The Olympic Village’s religious center has become the target of a quiet protest by athletes, coaches and other delegates who say its staffing and services fall woefully short of the promises made by Chinese organizers.
Previous Olympic hosts welcomed foreign chaplains, but China has banned them from living with the athletes. It has instead pledged that it will provide equivalent services from its pool of state-employed pastors, imams and other clerics.
Josh McAdams, 28, an American athlete who runs the 3,000-meter steeplechase, said members of the U.S. track and field team have been “quite dissatisfied” with the center. Not only are the services conducted in broken English, most staff members do not have experience with sports or with foreigners.
“They should allow chaplains””perhaps one from each country””to be in the village. … This is important, because for many of us, athletics is not only physical and mental but spiritual,” said McAdams, who is Mormon.
Like taking Eucharist at the DMV.
In an officially atheistic dogma country, it’s not even the DMV. It’s more like the provisiion of services by the inmates of the local psychiatric inpatient facilities who are not seen as full members of the state.
I cannot figure out which is more sad–the news daily coming out of China and the Olympics or how the Chinese Government thinks it is controlling the information.
Praying for China. Praying for the Church in China.
This is a sad situation that much good can come from. If all the Christian athletes who are without spiritual guidance during the games return home and spread how much it means to them and how much they miss it when denied access, they can evangelize effectively. It is like being a POW gives you a fresh perspective and appreciation for freedom. Nothing like loosing something to make it very dear to you. Now, if they will only carry that message back to the “World”.