Kerby Anderson

Stephen Soukup recently wrote about “Fenway Park, College Basketball, and the Loss of Community.” Although he used sports as his example, his point was about how communities used to provide meaning, loyalty, and continuity.

He began with a video the Boston Red Sox posted in anticipation of Major League Baseball’s opening day. The video was a collection of clips from previous opening days at Boston’s Fenway Park. It sparked an online conversation about what America has lost over these many decades.

He admits that it is a bit difficult to pinpoint what has been lost but concludes that it suggests a loss of community. He even has a quote from Robert Nisbet, The Quest for Community. On my radio program, I also added a reflection from Robert Putnam’s Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community.

He uses sports to illustrate what changed. Most baseball players stayed with their original teams, due to a 1922 Supreme Court ruling. But that changed by the 1970s and we now have free agency. He argues that it is impossible to develop “continuity in time” when free agency allows players to leave one team and join another.

Likewise, colleges developed a committed community of fans, but that has changed as college sports has become a business. The NCAA’s NIL/transfer portal has also had a detrimental impact on the sports community.

Whether you follow sports or not, you can probably see how he used what is happening in sports to point to a bigger issue. We are losing community. It is important for you to work harder to get to know your neighbors. And it is crucial that churches work even harder to develop a community of believers.