Christians love their athletes loud and proud

Stephen Curry is the biggest star in the NBA playoffs not named LeBron James. He won the league’s MVP award for the first time, broke his own record for 3-pointers made in a season, and made enough highlight-reel moves for the Golden State Warriors to make up a week’s worth of SportsCenter Top 10s. He is the NBA’s best shooter and has improved his all-around game every season since entering the league in 2009, a true marketable superstar. The cherry on this sundae is that Stephen Curry also happens to be a committed follower of Jesus Christ.

Think about that for a moment: One of the NBA’s premier young stars on one of the most entertaining and best teams is a faithful Christian, yet somehow he actually avoids the religious spotlight. Lesser players in his sport and others draw raving mobs of fans and even get their own branded crazes like “Linsanity” and “Tebowmania.” Why? What makes Christians go bonkers over backups but not a real, actual star?

We like our celebrity Christians loud and proud, preaching and posing. We want Christian icons, not just faithful stars. Their profession puts them on a stage and we expect them to play their part. Included in this expectation seems to be the tacit belief that the right way to be a famous Christian in a secular field is to offer bold declarations and public prayers. Those are the merit badges of faith. Anything less just isn’t quite good enough. We want people who look like larger-than-life Christians so that we can boldly claim them for “our team.”

This kind of thinking overlooks a handful of important truths.

Being loud doesn’t validate one person’s faith more than another. Tim Tebow’s faith is not greater than Stephen Curry’s because he says more public things about it. We don’t know what private Christians do in their circles of influence or how they intentionally live as reflections of Christ. Their impact likely far out strips our awareness.

Celebrities do not validate Christianity. Famous people don’t hold the keys to God’s Kingdom and His movements do not depend on them to march forward. If the Bible shows us anything about who God uses, it is consistently the unlikely and underwhelming. He loves the rich and famous equally as much; He simply doesn’t need their riches or fame.

Public displays of Christianity play on our sinful tendency to judge others. What did he just say? How did he phrase that? Who did he share a stage with or endorse? What stance did he take on that issue? We see snapshots of a person’s life and then judge their sincerity and the efficacy of their faith. Who are we to judge when we so often have a log in our own eye, not to mention that we know so little about the individual about whom we’ve formed an opinion.

Christians like their athletes loud, proud, and public. But is that always better than consistent, steady, and faithful?