Is a story like this ever all right?

I agree with Turtle's comments. I read the thread not as a craft discussion but as a question of how much to play the religion angle. I too would be very disappointed to see the return of HAHA THIS SMALL TOWN WRITER IS SO BAD!!!!

 

The definition of 'constructive criticism' is lost on Mizzou.

 

Thy

I stopped reading after I read that word.

 

Whenever approaching a story that carries Christian themes, I try to write it like a Muslim. By that, I mean approaching the issue without a sense of agreement (like a Christian) or disbelief (like an atheist). Also, it doesn't usually get more than two graphs, even if the entire story happens in a church. I'm sure God will call to tell me I'm costing the Son a scholarship, but so be it.

 

One thing I used to struggle with is how to write around the religion angle when the subject of the feature mentions God, Jesus, religion, the church, etc. as many times as humanly possible during the course of the interview. "What's the difference between this year, where you're batting leadoff and hitting .400, and last year you hit .225?"... "I've just been so blessed. God has been so good to me, and I have just had to keep the faith. I mean, I had surgery to correct a vision problem and that has helped, too, but I couldn't have performed like this without God's help."

Most of the time I tried to just cut the religion talk completely out of any feature. If anything I would toss something about the player's strong religious faith in at the end of the story in hopes that if the subject of the feature read the story he wouldn't be upset that none of his prosthelytizing made the story. But I always wondered if that was the right thing to do. The guys like this obviously want to "witness" to others about their faith. They obviously feel it is an important part of their lives and an important part of who they are (which is kinda what a feature is supposed to capture, right?). So should I try to find some fresh way to deal with this obviously important aspect (to them) of their life?

At the same time, if I were going to focus on the player's religiousness I would want to know get into what makes them so religious, maybe the point they decided they were going to be "like that" or what actual good deeds they feel their religion has led them into. Even so, it seems like it would be hard for a story like that to be of much interest to the general sports reader. Thoughts?

 

I don't know why in the world you would write a personality profile of someone and automatically eliminate what he considers to be the most important part of his personality.

 

First, I didn't say I "automatically eliminate" religious content. I said generally, I try to get rid of it where I can, and where I did use it that it was generally an afterthought to whatever the main thrust of the story was. Why did I handle it like that? Three reasons:

1. It can be awfully hard to get past platitudes when an athlete is talking about is faith.
2. If you manage to do that you're off into territory that's not really ripe for sports readers' interests.
3. You generally have a limited time to fish for info from the guy you're writing about (at least that was the case in my college athletics setting) and it is better spent pursuing other angles.

 

To me, the story has to be all about an athlete's religion, which this one was. Or you maybe give a mention as PoO says.

There are stories you could do about an athlete speaking about his faith or whether it's a negative in the clubhouse, etc. You just don't want to make every story about a guy heavy on his religious views, despite his attempts to proclaim them.

Hell, I'd guess that very few of the stories written on Martin Luther King Jr. focused on his religion.

 

Awesome.

 

I've always wondered what athletes think when they thank God for helping to score the winning TD, basket, goal and never see that quote in print. Of course, that poor, devil-worshipping fiend who allowed the winning TD, basket, goal needs to have a discussion with his/her deity.

 

Couldn't it be argued that God would be more likely to make you miss the big shot to keep you humble and teach you a valuable lesson, while Satan would be more likely to reward you to encourage pride, one of the Seven Deadlies? Or in the case of Michael Jordan, for selling him your soul?