The popular television series Friday Night Lights has a special
resonance for those who have been influenced by and recognize the deep
relationship between a specific sport and country whose national identity is affiliated
with it. In Friday Night Lights that “country”
is Texas and their sport is Football. In Canada it is hockey. As a Canadian kid whose only dream was to be
a hockey player until I was 19 years old, Theoren Fleury was my role model. Theoren
Fleury was a smaller player whose ability was not fully recognized until he
proved himself on the biggest stage (The NHL). He was skilled, fast, and most
importantly, he was fearless. Like Fleury, hockey was the best way for me to glimpse
heaven, to glimpse God’s glory. “Salvation and escape” and are not too strong
of words to describe this game for young kids in Canada (Playing With Fire, 8).
Hockey was the constant, in the midst of whatever we were dealing with off the
ice. I can only imagine what it would be
like for a young player’s coach to betray him the way Graham James did. As a
young boy Theoren Fleury was sexually and emotionally abused. But Fleury would
stay quiet because he decided that in order to reach his promised land (The
NHL) he would have to be willing to descend into hell itself.
This breach of trust and abuse from
his coach would lead him down a trail of drug, alcohol, and sex addiction. With
how the media critiques the Catholic church it might seem unbelievable to learn
that his childhood priest was a source of comfort and friendship for him, while
Graham James the noble hockey coach was the villain. But this is the reality of
power, it doesn't matter where it is coming from, it will almost always lead to
corruption. In an interview with sports writer Eric Francis, Graham James is reported to have
said he wished he was born in Roman times because back then “it was acceptable
to have boys as partners” (Playing With Fire, 154).
In his own life, Fleury has not
always been a good husband or father. Yet he has asked those he loves for
forgiveness and is often a powerful voice against the corruption of his sport
and country. While playing for a First Nation’s team toward the end of his
career (he is part Cree and Metis) he experienced first-hand Canada’s racism
against Native people. In an 2005
interview with the Edmonton Sun Fleury states:
"The one thing that's really bothered me through this
whole thing is the prejudice, still, in this country when it comes to Native
people. I've seen it first-hand in every building we go into, how these people
are treated, and it's absolutely embarrassing to be a Canadian and know that
stuff is still going on."
This is coming from a guy who is
deeply in love with his country and has helped us win a number of gold medals
on the world stage, including the Olympics in 2002. I have never seen anyone
more excited to make a team than when Fleury made Team Canada in 2002.
Today, Fleury
is sober and grounded in the reality that there is a power greater then himself. He uses the tradition of his ancestors to
keep himself centered and in relational awareness of God (The Great Spirit).
He uses sage, sweet-grass, and smudging, to “get rid of negative spirits” and
buries ashes in the four corners of his yard “every morning for protection” (Playing
With Fire, 337). He also uses the ancient method of “sweats” to purge himself of negative thoughts, and is a public speaker for Native kids all over the country.
In a time where a more militant secular worldview is challenging people of all religious worldviews, the elders of the First Nations people all over
Canada fear that “the heart of the people will disappear because their children
don’t speak the language or follow the traditions” (Playing With Fire, 322).
I fear
this for Christianity as well. While it is the most popular religion in Canada,
it is being transformed by powerful societal undercurrents of corporate
division, and individual autonomy. Fleury’s mom was a Jehovah’s Witness, which
according to Fleury taught him mixed messages against his Catholic upbringing
because the Trinity was taught to be “inspired by Satan” yet here he was “praying
to the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost every day" he thought he "was in league with the devil” (Playing With Fire, 12). Fleury
is moving in the right direction by looking into the tradition of his ancestors,
and concerning himself with the public good of his community. He has begun to
appreciate what Christian theologian G.K. Chesterton calls the “democracy of
the dead.”
