The God Complex: The Link Between Christianity and Sport and What Might Be Construed as a Form of Cheating

Abstract: This review examines a range of literature to offer a contribution to a unique aspect of sport, namely the role religion plays in the approach some Christian athletes take to competition. Theoretically, such athletes have particular and distinctive moral standards in ordinary life and competitive sport. The connection between morality and religion is exhibited most commonly by the Golden Rule: do unto others as you would wish them to do unto you . Logically, therefore, Christian athletes should stand in contrast to other athletes, some of whom do not shy away from the pursuit of glory at any cost. Cheating might thus be assigned to the world of atheistic athletes. For some religious athletes, however, their behavior in a sport setting is sometimes at odds with fundamental principles of their belief, including the Golden Rule. To examine a potentially contradictory aspect of religiosity in sport, this article reviews literature to identify recent sport trends with an overt Christian paradigm. The paper focuses on athletes with a robust spiritual persuasion and suggests that such religious conviction gives rise to the God complex, an ethical dilemma, and a form of cheating.