With his unconventional pass delivery and a physical style that seems just as comfortable running the ball anyway, some wonder if University of Florida star quarterback Tim Tebow will achieve NFL glory. But football fans just may get to see the story of the Heisman Trophy winner and unapologetic Christian impact the pro sport's biggest game of the year.If Tebow were simply to wear a "Stop Global Warming" message on his uniform I'm sure all would be forgiven. You just have to promote the right religion.
Colorado-based conservative group Focus on the Family reportedly may buy a Super Bowl spot for an ad about how Tebow's mother carried him to term despite a difficult and dangerous pregnancy.
If true, it would be just another example of Tebow annoying the secular left. The quarterback is as famous for wearing Bible passage citations on his game-day eye black as for winning an NCAA championship. As NewsBusters has detailed, that practice – and the faith it symbolizes – is irksome to some commentators.
Almost a year ago, CBSSports.com columnist Gregg Doyel wrote, "Tebow's religion is seen as good because it is the religion of the majority. But it's not the religion of everybody. It's exclusionary, and just because you share Tebow's faith, that doesn't mean you're right."
This past October, Sam Cook of the Fort Myers [Fla.] News-Press, picked up from USA Today's Tom Krattenmaker and slammed the "far-right theology" of Tebow's evangelical Christian father.
As recently as mid-December, Mark Axelrod, a blogger at the liberal Huffington Post, sneered, "So, am I to believe that Florida beat Oklahoma because Tim Tebow had John 3:16 painted beneath his eyes?" Axelrod certainly knows that nobody is suggesting God takes sides in football games, and at the end of his piece he got to his real objections:"What I find rather disturbing is that he has to bring that religious faith onto the playing field as a way of testifying to it, as a way of letting people know just how deeply religious he is. The irony of making faith a kind of religious highlight reel is that belief in God isn't a spectator sport nor is a football field a venue for religious politicking."The elite liberals at the Huffington Post and elsewhere in the media are embarrassed that Tebow insists on publicly testifying to his faith and using his high profile to exercise his Christian duty to evangelize.
Tebow's faith scares the left because if there's one thing they can't stand it's absolutes, and Christianity represents a lot of absolutes. They prefer a hazy, easy-going kind of lifestyle that is short on accountability and long on tolerance and acceptance. Once you agree that there is right and wrong, things start getting more difficult.
And frankly, I think there's a little guilt thrown in for good measure. He makes them uncomfortable because he's so sure in his faith and they're so unsure in theirs.
I hope he does well.
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4 comments:
Rick, I am disturbed that you need to attack others when writing about faith. I do not disagree with 99% of your theology but believe it is wrong to attack those who scoff at us. Proverbs 9:7 specifically forbids it and says we who argue with a scoffer will ourselves end up with the shame.
Gary, I'm not attacking anybody but simply explaining the mindset behind the caustic comments directed at Tebow. I don't believe Proverbs forbids a discussion of the subject.
Boy, that's a real deep and profound observation there, Gary.
You know, it causes me to wonder about believers that do stuff like that -- like this fellow named Elijah. He mocked and scoffed at no less than 450 devout believers of another religion -- and as far as attacking them . . . .he had them put to death!! You can read all about it in 1 Kings 18.
Do you suppose that maybe Elijah never read the book of Proverbs? Hmm. . . .as far as Elijah himself ending up with shame. . . .it seems to me that he wound up in the Hall of Fame, not the Hall of Shame.
Just ask someone who believes that there are no absolutes if they believe that they are absolutely correct.
They'll change the subject.
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