What sin did Adam Goodes commit?

12 Aug 2015 - by

The Adam Goodes controversy reveals a great deal about modern society, and especially about the role of sport as a substitute religion for secular times, according to ACC&C scholar Fr Scott Cowdell.

Adam Goodes's heresy, in subverting the secular religion of sport, was simply to bring a wider agenda to the field. Instead of setting community division aside, fulfilling his statutory role as a professional sportsman in the discharge of communal disquiet, he brought that disquiet into the open. Rather than avoiding and distracting, which lie at the heart of sport's social function, Goodes insisted on an honest and adult confrontation.

To read Fr Cowdell's reflections on the Goodes controversy and how it can inform a better way of engaging with racism, click here.