Jesus at the Ballpark?!

Ok, so I just got back from the Phillies game, which was an experience in itself since Kate and I traded in her cousin's AMAZING season tickets from a rain-out-- and we ended up sitting in the second-to-last row of the nose-bleed section since it was a sold-out game. This section, of course, consisted of insane college students who felt the need to yell randomly at the players, at others, at each other, and sometimes just to hear themselves make noise. There were flying beer bottles (thank God they were plastic), and testosterone levels flared as the young men from the adjacent section attempted to start the wave, and the young men in our section refused. Let's just say there was never a dull moment at the game.

I also saw Jesus at the game.

No, really. In the adjacent section (ironically, the same section the crazy college boys were in, trying to start the wave) there was a man with a fake mustach, beard, and long-haired wig dressed in a type of choir robe pretending to be Jesus. He periodically held up a sign that said "I have faith. Go Phillies!" He was content to do just that until the camera man decided to display him and his sign on the large stadium screen. He raised his arms in victory, and joyfully held up his sign. The crowd went wild, and the people around me started chanting "Jesus! Jesus!"

I'm not sure how I feel about this whole situation. I mean, yay Christianity getting the spotlight, but this is SO not the way I would have liked it to be seen. A Jesus impersonator cheering on the Phillies, while fans chant his name, is not necessarily the best way to introduce Christianity into the American sports culture. That assumes, of course, that there really is a way to introduce Christianity into the American sports culture without being cheesy/irreverant/blasphemous. And I'm not so sure that Jesus Christ and sports mix, at least not in this type of way.

The fact that Jesus made an appearance at the game OF COURSE means that He is on the Phillies' side. That is why they won tonight. Now you know.