Rugby.
Did ‘we’ really lose the rugby?
Every week I take part in a subversive act that declares that I am not first and foremost a New Zealander. Every week I take communion and declare my solidarity with the body of Christ. I declare my one-ness with all those in sweatshops, slums, penthouses, Tonga, France, poverty, and Pentecostal churches that share the same sacrament. When we hear that “we need a free trade agreement with China because it’s important for our economy,” this strange act compels us to ask, who is the ‘we’? Who does the ‘our’ refer to? And when we hear of, or feel, despair because our team lost we should ask the same question. Domestic violence increased again in response to the loss. It would be better for this country for the All Blacks to also lose every game they play over the next 10 or 15 years. Perhaps then this country could get over centering its destructive proud nationalism that sees beatings and elections impacted on something as flighty and uncertain as a sport.
Nationalism is surely responsible for more violence than even religion can lay claim to. Thank goodness I have the solid reminder weekly that – as Stanley Haeuwas put it – we have a Tonto theology.
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