Today’s guest post is by Faith, it is the latest in a series of posts focusing on the careers of leaders in the Church. The most recent post in the series can be viewed here:
The Law
“And that thou mayest more fully keep thyself unspotted from the world, thou shalt go to the house of prayer and offer up thy sacraments upon my holy day.” [1]
On July 24, 1847, the pioneer company came into the SLC valley. Brigham Young arrived on Saturday. The next day, Sabbath services were held both in the morning and in the afternoon. The season was late, and they were faced with a gargantuan and immediate task if they were to grow seed for the next season. But President Young pleaded with them not to violate the Sabbath then or in the future”. Imagine how tempting it must have been for our pioneer forefathers to break the Sabbath day. Their survival depended upon the food they could grow and harvest. Yet their leaders counseled them to exercise faith in the promises of the Lord and to respect the Sabbath day. Church members are the beneficiaries of that heritage and of the promises of the Lord to those who are faithful. We must always remember who we are and that we are different from the world. [2]
Giff Nielsen’s Choice
(A similar article could be written about Vai Sikahema).
Former BYU and Provo High standout Stanley Gifford Nielsen played American football for BYU in 1974-1978. In addition to his football career, Nielsen played basketball for BYU during the 1974-75 season. [3] He was drafted as the 73rd choice in the 1978 NFL draft. He played for the Houston Oilers from 1978-1983 in 55 games, and an additional 7 playoff games. For 6 years he worked, mostly as a backup. Gifford Nielson posted a 3-11 record as a starter with the Houston Oilers and won a single playoff game in 1979. In 1982, he was the week one starter, before being benched three weeks later. Most of these games were played on Sunday. He did not serve an LDS mission, pursuing football instead.[4]
In 1984 to 2009 he was the sports director for KHOU in Houston, Texas and anchored the station’s 6 and 10 p.m. sportscasts. [5] He contemplated leaving the station in 1998 for a job in Salt Lake City but remained. [6] Occasionally, his sportscasts required him to work on Sundays. He was called as local area authority for Texas in 2004 and a General Authority for the LDS Church in April 2013. [7]
Other LDS athletes Choices
Clayton Christensen – Sunday tournament 1975-76
In the 2010 General Conference, President Monson highlighted the story of Clayton Christensen, who later was called as a G.A.
Story: While attending Oxford University in England, Elder Clayton M. Christensen was the starting center on the Oxford basketball team. That year, his team was undefeated in the British equivalent of the NCAA tournament. After making it easily to the final four, Christensen looked at the schedule and realized the championship game would be on Sunday—something he had promised never to do. Despite mounds of pressure, Elder Christensen didn’t play. His team still won. “(Elder Christensen) says his entire life has turned out to be an unending stream of extenuating circumstances, and had he crossed the line just that once, then the next time something came up that was so demanding and critical, it would have been so much easier to cross the line again. The lesson he learned is that it is easier to keep the commandments 100 percent of the time than it is 98 percent of the time.” [8]
Eli Herring – Decision not to play NFL football 1995
Projected as a first to third round draft choice, Herring made the decision to forgo a professional career. So, he wouldn’t have to work on the Sabbath and wrote letters to each NFL team saying as much. He was still drafted in the sixth round of the 1995 NFL Draft by the Oakland Raiders, and Raider senior assistant Bruce Allen flew to Provo and offered Herring a three-year, $1.5 million contract. Herring rejected it. His starting salary as a teacher at Mountain View High School was around $22,000 a year. [9]
William Hopoate – Mission over $$ MM- 2011
He made a decision to decline a million-dollar rugby contract in 2011, so he could serve an LDS mission. It made national media coverage in Australia. After his mission, in 2015, he signed a 2-year contract with Canterbury. Also, Hopoate announced that he would not be playing for the club on Sundays due to his religious faith. Hopoate even went as far to say that he would not play for Canterbury in the grand final if the club was to make it that far as the final is on a Sunday. Hopoate missed Canterbury’s qualifying final against Penrith due to the game being played on Sunday. This was publicized again in Australia and shown as an example in LDS publications of being a role-model LDS member. On 14 May 2017, Hopoate reversed his decision and declared that he would be playing Sunday games again for Canterbury. [10] Hopoate changing his choice is not mentioned in any LDS publications.
