Perhaps football is coming home after all but it will be the lionesses not the lions who bring home a football World Cup. England’s defeat of Australia in the women’s world cup semi-final was immediately the top item on news bulletins.
Not everyone was quite so overjoyed with football dominating the headlines. Some people have reacted by grumbling about why should a football result be the top news item when there’s an ongoing war in Ukraine and the monthly inflation data has been reported too.
It’s worth observing a few things here. First, the main headline tends to be about something that is a significant and immediate event/change. If inflation shoots up spectacularly, reversing last months reduction or if it had dropped sharply, much closer to the Government’s target them I suspect it will quickly make it to the top of the billing. Similarly, a significant and definite break through for Ukraine or an escalation by Putin is likely to knock the lionesses off the headlines, just as the attempted Wagner coup recently pushed everything else down the agenda. The news headlines will change again as editors determining what is news worthy at the time.
Secondly, the view that the victory is not newsworthy fits into a view of the world which suggests that certain things are news, not because they are interesting, surprising or exciting but because they are worthy and weighty. The news then is reserved for economics and politics. However, we are more than just economic units, there is more to life than just the inflation rate. As human beings, made in the image of God, we also care about art, sport, music etc. Culture is as newsworthy as politics and economics. Wars will make the news, so too the deaths of monarchs and the appointment of archbishops and popes. Sometimes a sporting success will hit the headlines too.
And yes, those seemingly trivial things do affect people, quite a lot of people. Of course, we can get caught up in idolatry as we look to football or pop music to satisfy us instead of God. However, in their right place, these things do carry weight. Before we write off the lionesses success as trivial, we might want to talk to those girls and young women who have been encouraged into sport or who have begun to think about themselves differently. Maybe some young men will have learnt to see women differently too. If this leads to greater emotional and physical health then that’s a good thing. Furthermore, if the news is that this team have captured the nation’s attention and affection in a way that the expensively paid men are failing to do, then that’s news -and good news to.
So, if all we are talking about in a month’s time is the football, then we have a problem. For now though perhaps we can enjoy the women’s success and even the fact that it is newsworthy.
Faithroots 
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