FanPost

Faith Days


One of the promotions that some baseball clubs has been running is the "Faith Day." It's definitely a mutually beneficial promotion, as the team can pack the stadium with Christians and a Christian artist gets a packed stadium to play to. It's definitely a family friendly promotion. A quick Google searched told me that Casting Crowns is playing the Rockies' Faith Day on August 21 (the 7th year of Faith Day). My question is: have you ever been to a faith day and what did you think of it?

Note: I am a Christian. I write Bible Study curriculum and give up my summers to minister to students. I'm a bass player in a Christian band. My faith is the most important thing in my life.

That being said, I'm a little uneasy about Faith Days promotions (Cincinnati runs at least one every year, my church's youth group has been to one before). One one hand, it seems to me that it's basically using religion to make money. On the other hand, I know the Monforts are Christians and have used that to influence some personnel decisions, so that obviously plays a key role in how the franchise is run. It's a good fit then, for how the Monforts are running their business.

The main issue to me then is the focus. If a "faith day" promotion doesn't go all out to promote faith, to explain it more thoroughly, or to encourage people to reflect on their own faith, then there's no point in having it. To put this in perspective, I went to the Civil Rights game in Cincinnati last year (and wrote a FanPost about it then). Before the game, they had many notable Civil Rights/sports figures, constantly showed informative things about the role of baseball in the Civil Rights movement, and gave out jerseys of Chuck Harmon, the first African-American to play for the Reds (prompting drunk-fan-sitting-behind-me quote of the night: "Who is Harmon and why does everyone have his jersey?"). Today's Jackie Robinson Day league-wide celebration leads to discussion of his role in breaking the color barrier in baseball.

Is a Faith Day structured the same way? I understand the main draw is the post-game concert, but is there any mention of how faith has influenced any cultural shifts in baseball? Were there any baseball players whose faith led them to do extraordinary things? I know Roberto Clemente was a Catholic, but is that what led to his humanitarian work?

This post may be better suited for a religion blog than a baseball blog, but since some baseball clubs have decided to merge the two, why not bring it up here? We can go deep here, right (depth of conversation, not hitting home runs ;P)? And if you're not a Christian, I'd love to hear your perspective on faith days too (I promise to handle my discussion with love and dignity).

Eat. Drink. Be Merry. But the above FanPost does not necessarily reflect the attitudes, opinions, or views of Purple Row's staff (unless, of course, it's written by the staff [and even then, it still might not]).

In This FanPost

Teams