20th Century LDS teachings – Black and White
Some jobs require working on the Sabbath. President Kimball made the following distinction between the motivations that fuel our work: “Some of the work that is truly necessary—caring for the sick, for example—may actually serve to hallow the Sabbath. However, in such activities our motives are an important consideration. When men and women are willing to work on the Sabbath to increase their wealth, they are breaking the commandments; for money taken in on the Sabbath, if the work is unnecessary, it is unclean money.” [11]
21st Century LDS dilemma
Chris Hoke played 11 years with the Steelers, becoming a two-time Super Bowl champion and playing nose tackle. Hoke’s family and friends were often asked how he managed to balance church and work. “I felt the decision was between me and the Lord, and that’s how I looked at it,” Hoke said. “It wasn’t between me and other members of the Church or anyone else but me and my wife and the Lord.” Hoke’s feelings about athletics on Sundays are shared by many athletes. [12]
On the other spectrum is Aleisha Rose, former BYU soccer player and member of the US National Women’s Professional team. She also believes this decision is a very personal one. “Lots of people play professionally. That’s their job, that’s what they’re doing to provide for their families. I felt strongly about what’s important for me and my family, but at the same time, people are given direction and need to make that decision for themselves.” Rose competed on Sundays growing up and during her professional career. During exhibition games in China, Rose realized she no longer wanted to compete on Sundays. She came to the conclusion that for her and her family, she should no longer continue to play with the US National Team. “I wanted to be happy and said I’ll do whatever I need to do,” Rose said. “I wanted to feel peace from living the gospel. In an answer to my prayers, I realized part of it is keeping the Sabbath day holy and having that balance in my life. It was OK for me to take a different course.” [12]
Consider the BOM teaching of: whosoever doeth iniquity, doeth it unto himself; for behold, ye are free; ye are permitted to act for yourselves; for behold, God hath given unto you a knowledge and he hath made you free. [13] Compare this to the official church policy of “If we will follow and live the divine mandate to keep the Sabbath day holy, the Lord, in turn, will bless us, direct us, and inspire us in solving the issues that confront us.” [14]
Back to G.A. Gifford Nielsen
By 2016 Giff was serving in the Pacific Area Presidency. One of their goals, as posted in the 2016 N.Z. Liahona was to “make the Sabbath a delight all day”. The article has 20th Century quotes of Sabbath day activities that “should be carefully planned and carried out.” “The Sabbath is not to watch television programmes, including sports”. Then the next article shows President Giff Nielsen as a “rock star” with the youth at a FSY conference. However, with no mention of his Sports career and his personal choice to work on the Sabbath and any discussion of his possible dilemmas. [15] Bro/Pres. Nielsen is now the Area President for Africa West. How is the topic handled about the Sabbath Day with youth and other members, under his leadership?
Final Thoughts
What do you think of the balance of choosing for yourself vs. obedience to the General Authorities?
Thoughts on the LDS culture condemning Sabbath day sports, but then promoting LDS sports figures? With the new Strength of Youth pamphlet deemphasizing specifics of DO/DON’T’s of the Sabbath, where does that place professional sports participation?
Differences you see in Sabbath Day recommendations from 1970 to 2020 ?
Sources
- Doc. & Cov. 59:9
- “An Ensign to the Nations,” Ensign, Nov. 1989, 51; emphasis added
- https://byu-cougars-prd.byu-dept-athletics-prd.amazon.byu.edu/story/athletics/48668/nielsen-receive-ncaa-silver-anniversary-award
- https://www.chron.com/life/houston-belief/article/Giff-Nielsen-talks-about-his-Mormon-faith-1839267.php
- https://www.upi.com/Archives/1984/05/15/Quarterback-Gifford-Nielsen-a-six-year-veteran-with-the-Houston/8506453441600/
- https://www.chron.com/sports/article/Sportscaster-Gifford-Nielsen-says-he-s-leaving-1750340.php
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gifford_Nielsen
- https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2010/10/the-three-rs-of-choice?lang=eng
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eli_Herring
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Hopoate
- https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/teachings-spencer-w-kimball/chapter-16?lang=eng
- https://universe.byu.edu/2013/04/17/1balancing-sports-on-sundays/
- Helaman 14:30-31
- https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/ensign/2014/01/sabbath-day-observance?lang=eng
- https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org › bc › content › shared › content › english › pdf › language-materials › 13284nzl_eng.pdf?lang=eng
Wheat & Tares 
Damn, under that standard I’d wager that 95% percent of the church is not observing the Sabbath.
