Jesus/God works in mysterious ways?. The Paradoxical Sins Of The 2022 Qatar World Cup.
Sports fanatics tend to be predominately Christians which is why Jesus/God was the particular God/deity chosen for this article. All too often, when games are down to the wire or the clutch final moments, we can be sure of one thing. The camera pans to a fan on the edge of their seat, praying for their chosen team to win. However, if two fans of two opposing teams are praying, did Jesus choose the winner? Or did GOD work mysteriously to teach a losing fan a lesson? This exposes the selfishness of the common part-time GOD-believing sports fanatic. I would dare to say that sports fanatics believe in sports more than GOD, but I digress. Even professional players are caught on camera praying for a goal, a shot to go in, etc. The national anthem is sung before sporting events can also be seen as a prayer. Despite the bible telling us the humble and the meek shall inherit the earth. Ironically, Sports continue to undermine the working lower class for entertainment. In this case, the migrant workers, whom no one will pray for built the stadium for fans to watch the world cup games. Does Jesus/God work in mysterious ways? The paradoxical sins of the 2022 Qatar world cup.
Found it: Matthew 6:5-6
5 “When you pray, you are not to be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners so that they may be seen by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. 6 But you, when you pray, go into your inner room, close your door and pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.
The infamous Roman colosseum is alleged to have been built by Jewish slaves around 70 AD, 1,500 years ago. Between 60,000-100,000 workers are said to have built it. This is when church and state weren’t separate, and yet, even still today, the poor are still being sacrificed for the construction of entertainment. Just one step above slavery, the migrant workers were subjected to 5 months of working in 100-degree weather. Many had their passports confiscated and were told to work off impossible loans they couldn’t afford before they could leave. Many bought into the promise of providing and being a part of history. The construction of a multibillion dollars stadium. Migrant workers thought they could send money home to their families who missed them.
Many wouldn’t return to their families after conflicting reports of natural vs. other causes of death. Some sources say “falls from heights and traffic accidents” were the leading causes for those who made the 2022 Qatar World Cup possible. While there aren’t extreme recent cases of this in America, there are still injustices. Superbowl stadiums in Atlanta and Barclays in New York are recent examples of new construction that gentrifies existing residents. This is a Global problem.
The NBA and NFL would rather focus on black lives matter logos on the court or building football fields in impoverished communities. Rather than putting the money to better use, like scholarships and education. The popular opinion narrative’s power influences philanthropy today rather than true empathy and common sense. Furthermore, the world cup focuses on LGBTQ representation n the USA uniforms rather than red, white, and blue stripes. In addition to coverage of Russian propaganda, rather than helping the thousands of underpaid migrant workers who made it possible to play in the stadium in the first place. So, where does prayer come into all this?
As much as religion is declining in the west, people sure love to pray to fulfill their worldly desires. As much as we like to blame rich “evil” men in suits, we are projecting and deflecting from blaming ourselves. For instance, all the major and independent media networks are covering the exploitation of migrant workers. Yet some of the most foolish go fund me’s have more money than the one for migrant workers in 2022 Qatar World Cup. One was funding to remove the “bad decision” of a 420 forehead tattoo, which received over $1,000 in just a few days. Unfortunately, after several weeks, the Qatar migrant worker fund sits at $900. There are churches, synagogues, mosques, onlyfan millionaires, athletes, you name it, that makes more than that in a week or a day.
In conclusion, prayer is never meant for show but private, as stated in the book of Matthew above. Cell phones and social media have numbed us to being selfish and wanting entertainment. We want to show the world that we pray, show the world that we care about this cause and that one because a popular media narrative told us to. Instead, we should spend time alone with GOD and pray for clarity. So is GOD working in mysterious ways, or are we too selfish to realize the errors in our thinking? It’s not so much of GOD being mysterious rather, the problem is Humans being mysterious to themselves due to a lack of daily mindfulness.