The Controversy of playing Santa Claus... acceptable or unacceptable?

The fault in your premise is that Anything can be an idol. Not just sports. For some people their job may be an idol. Because a certain number of people use their job as an idol should we speak against jobs?
Also how do you expect it looks like to go against this idolatry of sports?
Since a majority of those engaged in this idol worship are non-Christians to begin with is it really worth the time and effort to stop a sinner in just one of their sins?
It would seem to me discouraging sinners to not sin is fruitless because it doesn't save them. And more often than not it turns them away.
Seems to me the best way to defeat an enemy is not to criticize it openly, but convert its supporters.
But even so that does not mean football will die off.

I've always found it odd how Christian's tend to focus more on stopping sin than saving people.

I used football as an example because it is such a major focus at Church, after Church, etc.
I am just curious of peoples opinions on these matters, no interest in stopping them 😊.
I spend most of my time at work, in Study, Renovating my House and a variety of Mission work. I am a sinner just like everyone else, but repentance is Crucial in my life.

How is your day, Sub? I pray you are feeling better, Brother 😊🙏

In nz its rugby, but mostly amongst men.
With women it tends to be talking about food. My goodness the amount of chitchat and moaning about food and weight problems amongst women is VERY boring. I wouldnt say its a thing with christians though.
This usually happens around morning teas while the women are stuffing their faces with cake saying 'I shouldnt be eating this' and then eating it anyway.

Here are a few of the finest American football leagues around the globe:

United States

Team USA Football celebrates a big win at the International Federation of American Football World Championship in 2011 in Vienna. (Photo: Herbert Kratky/Shutterstock)

Maybe it isn't fair to include the United States on this list. But, in all fairness, the NFL isn’t the only game going on here in the states. An independent nonprofit group, USA Football, acts as ambassador for American football across the nation and worldwide. Conducting more than 100 annual football training events each year, the organization has coached more than 16,000 youth football coaches who have passed their knowledge and skills on down to more than 350,000 youngsters.

USA Football is also the country’s only member of the IFAF, and has twice won the federation’s Championship of American Football: in 2007 and 2011, the only times they competed. USA will go for a third title in 2015 when the championship game – held every four years since 1999 – takes place in Stockholm, Sweden.

Sweden

The Swedish American Football Federation boasts more than 7,500 members. (Photo: Swedish American Football Federation)

Speaking of Sweden, the 2015 championship hosts boast a pretty decent federation along with four talented national teams that include the Stockholm Mean Machines. For a short time, the Machines were led by former University of Colorado quarterback Cody Hawkins, who helmed USA Football to its second world championship in 2011 in Austria.

Founded in 1984 and headed by Tommy Wiking, who also currently serves as IFAF president, the Swedish American Football Federation has more than 7,500 active members, ages 13 to 21, playing for 76 different clubs. SAFF has also begun promoting flag football and, in 2008, the federation’s national women’s team squared off in their first-ever competition, an away friendly against Finland.

Among Sweden’s most successful football imports is linebacker Carl-Johan Bjork, who played three seasons with the Amsterdam Admirals of NFL Europe before briefly joining the practice squads of the Cincinnati Bengals, Green Bay Packers and Dallas Cowboys.

Israel

Members of the Herzliya Hammers get ready for a game in 2013 at the Kraft Family Stadium in Jerusalem, which was donated by New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft. (Photo: US Embassy Tel Aviv)

It could be argued that there’s no American football league with more genuinely American influence than Israel’s, where the Israeli Football League (IFL) league has long been sponsored by New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft.

What started out in 1989 as a touch football league has turned into five leagues fielding teams in both tackle and flag football. IFL Commissioner Friedman said the league has recently put together a national tackle football team ready to showcase its skills within the next year. Meanwhile, in flag football, Israeli stars Dani Eastman and Yael Freedman were recently named World Championship MVPs in men’s and women’s competition, respectively. Eastman, who plays running back, wide receiver and defensive back for the Judean Rebels, is also the two-time reigning MVP of the IFL. The Tel Aviv Pioneers are the current champion, having won Israel Bowl VII over the Jerusalem Lions. Israel Bowl VIII will be held in April 2015.

While the IFL aspires to NCAA rules, they currently field teams of 9-on-9 to better match the smallish pitch at Robert Kraft Stadium, which is only 60 yards plus endzones. Friedman said the IFL will be moving to an 80-yard field in 2015.

Mexico

Countries all over the world field formidable American football squads, including Mexico, whose 2011 national team beat up on Austria 65-0 in the 2011 International Federation of American Football Championship. (Photo: Herbert Kratky/Shutterstock)

More often associated with “futbol” – the soccer kind – Mexicans have been playing American football since the early 1920s, and with considerable success. Like in Turkey, American football gained traction at different colleges and universities before the first professional championship was played in 1928.