Supposed “standards” like this, which lack any doctrinal basis and apparently were created out of thin air, are simply expressions of the universal human tendency to pharisiacal obsession with the minute and irrelevant at the expense of the weightier matters of the law.
I worked for over 20 years for the church in broadcasting. If every member of the church chose to NOT work on the sabbath the Sunday session of General Conference would not happen. Literally hundreds of people work to make those meetings and the broadcasts of those meeting happen. And that’s just the semi-annual conference broadcasts, not to mention the other Sunday broadcasts that happen throughout the year.
I always found it interesting that when people found out that I worked for the church on the sabbath, they often asked, “But you don’t get paid when you work on Sunday, right?” Not only did I get paid, I got paid time and a half overtime. It’s odd to me that money was the thing they saw as bad about working on the sabbath; the fact that I was away from family, missing meetings and not taking the sacrament was not a problem, but making money on the sabbath was bad. But reading that Kimball quote shows that’s how church leaders see it as well. Weird priorities.
“What do you think of the balance of choosing for yourself vs. obedience to the General Authorities?” — Sometimes “choosing” isn’t really a choice. I could have “chosen” to not work on those Sunday broadcasts, but I would have lost my job. What kind of choice is that? It’s a personal choice. It’s not our bishop’s choice, our Stake President’s choice or even a general authority’s choice whether I work on the sabbath. We are the only ones who know our personal situations.
SIDE NOTE: There were many times I went for 10-12 months without taking the sacrament because I was working for General Authorities helping to broadcast their meeting around the globe. Several times we asked for permission to make the sacrament available to those on the broadcast crew who would like it, but that request was always denied.
The irrefutable fact is that athletes who join a sports team that plays on Sundays is bound by honor to play for that team on Sunday. By not playing, they engage in hypocrisy. And engaging in hypocrisy is not honoring the Sabbath day.
When a player joins a team, that player pledges to put the team above self. That means sacrificing personal glory and attention for the good of the team. When a player refuses to play, that is the ultimate example of placing oneself above the team. It is even worse when that player hurts the team and then seeks praise for doing so.
The Savior deliberately healed people and harvested grain on the Sabbath because doing so helped others. Honoring one’s pledge to help a team likewise includes playing on Sunday.
And let us be honest. Most of the young athletes who seek attention for refusing to play on Sunday are hardly using the game time for religious devotion. Instead, they are home playing violent video games or watching music videos of a scantily clad Dua Lipa.
There is no “I” in “Team.” It is time for those who put themselves above their pledge of teamwork to receive the criticism they deserve.
Well, first off, I want to thank our guest blogger for making it all the way through a Mormon athlete post without leaning on such names as Steve Young, Shawn Bradley, or one of my personal favs, Dale Murphy (pretty much fast-tracked into being a mission president after retiring from the MLB). I liked being presented with other faces with whom I’m unfamiliar. This post was very informative for a non-sports fan like I’ve become.
I think it’s worth mentioning that there is an element of privilege in the pious approach many take toward the Sabbath. They keep it holy because they can afford to. Yet, in that same Utah Mormon culture, especially in agricultural settings, working on the Sabbath is not only a no-brainer, it’s mandated. And even after guys like my TBM father left the livestock farm in northern Utah behind to wear a suit and tie in corporate settings, with a temple recommend always in his wallet, he spent his whole career firmly and unapologetically believing that if your employer needs you to work on Sunday, you work. When I took my first job in high school at a frozen yogurt store, that was his counsel to me.
