WHAT SHOULD BE THE CHRISTIAN VIEW POINT OF STEROIDS IN SPORTS? Part three

Sylvester Stallone, 61, has stated publicly that he took human growth hormone and testosterone, substances that supposedly promote a lean, muscular body. (USA Today February 2008) A new movie RAMBO coming this month.

But doctors and scientists who study these potent hormones say Stallone may be playing with more fire power than even John James RAMBO can handle. or Rocky Balboa

• In popular culture, the name Rambo has become an eponym for a tactic of military aggression or, alternatively, a person demonstrating heroism through extreme violence, especially when outnumbered. However, the term can also be used somewhat derogatorily to describe someone who thoughtlessly charges into a fight with no rregard for personal safety or careful planning. This term is commonly referred to as "Going Rambo"ular culture (or pop culture) can be deemed as what is popular within the social context - that of which is most strongly represented by what is perceived to be popularly accepted among society

Within the Christian community, we live within the society that surrounds us. Often what society deems popular becomes the norm for Christians. Think for a moment what society was doing twenty years ago, that they no longer deem popular to do? Think again for a moment and ask, what do Christians do today that is deemed wrong twenty or thirty years ago, but is okay today? Then ask yourselves, did society set the standards, or did Christains set the standards or is there bibical gounds for the standards?

• For example: Today in our society, men can wear ear rings (again) Generally our society doesn't even thinking about this. Women can percies their skin in just about any place and place a ring there. Today divorce is no longer looked as a major factor in our lives. Marriage seems less important than a few years ago. Attending a local church seems less importance. The list could continue.

The Biblical Worldview is even different from the Christian worldview. A Christian today has many viewpoints different from one another. Even the difinition of the term Christian has changed.

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Worldviews embrace the world as it exists in one's time, but only in relation to how the world is pictured by this or that person, this or that community or institution, tainted by possible agenda. A religious worldview can not only describe the beliefs and agenda of a group, but the style and tone of that worldview can reflect a general emotional state of those who speak for that group.

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Now this leads me finally to the subject of steroids in sports in this post today.

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As we have shown in the last several post, often people set the viewpoint about a certain view. In our subject the use of steroids in sports, in the entertainment field, etc.

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Popular culture (or pop culture) can be deemed as what is popular within the social context - that which is most strongly represented by what is perceived to be popularly accepted among society.

• Otherwise, popular culture is also suggested to be the widespread cultural elements in any given society that are perpetuated through that society's vernacular language or lingua franca.
  

• It comprises the daily interactions, needs and desires and cultural 'moments' that make up the everyday lives of the mainstream. It can include any number of practices, including those pertaining to cooking, clothing, consumption, mass media and the many facets of entertainment such as sports and literature. (Compare meme.)
  

• Popular culture often contrasts with a more exclusive, even elitist "high culture," that is, the culture of ruling social groups. The earliest use of "popular" in English was during the fifteenth century in law and politics, meaning "low", "base", "vulgar", and "of the common people" till the late eighteenth century by which time it began to mean "widespread" and gain in positive connotation. (Williams 1985) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Popular_culture

As I said in yesterday’s post, wrestling has shown the pop culture of our day. When Eric (my oldest son) and I went to pro wrestling in the early 80's in Coffeyville, Kansas, in a Jr Hi gym, there was no cussing, and no vulgar language, no drinking. Later in the late 80's there was an amazing change. The wrestlers were getting bigger and the crowds were getting vulgar in their language.

Athletes and bodybuilders were getting bigger

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Growth hormone stimulates growth and cell reproduction. It is produced in the pituitary glands, the pea-sized "master gland" that sits at the base of the brain. It has been popular in recent years with bodybuilders (as we have stated) and athletes because they believe it will increase muscle mass, decrease fat and allow them to more quickly recuperate after punishing workouts.

