patterns or allows for idealistic assessments and solutions; (2) authority is displayed, but its harshness is tempered with parental affection; (3) ideally two parents, two parties, complement one another and are vested with joint authority; (4) mutual accountability and divine, transcendent authority are illustrated in every relationship.

You can read the rest of this article here.

[Editor's Note: Carolyn McCulley was kind enough to do an interview with Gender Blog contributor Courtney Reissig. Carolyn blogs at Radical Womanhood , which you should check out if you don't already!]

Where are you from and what is your current vocation?

I grew up in the Washington, DC, area as a military brat. I studied broadcast journalism at the University of Maryland and I am fortunate to still be working in media years later. I also received a certification in women’s studies from the University of Maryland, which was part of the reason I eventually wrote Radical Womanhood .

What is the premise of your book, Radical Womanhood?

The subtitle is “Feminine Faith in a Feminist World.” It’s the book I wish I had received as a new believer. I didn’t become a Christian until I was 30, though my mother did raise me in the church. I went to mass, but I didn’t have ears for the gospel until the Lord sovereignly regenerated me as an adult. Until that time, I lived like a Cosmopolitan feminist – not too politically active, but absorbing all the feminist messages of women’s media. So when I became a Christian and was added to a Bible-believing, biblical-manhood-and-womanhood-preaching church, you can bet I was confused! I wanted someone to explain to me the feminist assumptions I had, where they came from, and why they contrasted with Scripture. Though I found many useful books along the way, I never found one just like this one – a mixture of history, Bible teaching, and narrative stories of women who found God to be faithful to His Word, presented in a non-academic, accessible language.

The premise, therefore, is that if women understand the profound change in our culture that can be traced back to the founding of our nation, they will be better equipped to understand the purposes of God’s design. To be a truly biblical woman in a modern world is the radical act, in my opinion.

What is the biggest impact of feminism that you have seen in the church?

There are so many effects that it would be hard to narrow it to just one. Radical Womanhood examines the impact on relationships between men and women, on motherhood, on female sexuality, on the home, and more. But I would say the most serious impact has been the undermining of Scriptural authority. The very first document issued by self-identified feminists in the U.S. was the Declaration of Sentiments, issued in 1848 at the Seneca Falls Convention. In it, these women (and a few men) named a number of offensive elements of current society, among them the church. It stated:

The history of mankind is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations on the part of man toward woman, having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over her. … He allows her in Church as well as State, but a subordinate position, claiming Apostolic authority for her exclusion from the ministry, and, with some exceptions, from any public participation in the affairs of the Church.

Therefore, it’s not surprising that the final resolution of this declaration included a demand for the overthrow of the monopoly of the pulpit. The majority of feminist leaders since then, including one of the founders of the Seneca Falls Convention, have gutted Scriptural authority or rejected it all together in pursuit of more pagan beliefs.