Sunday school vs. kids' sports: a growing rivalry

While much of the greater Raleigh area moseyed to church Sunday morning, one congregation of parents and kids chose a chillier pew: the ice rink.

Though many wore crosses around their necks, those talismans were far outnumbered by goalie pads and hockey sticks. "Guess what I'm missing right now?" says Dan Poirier, a hockey dad and coach watching a hard-checking Pee Wee game at Garner's Ice House, a rink shoehorned into the Raleigh suburbs.

Youth leagues have grown by 400 percent in the past 25 years, creating a schism between sports and the Sabbath. Increasingly, priests and pastors nationwide are lamenting that too many pews sit empty on account of sports.

"I'm afraid we're neglecting the best for the good," says Bobby Jordan, a pastor who drives by packed soccer fields on his way to work at Bethel Baptist Church in Cary, N.C.

Mr. Jordan's lament is just one example of a simmering debate over the changing nature of American weekends, and a gradual diminution of religion in suburbia.

"It's a real challenge for anyone who takes religion seriously," says Allyson Gall, a director with the American Jewish Committee in Millburn, N.J. "We all want to be good parents and good Americans, but as these sports get more serious, it gets more difficult" to heed the Sabbath.

Certainly, many coaches stress family and church over games. But the crops of mini-Maradonas and peewee Steve Yzermans are burgeoning at such a rate that simply finding a field to play on - at any time - has become a challenge.

Still, some church leaders are vying to keep Sunday holy - at least until noon. In Summit, N.J., the creation of a Sunday Pee Wee football league with games starting at 10 a.m. inspired a furious debate at a "visioning" meeting of the Summit Interfaith Council last year.

This fall, the church council formally approached the league and asked them to reconsider the move. It's waiting for an answer before unleashing a "torrent" of letters, says Rich Hendrickson, pastor of the United Methodist Church of Summit and convener of the Interfaith Council.

"The time that families to have together is shrinking and very precious," says Mr. Hendrickson. "Sunday morning is a time when families can do something together, but by scheduling sports [on Sunday], you're doing one more thing that has the potential of causing families to split, where half go here and half go there."

The complaints haven't percolated into the halls of most national church councils - at least not yet. But with every passing weekend, sociologists, say, more parents are experiencing the shift. To some, the decision to play instead of pray is emblematic of a diminishing respect for religious authority - and a growing acceptance of a secular culture. At the very least, it's a true parental conundrum. In some parishes, parents have said they'd prefer a 5 p.m. service, church surveys have shown.

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