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What was first a useful drug, now has been abused: How?
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What Dr. Ziegler developed, with the help of the Ciba pharmaceutical company was called "Methandrostenolone" or Dianabol. This was the creation of the first anabolic steroid that wasn’t simply testosterone. That was late in 1956. By the time the early 1960s rolled around, Ziegler’s weightlifters were dominating American weightlifting. And since then, many different steroids, each with their own different set of characteristics, have been developed

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Of course, there have been other documented instances of athletes taking various drugs and other substances in an attempt to enhance their performance. Thomas Hicks, an American marathoner in the 1904 Olympics, had to be revived after he drank Brandy laced with cocaine and strychnine. He won the gold medal, although I believe the Brandy/Cocaine/Strychnine cocktail never really took off in popularity among his fellow athletes. His fellow runners, the sprinters attempted to use nitroglycerine a couple of decades later, to dilate (expand) their coronary arteries; they later switched to experimenting with Benzidrine, an amphetamine.

• So what am I saying, to attempt to enhance performance didn’t just happen in the last twenty years. And it’s been known for more than fifty years. So why are we just now beginning to say it’s wrong?
  



• Many such compounds had been used, but none are as powerful or provided such rapid increases in strength and powerful as anabolic steroids. For this reason, after its invention by Dr.Ziegler, Dianabol was quickly made available to anyone looking for an extra edge. It helped many bodybuilders, weightlifters, football players, and Olympic athletes train harder, longer, and more efficiently. As all steroids can do, it enhanced protein synthesis and allowed new muscle to be built at a rate that was much more rapid than would otherwise be possible. And that increased muscle power and strength translated into financial rewards for the athletes who were taking them
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WHAT SHOULD BE THE CHRISTIAN VIEW POINT OF STEROIDS IN SPORTS?

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LOOKING AT PRO WRESTLING/ & WEIGHTLIFTING

What is the Christian Point

of view

of the Worldview on

Drugs in Sports?

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Yes, I wrestled in high school, and lifted weights, played basketball, football and boxed, baseball and gymnastics.

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I remember well when I was a youth in Roanoke, Virginia in the 1950's and 60's, going to watch wrestling. My dad would take us to watch Haystack Calhoun. He was one of the original farm boys and one of the most beloved big men in the history of professional wrestling. His immense popularity helped to carry several regions during his time. The men looked like regular men who were trying to wrestle each other. I really enjoyed wrestling, and my brother and I would try to copy what we saw. It’s almost comical now to look back at those days of wrestling. Haystack Calhoun was my very favorite wrestler

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I went to Seminary in Arlington, Texas in the late 60's and loved watching Fritz Von Erich and his sons. (The story of the Von Erich’s was unfortunate tragedy.). While I was a dedicated. student of the Bible, truly I was, I still had this enjoyment of watching wrestling. I took all kinds of abuse for liking watching wrestling..

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Even in the 1980's when we were in Altoona, Kansas, my son Eric and I would go to Coffeyville, Kansas to watch wrestling. We saw Rick Flair wrestle.. They still looked like regular men. They were just wrestling each other in the manner that I wrestled in high school. I loved seeing Rick Flair and Harley Race. We drove to Wichita, Kansas, to watch Rick Flair and Sting, and Junkyard Dog.
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I pastored FBC in Altoona, Kansas and I loved pro wrestling. I also worked in a Nursing Home for ten years, and each Saturday for years, we would watch wrestling on TV, and Eric would go with me to cut the lawn and then watch TV. Wrestling was so much fun, clean fun, family fun. Really. I would watch wrestling on TV at home at 10 p.m. and get up on Sunday and preach. Really. Okay, it was as good as watching Gunsmoke.
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Something happened in the 1990's. The wrestlers were getting bigger in body build. They began to take on the look of bodybuilders, like Arnold Schwarzenegger. And wrestling took on another look and another form of entertainment and we moved away from wrestling.
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Arnold Schwarzenegger came to America in 1968 at 21. In 1970 and won the competition making him the youngest Mr. Olympia in history at just 23 years of age, a record he still holds to this day.