And this extends beyond sports. We recently had a post about Donny Osmond. Speaking as someone who did live theatre professional for a while, if you aren’t willing to work on the Sabbath, you’re chances of making it in theatre are pretty much nil. Sunday afternoon is prime time in theatre, a favorite point in the week for a matinee, so folks can enjoy a show before heading home to face the impending week. In many professions, some prestigious and well-paid, others blue-collar and undervalued by management and customers, working on Sundays is no choice at all. You do it, or you can’t keep your job. As true for me today working in a hospital setting as when I used to serve frozen yogurt to suburbanites on Sunday afternoon so I could, in theory, save for a mission.
MLars.. They denied the request for the sacrament! That’s mind boggling. Would suggest perhaps they don’t actually believe it means something… or was it that each of you would have to have permission from your respective bishops, so allowing red tape to override common sense?
I recall many years ago reading an Ensign article, giving suggestions for keeping the sabbath, or perhaps it was a single person’s experience. Anyway a recommendation was to swap shifts with a coworker… it always struck me as weird, because how is requiring your coworkers to work extra sabbaths a good thing? If you believe keeping the sabbath is important. The only way I could see it working was if your coworker celebrated the sabbath on a different day of the week… Friday or Saturday..
The LDS teaching on the Sabbath Day is a classic example of the church being conflicted between what is good for the church and what is good for individuals. What is good for the church is members who are able to volunteer their time to the church 24/7. What is good for the individual may be different.
The sad thing is the General Authorities do not disclose they have individual approaches to the Sabbath and that this is OK! Apostle L Tom Perry once gave a talk at BYU and discussed the wonderful memory of attending a baseball game with his son. From what he shared about the game I was able to identify the game he attended and determine it was played on a Sunday (and into Monday as it went extra innings). Good for the Perry’s.
I personally feel it is a priority to attend church every Sunday. I also feel that Sunday is a great day to enjoy family, to watch TV or to attend a game or event where a kid is playing. In fact when I have tried to live the “ideal” Sabbath day, whatever that actually is, it has made me anxious and irritable.
And yes, the duplicity of the church leadership on LDS athletes and entertainers is disappointing. They love the positive media coverage of a Steve Young or Donny Osmond. Then they tell stories of members who are superior disciples because they gave up a career to avoid conflict with Sunday events. Why not be honest and say all Christians have to make a difficult choice. It can be easier to hide ones talent in the ground and avoid certain challenges, but is that what God wants?
Steve Young not only played on Sundays (SF 49ers), worked TV on Sundays (ESPN). I’ve seen him attending NBA All-Star games and Super Bowls as a fan (no work involved). No judgement by me. Just saying that he’s an ambassador for the Church yet he does things that I was told we shouldn’t do. But nobody cares as long as he’s publicly active in the Church.
The Prophet Joseph Smith said, “I teach correct principles, and let members govern themselves.”
I like that thought.
The principal reason that Utahns and diaspora Utahns want to know the specific rules about sabbath observance is NOT so that they can individually live the principle better in their own lives. The principal reason is to use such knowledge to judge and criticize those who don’t measure up. True Christians don’t need to tell their neighbors what the sabbath requires: they figure it out for themselves, and they live it privately and in their own homes. If the subject comes up in a SS/RS/EQ lesson or in a private encounter, a true Christian need not say what is required or forbidden. Instead, a true Christian might say something like “I have found that doing this [or not doing that] has given me peace and has helped me in my journey in life.”
I suspect Elder Nielsen and others would say attending Church meetings is a way to honor the sabbath. Here is what last Sunday looked like for me:
8:00-9:00 Ward Council;
11:30-1:30 Church;
2:30-4:00. Zoom training from SLC on an electronic member tracking tool for missionary work;
5:15-7:45. Stake General Priesthood Meeting (including travel time).
My Church day ended at 1:45 (our EQ lesson went long!!!). I spent the rest of the day with my family (no more sons at home to drag to a general priesthood meeting). I wonder if Elder Nielsen and people like him think I violated the Sabbath. I sure don’t. Maybe the fact it was an easy decision to skip the training and general priesthood meeting means my heart isn’t in the right spiritual place. Perhaps, but I sure enjoyed the day and evening with my wife and daughter.
