Jain Spirit 2004 10 No 20

Author(s): Jain Spirit UK
Publisher: UK Young Jains

Page 73

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Transcending the race barrier: Darius Vassel and Paul Scholes celebrate a goal
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Chairman, told me: "By virtue of the fact that two people play a sport, they have something in common. This represents a starting point for conversation and places any differences they may have in perspective." Sport is neither patronising nor preaching. It doesn't ask about your views on transubstantiation or the existence of God. It just asks you to put on the same kit and play as a team. In its glorious simplicity, sport envelops diversity with a cloak of common purpose.
The tolerant children of today are the inter-faith flag-flyers of tomorrow. It is vital for children to have positive shared experiences with people of different religious faiths, as they develop their cognitive ability to reflect and form views on the multi-faith society in which they live. By engaging them in a sport as evocative as football, be it playing or supporting, we are stirring their will to understand the lives of those with whom they share their moments of joy and suffering. The real opportunity and challenge lies in applying the lessons we learn from positive diversity in football, and applying them to our day-to-day inter-faith activities. Football binds its players and fans with the shared emotions it evokes. For better for worse, for richer for poorer, through victory or defeat, the marriage of faith and football can be a blissful one, filled with the magic moments of empathy and amity.
Simon Cohen is building bridges with faiths through the media. To find out more, visit www.adamandeveit.net
Photo: www.empic.com/Mike Egerton
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