Todd Beckstead likes a good game of football as much as the next guy.
Except on Sunday.
Beckstead, bishop of the Grand Junction, Colorado, Seventh Ward and a fan of the Denver Broncos, is among a growing number of church members who have decided to follow their conscience in observing the Sabbath.
For Beckstead, it wasn't a difficult decision, either, though he's had to make an adjustment to one of his hobbies — fantasy football website owner.
“I just tape the games and watch them on Monday,” he said.
Kevin Gallegos, a church member and football fan, made a similar commitment not too many weeks ago, leaving his full-time job as a computer specialist because it involved working on Sundays.
It was, said Gallegos, something that had been gnawing at him for some time.
For good reason. studies have shown that observing the Sabbath not only is the thing to do, but it's also an investment.
A report in The Christian Science Monitor notes that energy consumption and pollution could be cut by a little more than 14 percent if a majority of individuals observed the Sabbath.
That's one-seventh, the paper reported.
“Each religion's teaching makes a powerful case for calling it quits one day a week,” the paper reported. “Many non-religious people take a weekly rest as well. If we all reduced our driving, shopping, business and energy consumption by one-seventh, we'd pollute that much less. We'd have to avoid energy-guzzling leisure activities, so maybe nix the long drives or movie marathons. Still, even if we left out the work and traffic that must go on — hospitals, police utilities — the environmental boon would still be significant.”
Religious leaders, the article notes, have joined to battle global warming and preserve God's creation, “but in their rush to recycle, reduce and reuse, they have neglected the pollution-reducing of a full-day work stoppage.”
President Spencer W. Kimball wrote that, “(The Sabbath day) is a day in which to worship and to express our gratitude and appreciation to the Lord. It is a day on which to surrender every worldly interest and to praise the Lord humbly, for humility is the beginning of exaltation.”
It is not a day, he wrote, “for affliction and burden, but for rest and righteous enjoyment.”
Continuing, President Kimball noted it is a day “when employer and employee, master and servant may be free from plowing, digging, toiling. It is a day when the office may be locked and business postponed, and troubles forgotten; a day when man may be temporarily released from that first injunction, ‘In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground.' (Genesis 3:19.)
“It is a day when bodies may rest, minds relax, and spirits grow. It is a day when songs may be sung, prayers offered, sermons preached, and testimonies borne, and when man may climb high, almost annihilating time, space, and distance between himself and his Creator.”
Not too many weeks ago, more than a dozen players from a championship-caliber rugby team in Australia refused to play a Sunday league playoff game because of their beliefs.
The players, representing the Isle of Capri, said they had the support of team management and their teammates from the Helensvale Rugby Union despite problems with rescheduling the game.
But that, too, no longer may be a problem, the direct result of the athletes' commitment to their faith.
Because the Gold Coast Rugby season plays its home-and-away schedule on Saturdays, the minor semifinal matches traditionally have taken place on Sundays.
"Rugby Gold Coast is totally sympathetic to the Helensvale players' plight, which is why our staff spent (considerable time) trying to resolve the issue to give those players the opportunity to play in the finals," said Tim Rowlands, chief executive officer of the Rugby Gold Coast.
It's not the first time athletes have refused to play on Sundays, of course. However, it is rare that so many athletes on a team have joined together in respect of the Sabbath.
According to a news report, Riki Horomona, a co-president of the church, said, "What happens is we each young people the principles of keeping the Sabbath day sacred and attending church."
Hormona said he was proud of the players for stepping forward.
"Because we are a Christian church, we believe in the Ten Commandments and the observance of the Sabbath day," Horomona said.
Church members on several teams in the league do play Sunday games "as part of their job."
"It's an individual choice," Hormona said. "There definitely is a difference between a career and playing sport as a hobby. We basically teach them the same and they all have the choice whether they want to play or not. Everyone makes their own decision on that."
Player Ben Hannant of the Gold Coast-based Brisbane Broncos said he never had played any sport on Sunday, but that he did talk with his parents about pursuing a career in the sport.
"That's when we made the decision that it was going to be my job and my livelihood, so you have to do that, play on Sundays," Hannant said. "Through rugby league, I can be a good example for the kids and do the right things. Part of the package is that I have to play on Sundays. I prefer not to if I don't have to, but I've got to support my family as well."
Reports of athletes putting off their athletic careers because of a missionary commitment are common, and two Australian players, Israel Folau of the Melbourne Storm and Krisnan Inu of the Parramatta team, have indicated they are giving serious thought to putting off their professional careers to serve a mission.
The action by the Rugby Union players has had an impact on the league. The chief executive officer of the program said it is likely there would be no Sunday semifinal playoff games in the future.
"As a total supporter of the Super 14 finals format — which is first versus fourth and second versus third with the winners going straight to the grand final — I will be moving that we adopt this format going forward," Rowlands said. "This would also mean Rugby Gold Coast will not be playing any senior finals football on a Sunday again."
