This is perhaps one of the major assumptions that most parents have when it comes to youth sports, but it is worth asking: “do sports really build character?” Anthony Bradley of Covenant Theological Seminary answers.
His conclusion:
Sports do not build character in young people but virtuous adults do. In one sense youth sport is simply a medium for adult mentoring within the context of challenging situations. Character is bestowed – or not – from one generation to another.
Until adults in the world of sports are willing to commit their own lives to virtuous character, until they are willing to pair a valid desire to make money with an equally powerful concern for the true welfare of athletes, the cycle of young “professional” adults ruining their lives will continue. In athletics as elsewhere, we reap the moral character we sow.
I cannot disagree with this assessment. In fact, I would say that is true for most “institutions” like sports. For example, I would state that going to church, in and of itself, also does not “build” a Christian. It is the people of the church, those willing to spend their time teaching, mentoring, witnessing, living a Christ-like life, exposing them to the Gospel, that one gains the necessary tools towards making their decision for Christ. I know that there are exceptions to this, but I think my statement expresses the norm.
Chief320, thank you for your excellent comment. So true! We need to be concerned more about our interaction and relationships at church rather than simply packing the seats or assuming that Sunday School will raise our children.