What do basball fandom, religion, and group identity have to do with one another? Plenty!
Last Saturday was Faith Day at the Cincinnati Reds game. Our church bought group tickets and about 20 or so of us went down to the game. It was a lot of fun; the Middle Girl even caught a foam baseball that was shot out of a cannon.
In the 8th inning, however, someone started The Wave. As it approached our section, I adamantly shook my head, saying, “Nope, I’m not doing it, I refuse to partake in this.” Why would I have such a negative reaction to a perfectly harmless stadium game like The Wave?
Because I am not a Reds fan. I am a Cubs fan. And Cubs fans do not do The Wave.
Cubs Fans Do Not Do The Wave
Cubs fans also throw opposing teams’ home run balls back onto the field and pretend that Old Style Beer is potable. We have perfected gallows humor (I mean, we did go 108 years between World Series victories). We do not allow for beach balls to be batter around the stands; if you want to partake of such nonsense, there is another MLB ballclub 8 miles south where you can. We are always hopeful and optimistic on Opening Day, no matter how bad the team looks on paper. By midsummer, most years, we are bitter and depressed. But no matter what, we are loyal to our team. That’s being a Cubs fan.
Being a Cubs fan is one of my group identities. This group identity helps me quickly determine what is right and what is wrong, how I should act, and what I should think about things like The Wave. My brain quickly asks and answers, “What do my people do in this situtation?” “How do my people act?” “What do my people believe?”
Group Identity as Spiritual Formation
You might be wondering that this sounds an awful lot like religion. That is because this sounds an awful lot like religion. One of the formative actions a religion performs is forming and shaping a group identity. It helps us answer questions like “Who am I?” or “What do my people believe?” or “What do my people do in this situation?” Being a Cubs fan is not my only group identity. Being a Christian is also one of my group identities. My faith forms me by providing me with a group identity. My group identity has played a key role in my spiritual formation.
Right-Brained Formation
The two halves of our brain work at different speeds. The right side of our brain is where we reason, where we use language, where logic happens. The right side of our brain is where instant reactions, impulses, and emotions take place. Our right brains process information much quicker than the left side of our brains. We instinctively react and form opinions based on emotions in our right brains before our left brains have gotten out of bed.
The right side of our brain is also where we form group identities. We like to feel like we belong. While little children spend most of their childhood differentiating themselves from those around them, teenagers spend most of their adolescence figuring out where and how they fit in. Much of adolescence is spent determining to which social realm I belong to. This is why teens tend to lump people into groups: band geeks, nerds, jocks, cheerleaders, football players, potheads, etc. They are forming identity, and one way to do so is by determining your group identity.
A group identity filters down all possible responses into a few determined by one’s group. This helps us make decisions and make them quickly. A nerd might do extra credit to boost her GPA so she can get an academic scholarship to an Ivy League school. A jock might use his free time to lift weights with an eye on getting an athletic scholarship to a Big Ten school. A Cubs fan will refuse to do The Wave. A Reds fan will do The Wave. A White Sox fan will run onto the field and beat up an umpire. It’s just what your group does. Therefore, it’s what you do.
Discipling the Right-Brain
One critical aspect of religions, Christianity included, is to help form people according to the faith. For Christians, this often looks like listening to a sermon, singing praise songs or hymns, reading the Bible, joining a prayer group, etc. But these are mostly left-brained activities. One might have a very well-discipled left brain but if her right brain isn’t formed by faith then it won’t matter all that much. She would have to get through the right-brained response before she can use her left brain, and the right brain might have done something that is not consistent with what she believes. Our right brains need to be formed as well. After, God did command his people to love him with “all their mind” not just half of it.
How do we develop the right brain by forming group identity? While the left brain might be formed by listening to a sermon, the right brain might be formed by watching an older congregant take notes on the sermon. This might impress upon a young believer the importance of actively listening to the sermon. A young person might see his parents lift their hands during a praise song and join in because he sees that is what his people do. Watching people give to the offering, huddle together in prayer, make meals for the sick, welcome a visitor, comfort someone going through a rough time will shape the right brain. And this can only happen in community.
Right-Brain Formation Happens in Community
Going to church and being in attendance is crucial for developing your right-brained group identity. You can stay home and watch the service on the livestream and nurture the left side of your brain. But unless you are at church, with your people, your right brain will lag behind in spiritual development. You will not be seeing your people in action; you will not see what your people do in a given situation. Your group identity will wither away without consistent presence with your people.
I learned to be a Cubs fan by watching older Cubs fans. I learned by watching their example when I should stand up and make noise during a game and what I should do with an opponent’s home run ball. I learned that Cubs fans are at the game to watch baseball and drink beer, not to do The Wave. I learned all the words to “Go Cubs, Go” and how to correctly sing “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” by the example of other Cubs fans. It was by being at the game or by watching the game on TV with other Cubs fans that I learned what it means to be a Cubs fan and have my group identity formed.
The same thing is true of my Christian faith. I watched my parents arrive early to the school our church was meeting at to help set up. I watched older members of the church give faithfully every Sunday to the offering plate. I saw adults give of their time and energy to teach Sunday School. I saw the tech team behind the scenes making the worship service happen. I saw people get baptized, take communion, volunteer at homeless shelters, go on missions trips and help kids get to summer camp. I had adults listen to me, pray for me, counsel me. All of this formed me in ways a sermon could not or a hundred praise songs could not. Being in community shaped who I am and I am who I am today because of it.
So, like being a baseball fan, our faith forms in us a group identity that helps us to know immediately how to act, how to think, what to believe. This can only happen in community, learning from the example of others and seeing in them what is truly important to our people.
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