Today, Mexico has many leagues with college, junior and youth leagues playing under the auspices of the country’s national federation. Mexico also boasts a number of players with some NFL experience, all of whom excelled in their native country before progressing to the world’s highest stage.

Mexico is also home to the Aztec Bowl, an NCAA-sanctioned Division III bowl game hosted intermittently since 1950. Since 1997, that bowl game has also featured an American Football Coaches Association All-Star team against a team of Mexican All-Stars.

Australia

Australia didn't fare so well at its one and only international championship in 1999 – finishing last – but the Land Down Under shows an unbridled enthusiasm for football. (Photo: Herbert Kratky/Shutterstock)

One of only three countries to represent Oceania in the IFAF (American Samoa and New Zealand are the others), Australia has strong presence of American football despite the land down under’s very real affinity for the hard-hitting sport of rugby. Gridiron Australia is a quarter-century-old organization responsible for the play of more than 70 amateur football teams ‘balling in all six of Australia’s states and two territories.

The Aussies have twice fielded national teams that competed in the IFAF World Championship, but with limited results:Australia finished fifth in the first-ever 1999 competition, but came in dead last out of the eight-team field in 2011.

Australia’s most notable export, Hayden Smith, currently a rugby player for London’s Saracen club, served a brief stint as tight end for the New York Jets. On Dec. 23, 2012, he caught his one and only NFL football pass before being released a year later and returning to Saracen for a second time.

Japan

Team Japan celebrates after a touchdown at the International Federation of American Football World Championship on July 15, 2011, in Vienna, Austria. (Photo: Herbert Kratky/Shutterstock)

American football has a particularly big presence in the little island nation of Japan. Celebrating its 80th anniversary in 2014, the Japan American Football Association oversees close to 400 teams with 20,000 players. JAFA has three different leagues that include more than 60 semi-pro and corporate-sponsored teams, about 220 university clubs and more than 100 high-school squads. Each league concludes with its own bowl game.

Japan is also home to the Koshien Bowl, established in 1947 and the oldest bowl game in the nation’s history. That bowl game determines the best collegiate squad each year. In 1948, the Rice Bowl was developed as an East-West all-star game before rebranding in 1983 to a game in which the winners of the Koshien Bowl and Japan X Bowl square off to determine the nation’s best club; the game is held every year on Jan. 3. The Japan X Bowl, called the Tokyo Super Bowl when it was established in 1987, determines the semi-pro champions each year.

Japan knows a thing or two about world-stage bowl games, too: Before USA Football came along, Japan’s senior national team earned back-to-back IFAF world titles (in 1999 and 2003). They finished second in 2007, and dropped to third in the IFAF’s last big game in 2011, but have qualified for the 2015 bowl with hopes of reaching the top once again.

Canada

A player from Team Football Canada kicks a PAT at the International Federation of American Football World Championship July 11, 2011 in Graz, Austria. (Photo: Herbert Kratky/Shutterstock)

Double standard. Look at a lot of ultra fundamentalist and they will condemn you for literally anything but still feel good about supporting corrupt actions by politicians. The "I dont like it, so its obviously evil" crowd

Great Point, thank you

how dare you talk about Santa that way

I am sympathetic to the not wanting to lie to kids argument and also the importance of keeping the focus on Jesus but at the end of the day, Santa is just fun and love so I don't see the problem as long as it's handled properly. Santa and Jesus are pals.

but then HOW just HOW was it that when I was little oh 5 or 6 my dad was with me when I heard noises in the other room and we went to see what it was and found Santa????? If Santa is my dad dressed up then was someone dressed up as my dad to try and fool me?

the year 1s did a performance for the school prizegiving and all the girls dressed in red dresses with tinsel and the boys dressed as santa claus while they sang jingle bells.

Their teacher asked if they could borrow some cushions from the library, well. what was I going to say NO YOU CANT I object to boys putting cushions under their red suits and pretending to be jolly fat santas?

Anyway their parents thought they were adorable and they were the talk of the school.

now imagine if they had decided to put on a nativity play and I just said NO you cant pretend to be Jesus. Or the three wise men, Or the sheep.

Godsgirl....yes santa may be your dad dressed up or someone elses dad dressed up, so you probably saw someone elses dad dressed up. Or your Uncle.

All I know is.my Dad actually worked for santa for many years he helped sort parcels at the post. it wasnt just at Christmas but year round. Santa outsourced a lot of his work you know. Its not just one man doing everything. He has helpers.

american football people, Im sorry I had no idea. I dont think it would be allowed to convert all the rugby teams and fields in nz to american football, there would be an outcry and probably protests and riots if that happened.