After a closer look at Tracy Trothen's reading and the in class discussion with respect to Christianity and violence, the theological correlations between sport and religion seemed to push the binaries of real life versus theological causation factors. However, I am challenged with ccandelario's and Trothen's view that violence in hockey has reached the same level of "normalized" violence as in the crucifixion narrative Trothen portrays. Trothen goes through concepts of sexual abuse, commodification of sport, gender and religious issues, but at some point I have to stop and question some of the over reaching qualifications that are being made by Trothen's analysis. Sheldon Kennedy's case was by no means was an isolated incident, and yet I do not support the notion that there is some moral ambiguity as to what types of behaviours are tolerated by the hockey league and the actual reality of what goes on behind the scenes of scouting and drafting players of any sport. Simply that there are means to an end for the choices made to elect to engage and participate in these acts of violence.
In tandem with this discussion, I also had an opportunity on March 2, 2012, to view a Fifth Estate's investigative documentary program called "Fast Break", (http://www.cbc.ca/fifth/2011-2012/fastbreak/) which aired on CBC television. So, while there has been no evidence of sexual abuse of the "scouted" players to date illustrated in this documentary, there was a obvious derelict of duty by the coach/scout Ro Russell, in luring young promising basketball star hopefuls to a "Christian" school in Creedmore, North Carolina with false promises and no real supervision. In acknowledging the similarities of Trothen's article and Fast Break, which both articulate the "grooming" aspect of young players, and in particular this above noted example of commodification of young players, the level of violence can not be equated in my mind to the parallels of Jesus Christ's crucifixion. Cultural boundaries, time frames and the ethos of the times between Jesus Christ's time of crucifixion and Pacquiao's current boxing career are just to large of a gap in time. ccandelario mentions, "Manny "Pacman" Pacquiao's" rituals prior to and at the end of his boxing matches, but does not also make the link or attribution of his behaviour to his cultural background or how this public demonstration of praying and wearing the rosary prior to matches might serve to be some how be linked to his appeal in his marketing to "spectators" as all apart of the "entertainment" provided. While I agree that violence is all to prevalent in sports, there has to be something said for the participants willing "engagement" in the sports, and their willingness to gladly accept the money, fame, and celebrity status that players/athletes rarely refuse to accept in association with their sports performance. Jesus Christ did not receive all of these financial perks, but certainly became a celebrity during his time for quite different reasons. Evidence of the vigour in which religion, and Jesus Christ's life is debated in public forums nearly two thousand years after his death might act as to support the fame of Jesus' altruistic life, but the correlation to entertainment and commodification of Jesus Christ versus athletes I simply reject as being "parallel" in terms of the "value added" violence. Violence goes beyond just Jesus's offer of salvation to encompass how we as a society, whether voluntarily or involuntarily negotiate the boundaries for which we "accept" or normalize violence in any genre, sports included. More importantly, when society acts as bystanders or spectators willing to participate in and failing to take a stand on or attempting to stop this normalisation of violence, I believe I have to reject ccandelario's argument of ambiguity as I believe the ambiguity is only in the conscious choices of how we as a society choose to participate and tolerate acts of violence.
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