Olympics Offer Groups a Chance to Reach Out

As athletes descend upon Atlanta for the Summer Olympics, eyeing medals of gold, silver and bronze, teams of religious people are setting their sights on more timeless values.

Inside the Olympic Village, 38 chaplains are ready to provide scriptural studies, prayer services and one-on-one chats with athletes from faiths ranging from Christianity, Judaism and Islam to Buddhism, Baha’i and Hinduism.

And beyond the boundaries of the village where the Olympic competitors will reside, a variety of religious groups are mobilizing to provide housing to athletes’ families, refreshments to thirsty tourists and evangelistic tracts to anyone who passes by.

Religion definitely has its place during the fast, fleeting world of the Olympics--a festival that began as a tribute to the Greek god Zeus. And although there is disagreement, especially among some Christian groups, about whether to use the Games as an opportunity to seek converts, all are united in the hope that their values will be sustained far beyond the closing ceremonies Aug. 4.

“It’s difficult in a rarefied atmosphere of the Olympics to keep that kind of perspective, but I think that’s what we really would like to do--to be a grounding place for athletes in terms of what are the really significant things in [our] lives,” said Rabbi Brett Isserow of Atlanta, who is training chaplains for the Olympics and is one of the clergy volunteers who will serve inside the Olympic Village.

But some people of faith insist that evangelism among spectators and visitors is the best way to demonstrate the importance of their beliefs.

“Of course, for us, evangelism is the focus, because we are commanded to go into all the world” and evangelize, said Sharon Burcham, manager for Games Outreach, an evangelical Christian initiative in Atlanta that is organizing ministry teams from across the U.S. to come to Atlanta during the sports event. “The world is coming to our door. . . . How often do we have the opportunity to have the world come to us?”

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Another group, Sports Outreach America--a consortium of sports-related Christian ministries intent on using the Games as a platform for evangelism--have created a home page on the Internet to encourage religious groups to purchase resources to “reach your community for Christ around the Summer Games.”

But others working in Atlanta say they intend to reach souls through hospitality rather than evangelism.

A variety of Christian churches in Atlanta are participating in Quest Atlanta ‘96, a cooperative effort designed to blend Olympic sports and religious outreach.

The Rev. Kirk Bridgers, chairman of Quest’s board, is proud of the diverse network of churches--including mainline and evangelical Protestants, Roman Catholics and Orthodox--that represents 29 denominations.

“We created a menu of options and invited congregations to jump in at their point of zeal or fervor,” said Bridgers, pastor of Peachtree Road Lutheran Church, which is affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

“That included proclamation of the Gospel all the way to demonstration of the Gospel, from sheer evangelism, if you will, all the way to social justice.”

Initiatives by the ecumenical group include providing athletes’ families with free lodging and breakfast, social action to help the homeless, opportunities for evangelism, and prayers for spiritual revival and improved race relations. But they do not extend to proselytizing.

“The host family will treat their guests with dignity and respect regardless of whether or not they are Christian,” reads Quest’s two-page set of ground rules governing participating churches’ participation. “We will be respectful of the dietary, hygienic and religious diversity of our guests without any attempt to remonstrate or proselytize.”

Olympic Village chaplains are forbidden to proselytize, and aim instead to provide support and encouragement for athletes who find themselves under stress and far from home.

“What we’re trying to do is create the experience for the athletes that they need in order to compete at their very best,” said the Rev. Elmer Goble, manager of religious activities and a chaplain at the Olympic Village.

During their training, the chaplains focused on ways to help the athletes deal with the highs and lows of the sports experience.

“I’m expecting there will be some emotional trauma associated with planning and anticipating victory and many will not have the victory that they wish,” said the Rev. Steve Overall, a chaplain at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta and chairman of the Interfaith Advisory Group.

“For some of these athletes, a very significant part of who they are is their religious makeup,” Goble said.