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He has admitted to using performance-enhancing anabolic steroids while they were legal, writing in 1977 that "steroids were helpful to me in maintaining muscle size while on a strict diet in preparation for a contest. I did not use them for muscle growth, but rather for muscle maintenance when cutting up." Schwarzenegger has called the drugs "tissue building." It has been alleged that Schwarzenegger won his first of seven Mr. Olympia titles in 1970 using just three Dianabol (Methandrostenolone) per day.
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THE STORY OF STEROID USE IN SPORT
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The story of steroid use in sports began just before the World Weightlifting Championships of 1954. The Soviets had made their Olympic debut in Helsinki in 1952, and made quite an impact, but nothing compared to the show they put on in 1954. That year, the Soviets easily dominated most of the weight classes. As the story goes, John Ziegler (team physician for the United States) questioned the Soviet team ´s doctor after the medals were given out, and the Soviet doctor said that his team had been receiving testosterone injections. That, in all probability, was the first time anyone had ever used anabolic steroids to enhance performance in an athletic event. According to some unconfirmed sources, testosterone preparations were used by Germany’s Olympic team in 1936 for the Berlin Olympics. At that time, there were rumors that an Olympic medal winner had previously used oral Testosterone preparations, but the benefit to be had from them (due to the technology at the time regarding oral testosterone) would have been minor. In the case of the Soviets, however, rumors of discarded syringes in their dressing rooms made it clear that they were not using oral steroids, they were using something different. And everyone wanted to know what it was.

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Culture is the habits of society. Sports often reflect the thinking of our society, and society reflects the trends of sports athletes. What athlete does not want to be as good as Tiger Woods, or Mark McGuire, or Hulk Hogan? What are they willing to do to be like them?

STEROIDS IN BASEBALL AND SPORTS

STEROIDS IN BASEBALL AND SPORTS

Part One
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Anabolic steroids

2000-2008 was not the beginning of the use of anabolic steroids

The first time anabolic performance enhancement had been attempted. As far back as the original Olympic Games in ancient Greece, athletes ingested various herbs and foods with the hopes of improving their performance. The big winner in the 480 B.C. Olympic Games said he ate nothing but meat for 10 months prior to the Games. Now we know that meat is especially high in B vitamins and Creatine, both of which can enhance performance. Early attempts to increase Testosterone were documented as early as 776 BC andagain, by Olympic athletes ´ ingested sheep ´s testicles, which they knew to be a source of Testosterone production (3). Although it might seem extreme to us now, to eat meat for ten straight months (or to ingest sheep testicles), this was a small price to pay for the prize money that was offered back then & up to 1,200 days pay for winning an event was common. There were no participation medals; they did not compete for the love of the game, to give it their best shot, or even for pride. They competed for money and prestige, end of story . And that is why they sought out performance enhancers.

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If that story sounds familiar, like perhaps one you´ve heard on TV or in magazines concerning modern-day steroid use in sports, it should. Athletes´ today- especially professional athletes- have very lucrative contracts and sponsorship deals, and steroids are known to enhance performance, reduce and repair injuries, and lengthen careers. So it should be no surprise to most people that when Dr.Ziegler returned from the World Weightlifting Championships, he immediately began researching testosterone and trying to develop something better for his Athletes.

The story of steroid use in sports began just before the World Weightlifting Championships of 1954. http://www.steroid.com/steroids-in-sports.php

• I was watching CBS Sunday Morning: one of the stories was on Steroids. Its in the news daily. Is steroids wrong! And why now does the culture deside that these building up of the body now is wrong?
• Did Mark McGuire use steroids? Would you vote for him for the Hall of Baseball?
• Did Roger Clements use steroids? And!
• Has our culture caused athletics to use of body building drugs so athletics can get the edge in sports today?

What is the Christian Point of view of the Worldview on Drugs in Sports?

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