Olympic Competition and Manhood and Womanhood, Part 3: Girls and Sports? A Matter of Principles

As a former amateur athlete and longtime sports journalist, I find deep pleasure in the games people play and have prayed over the years that God will keep me from fashioning them into a golden calf. Needless to say, our family will enjoy the Summer Olympics when they begin Friday in Beijing.

My wife and I have two sons, the oldest of whom is six, loves baseball, and has clearly inherited his father's "sports gene." We also have two daughters who seem to view our chasing of bouncing spheroids and dispensing of "high-fives" as something of a bourgeois affair.  It has led to a conversation of late in our home: should the girls, if interested, play sports and if so, what sports should they play? Since we are teaching our sons and daughters the fundamental truth that God has made them different, and we are now asking, "Should they play the same sports?"

As with all things, we look to God's timeless truth to find our answers and since there is no direct mention of women and sports therein, my family has begun think more deeply to develop principles from God's Word by which to judge the "fitness to femininity" of individual sports. After searching the Scriptures, here is our "family thesis" for our daughters and sports: the more clearly a sport compromises a woman's God-imbued femininity, the more cause she has to forego participating in it. In other words, when a sport makes a female to look and behave like a man, it is out of bounds for her. We will  apply the same reciprocal principle in assessing the activities of our boys.

Ontologically, men and women are different-according to divine design. The complementary functions of men and women arise out of the way God has fashioned them. In 1 Tim. 2:9-10, Paul speaks of a woman's proper attire as consisting in "modesty and self-control." Elsewhere, in 1 Pet 3:4b, the apostle describes femininity as being bound up in "the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit." It is difficult to imagine that shoulder pads, eye black and body checks communicate biblical femininity very effectively. First Corinthians 11:15 is an oft-controverted verse, but no matter how it is interpreted, honesty admits that Paul holds a fundamental expectation that men and women will differ significantly in appearance.

First Peter 3:7b tells us that most women are to be honored as a "weaker vessel." Of course, this speaks of physical strength only: most woman are physically weaker than most men, but women are certainly equal in essence, worth and dignity to men as a fellow image-bearer of God. The light of nature demonstrates the reality of the difference in physical strength between men and women and sports serve to illustrate it well: In golf, the lady's tee boxes are placed closer to the hole than those used by men. In weight lifting, women typically cannot bench press nearly as much weight as men. It is highly unlikely that the WNBA champion Phoenix Mercury could defeat the NBA champion Boston Celtics. This reality by no means suggests inferiority, but a difference in design and a complementarity in function according to God's glorious wisdom.

Games such as basketball, softball, track and field, cross-country running, gymnastics, cycling and scores of others are viable options for female athletes. In summary, my wife and I have decided that, yes, there are many competitive games our daughters may enjoy to great benefit, there are some that fit under the category of 1 Corinthians 6:12, "All things are lawful for me, but not all things are helpful,"  and there are others that are better left to their brothers.

Fathers, by all means encourage your daughters to participate in sports if they desire to do so. After all, the apostle Paul admits that "bodily training is of some value" (1 Tim 4:8a) and he uses athletic imagery freely in his writings (1 Cor 9:24-27; 1 Tim 6:12, for example). However, as fathers we must approach our decisions thoughtfully and in a way that protects and preserves the God-imbued femininity of our girls.