I’m not sure what the OP is driving at b/c we all know there are GAs who do not practice what they and the Church preaches. (As a missionary I was told by a GA to get some fast food on a Sunday.). GAs routinely travel on Sunday, thereby forcing an army of people to work so the flights and their luggage safely arrive at their preferred destinations. Add Elder Nielsen to the list. Yawn.
It seems, to me at least, coming out of the pandemic the Church is quickly filling our Sundays with unnecessary, boring, pointless meetings just like before. Have we learned nothing? Almost makes me long for the Pandemic sabbaths.
My whole life growing up, I was made to feel that what determined your spiritual worth was how well you observed the Sabbath, whether or not you watched R-rated movies, whether or not you used profanity, and whether or not you drank tea, coffee, or alcohol. Keeping in line there meant you would do commit even larger sins. If you broke the Sabbath (by doing homework, playing team sports), watched inappropriate TV and movies, used profanity, you were a bad person and needed to repent. If you drank tea or coffee, you were on the road to hell. How many church and youth lessons do I remember about someone making the ultimate sacrifice by deciding not to play team sports because they played on the Sabbath. I remember our most recent bishop going off on Facebook about how it was wrong to watch the Superbowl because it was breaking the Sabbath. I remember a lesson in Elder’s Quorum wherein the Elder’s Quorum president detailed his struggle over watching sports on Sunday and how he eventually triumphed and decided to no longer watch sports and felt all the more holy because of it.
So much pointless guilt that people feel in the church. So many ridiculous debates about trivialities.
@ its a series of tubes- Agree. Why do the G.A’s (decision makers) lean toward pharisiacal obsessions?
@ Mlars – Thanks for your story. Look forward to hearing more of your stories.
@JCS- Ahhhh…….do you have fresh material ?
@Jake- Agree with the element of privilege and the Sabbath
@Hedgehog- The church seems to have the answers, but then it does not have the answers.
@A disciple – Wonder why the church did not publish the Perry story in the Ensign ?
@josh h – I suspect, If Steve Young told his truth, he would loose his LDS fan base.
@ji- Only if the church practiced this
@Georgis- The LDS chuch does not teach about finding inner peace, only about being obedience.
@rb- Have we not all been there…and then question what is really being accomplished ?
@JohnW – Agree !
Hedgehog, I doubt it was the General Authorities who rejected our request to have the sacrament. I’m guessing it was upper management. I’m sure the request was never even passed up the line any further than upper management.
I really like the idea of having a day off. Having a day when you know you don’t have to work is good for everyone. The Church’s problem is when they turn that into a guilt trip and a nitpick, as other commenters have noticed. It’s draining to never get time to yourself. When I had a demanding schedule, I decided to never work on Sundays – partly out of spiritual obedience, but also because guaranteeing one day a week of rest was something I needed for my stamina.
Every so often, I see a European decrying American work schedules. Why must a store be open 24/7? Why can’t stores close at 7 p.m. so employees can go home and rest? Why don’t we get more vacation days? What if we said a “day of rest” is about peoples’ well-being instead of about worshipping God? Clearly, some people need to work on Sundays (health care, as has been noted, and some other professions), but a less frenetic pace of life would help everyone. To avoid favoring one religion over another, I suggest we all have Tuesdays off (that’s a joke).
At work, I remember trying to get something done through a contact in the Bahamas. It was frustrating, especially once I realized the entire island just quit working for most of the summer. Then I vacationed in the Bahamas and decided that if I lived there, I wouldn’t do anything boring and indoors for the entire summer either. Some places are so beautiful that you shouldn’t sully them with the American work ethic that never stops to sit on a beach and listen to the waves.
I don’t watch sports, or have much interest in sports. I’ve heard the stories about the faithful who heroically turn down the chance to play on Sundays. I’ve admired people for sticking to their principles, but at this point in my life, I think it’s a personal decision and whatever they decide to do is fine with me. Don’t guilt trip people about Sabbath observance.
