letter from New Zealand
When people hear the word “religion” in New Zealand, the responses vary widely. When an unbelieving friend spoke of religion this week, it was to joke: “Rugby is our religion”.
And if the press from the All Blacks official website is accurate, on average 1 in 3 Kiwis is actively engaged in watching the All Blacks. The most recent test matches against the Springboks kicked off at 3:10 am NZ time. Meaning almost a third of the country’s entire population were sleep-deprived on Sunday 6th September. At our church we saw a slight dip in attendance, but it was also Father’s Day and happened to be raining cats and dogs, so perhaps there is no correlation!
Three times as many Kiwis are committed to the All Blacks as compared to those who regularly go to church. So, maybe my friend’s comment about rugby being their religion is more than just a joke. The same friend told me that her son was asking questions about the BC date marking. The child was confused as to why the whole date system goes to zero and then starts over again. My friend honestly expressed that she couldn’t really explain it either.
