{"id":2048,"date":"2005-03-07T17:56:43","date_gmt":"2005-03-07T22:56:43","guid":{"rendered":"\/?p=2048"},"modified":"2005-03-07T17:56:43","modified_gmt":"2005-03-07T22:56:43","slug":"over-identification-with-mormon-athletes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/2005\/03\/over-identification-with-mormon-athletes\/","title":{"rendered":"Over-Identification with Mormon Athletes"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I have a problem.  I think I need a 12-step program, if one existed for this problem.  I am over-invested in the success of Mormon athletes.<br \/>\n<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>I enjoy sports.  I read the sports page on the train going in to work, and everything else on the train going home.  I subscribe to Sports Illustrated.  Things of course are more interesting when we have a rooting interest, and the default rooting interest is geographical.  So yes, I am a fan of the Chicago Bears, the Bulls, the Cubs, and I have followed with interest the exploits of the Fighting Illini basketball team.<\/p>\n<p>But I particularly follow Mormon athletes.  I know who they all are (which annoys my 18-year old son no end).  When they do well, I feel as though I&#8217;m on top of the world.  When they tank, I feel depressed.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s almost as though I relate the strength of the truth claims of the Church to how well its athletes perform.  I know intellectually that that is irrational; the Church was no more true on a night that Danny Ainge scored 24 points than it was on a night he laid up a bunch of bricks.  It really shouldn&#8217;t matter that much to me.  But it does, for reasons I cannot explain.<\/p>\n<p>Does anyone else feel this way?  Anyone care to psychoanalyze my little problem?  (It&#8217;s really not *that* bad; I&#8217;m using a little hyperbole here for effect.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I have a problem. I think I need a 12-step program, if one existed for this problem. I am over-invested in the success of Mormon athletes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10381,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2048","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-corn"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2048","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10381"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2048"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2048\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2048"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2048"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2048"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}