This is an interesting series of posts. I don’t have comments on all of them, but I do enjoy reading them all.
I remember the 1995 Eli Herring episode. I was living in the Bay Area at the time, where Steve Young was the most celebrated name in professional sports (among Church members and non-members alike), as he was the reigning Super Bowl MVP. We all laughed at Herring’s decision, and considered him as wasting his talent. I seem to recall that during Herring’s 15 minutes of fame, there were a number of news stories and interviews with him (including in Church-owned publications) in which he invariably portrayed himself as self-righteous and holier-than-thou, even taking veiled swipes at Steve Young (though not mentioning Young by name) for not being “righteous enough” to honor the Sabbath. Not long thereafter, Herring faded into obscurity, while Young sailed on to football immortality.
This encapsulates the mixed messaging about Sabbath day observance that the Church has dispensed for as long as I can remember, which confused and bothered me even as a child.
Our Mormon culture has taught us to equate Sabbath observance with “the law of chastity” in terms of obedience and has given us matching levels of guilt and shame.
While I appreciate the more inclusive professional athlete profile by the OP (ie. It’s not just white males), what’s missing from most Mormon discussions of Sabbath day observance (outside of W&T, of course), is that the populations for whom the law was originally meant to benefit, are conveniently left out of the discussion. As other comments have pointed out, there is an army of low wage, hourly wage workers with no PTO or benefits of any kind really, who make it possible for privileged “christians” to “observe the Sabbath” with to their noses in the air, and still complain that their amazon package is not on their porch when they arrive home from church. If we look at the Sabbath as originally intended – equitable rest, or rest for all (including servants, animals etc.), while acknowledging that for our modern economy to function, many people need to work on Sunday, we would be forced to reframe the law of the Sabbath in terms of equal access to things like maternity/paternity pay, paid sick leave, a living wage minimum wage, and actually enforcing basic labor laws. To me, that would be the modern application of the law of the Sabbath. Anything else, to me is childish and missing the point
My wife is a BYU grad and a flight attendant; and the first time she recognized a GA flying on a Sunday was definitely an awkward moment for them both, and in retrospect a watershed moment in her relationship with the church—she’s much more willing to be critical and questioning now. She’d previously worked as a server in SLC too, so already had the experience of purportedly faithful members eating out for Sunday brunch. But it’s one thing to see local lay members making others work on a Sunday, another to watch senior Church leadership do so.
My truck isn’t with Steve Young or whoever, but with the way church leadership wants to have it both ways: they want to lecture us on the importance of keeping the Sabbath, while also singing the praises of LDS pro athletes who invariably play on Sundays (as Gary Stevenson did in his 2019 Conference talk). Either say Steve Young has his reward, or just chill out on Sabbath observance altogether.
And I actually like the concept of the Sabbath, by the way! When I was in grad school, marking one day a week when I simply did no school work, no matter how pressing, did wonders for my mental health! I actually did a better job of Sabbath observance at a secular grad school than I did getting my BA at a church school.
But that just highlights (as Janey and mat have astutely noted) how much we ALL need those breaks—and how much our current civilization is reliant on a mass underclass never being permitted to get one. If we piously take the day off Sundays, while still expecting the poor to man the cash registers and delivery trucks without PTO or benefits, then we have completely missed the point of the Sabbath indeed.
Some years ago I lived in the Philadelphia Stake
(Yes, Vai Sikahema, Shawn Bradley, and Burgess Owens were also in that stake).
. While serving in Young Women’s in our ward I remember a Stake Youth Fireside where the speaker was Andy Reid, head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles football team. I can’t recall what he spoke about, but I do remember thinking how do
church leaders preach about keeping the Sabbath day holy, ( the way they do) yet ignore the fact that Bro. Reid is coaching football on many Sundays?
We were not as hardcore as some.
In our area, the local rec league soccer program played most of their games on Sundays. Luckily, there was another league not far away that had games on Saturdays. However, if a team made the playoffs, then that game might/would be on Sundays. The one time we made it to the playoffs we allowed our son to play.
It didn’t feel right to us to abandon the commitment to the team.. (And, we did attend church that Sunday as well).