Don't let the left sack Tebow

New York Daily News ^ | Wednesday, February 3rd 2010 | S.E. Cupp

[presidio9]

Tim Tebow paints Scripture verse numbers like "John 3:16" on his face on game days. He is pro-life, and he isn't ashamed of it. He comes from a conservative Christian family, and wants to use his platform as a celebrity quarterback to talk about his religious convictions.

Considering 80% of the country is Christian, and just over half is pro-life, you wouldn't think this would make for much of a story.

But then, you haven't met the taste arbiters of the secular, liberal elite, who are treating Tebow's upcoming Super Bowl commercial as though it marks the end of the world as we know it.

In the ad, Pam Tebow tells the story of her son's birth. She says she ignored the advice of doctors, who feared she would die during labor, to terminate her pregnancy. Instead, she "chose life" - and had Tim.

It's a simple story, and a pretty powerful one. But what should be an uplifting, 30-second celebration of life and family is, for the secular left, a doom-and-gloom screed against the intellectual superiority of science, an attack on common sense, an abuse of the Constitution and an assault on the sanctity of professional football.

Didn't know it was possible to do all of that in a Super Bowl ad? Meet Jason Fagone, one of the many hyperventilating commentators for whom Tebow's commercial is the "confrontational" marketing ploy of a missionary.

"The commercial isn't a means; it's the end," Fagone writes, ominously, in Slate. "What is the end? It's not just stopping abortions. Tebow wants to convert people, like his father does in Muslim areas of the Philippines."

Gasp! If it sounds apocalyptic, it's supposed to. Because for liberal elites, muscular Christianity is like "The Exorcist" - vomit-inducing, head-spinning, horrifying, repulsive.

Some of the the same folks who told the FCC to calm down after Janet Jackson whipped her breast out during the 2004 Super Bowl find Tebow's nod to God an affront to common decency. It's this guttural aversion to God that solidifies their place on the fringes of American culture - for there is nothing mainstream about such anti-Christian paranoia.

There's nothing rational about it, either. For one, the secular fringe has yet to understand that faith isn't something you just turn off in public. Suggesting that Tim Tebow (or George W. Bush) shut up about God already is like saying freedom of religion and freedom of speech don't apply to Christians, especially famous ones.

For another, how is Tebow's public Christianity any different from, say, Sean Penn's public politics? Or Rosie O'Donnell's? Apparently, the religion of liberalism is okay with the in-crowd, but actual religion - the kind that puts God above the individual - isn't.

And finally, what happened to wanting our athletes to be role models? For years, we heard from liberals who were disappointed that Michael Jordan avoided opportunities to take important social and political stands. But when an athlete's political views are ones the left doesn't agree with, it's apparently time to get out the muzzle.

Despite all this, the anti-Tebow liberal hysteria can barely be contained. William Saletan, again in Slate, dramatically reveals the "grisly truth" behind Pam's decision, warning readers that most women suffering from placental abruption, like Pam was, "didn't end up with Heisman-winning sons" when they chose life over an abortion. "They ended up dead."

For Women's Media Center President Jehmu Greene, the ad "uses sports to divide rather than unite," and the National Organization for Women called the commercial "hate masquerading as love."

By far the silliest of arguments came from The Washington Post's Dan Levy, for whom football is apparently too pure, too hallowed to be bastardized by religion, of all things: "Much like church and state, I'm happy to keep my preaching and my football as far apart as possible."

How completely have we lost our bearings when a simple moral message by a football player - a declaration that he is serious about his faith - produces such apoplexy?

The answer: pretty completely. Yes, Tim Tebow is a celebrity. And yes, Tim Tebow is a Christian.

If he wants to use his celebrity to promote Christianity, the liberal, secular fringe will just have to accept it. When they're ready to take a more tolerant approach to faith, they are welcome to rejoin the mainstream. It's pretty nice in here.

[presidio9]

This article fascinates me, because I always sort of assumed that Sarah Elizabeth Cupp, age 30, graduate of a quasi Ivy League school and currently getting her master's at NYU was slowly being sucked back into the liberal vortex that is Greenwich Village. The Tina Fey glasses were a dead givaway. It's nice to see Cupp defend Focus on the Family and Tebow's constitutional rights, but I don't see her taking a stance on abortion here. And while Cupp defends Christianity from attacks by the left here and elsewhere, she is herself an athiest. That being said, I like having her on our side for as long as she chooses to be here. Someday she will decide that she is actually a libertarian, and eventually she will be having lunch with Ariana Huffington a couple of days a week.

[freedumb2003]

The National Organization of Ugly Womyn is calling Tebow’s stating that sanctity of life that allowed him to live and thrive is “hate speech.”

I can no more fathom that than I could figure out what my cat was thinking. It isn’t human reasoning at all.

[freekitty]

Abortion besides being the worst thing to ever happen; is also a plan to eliminate the less desirables and not just the disabled. I am not even sure some of the lefties understand this. It’s demographics and it’s been going on for a long time.

[Emmett McCarthy]

That’s why I have a dog. They don’t keep secrets and tell you exactly what’s on their minds.

The whole NOW, Planned Parenthood, lefty agenda needs to be mocked, ridiculed and shown for the evil foolishness it is. By their little fit over this ad, they’re actually helping to do that for us.

[subterfuge]

Christianity is the final personal beleif that it is politically correct to mock.

Remember this, Liberals: GOD WILL NOT BE MOCKED

Carry on.

[highlander_UW]

"The commercial isn't a means; it's the end," Fagone writes, ominously, in Slate. "What is the end? It's not just stopping abortions. Tebow wants to convert people, like his father does in Muslim areas of the Philippines."

I suspect this is ominous to the liberal mind, but I see nothing wrong with this sentence. Liberals give lip service to wanting abortions to be "rare", but when someone actually advocates for that they throw a hissy fit.

And I suspect that in Fagone's mind the activity of a missionary is also frightening, I can only guess it's because people change their minds as he puts it?

Ultimately, this says far more about Fagone than it does the Tebows.

[freedumb2003]

>>Remember this, Liberals: GOD WILL NOT BE MOCKED<<

I seem to recall a story about a prophet, some kids and a she-bear that pointed that our profoundly.

Ah, the good Old days.

[Star Traveler]

You were saying ...

The National Organization of Ugly Womyn is calling Tebow’s stating that sanctity of life that allowed him to live and thrive is “hate speech.”

I can no more fathom that than I could figure out what my cat was thinking. It isn’t human reasoning at all.

Well.., I don't advocate using the terminology of "hate speech" as a label for anything. I advocate free speech "back at 'em" to expose someone's "hate speech".

But, that having been said -- if there ever was something such as "hate speech" -- it would be that kind of speech that advocates the killing of kids... that's truly "hate speech" if there is such a thing as hate speech.

[oyez]

Abortion is the holy grail of NOW. It is blasphemy to speak against it.

[massgopguy]

Liberals label all contrary opinions as “Hate Speech” in hopes that one day it will be illegal.

[HiTech RedNeck]

Viking Kittehs alwaz glad 2 explain katt 2 you.

Evil hates being exposed. That’s why NOW is in an uproar. They fear a meme that might cause abortion to be less popular.

[hinckley buzzard]

War is Peace. Freedom is Slavery. Love is Hate.

[I still care]

When you listen to real libs talk about missionaries you will find they hate them more than the 9-11 bombers.

They have some non existant template up as far as missionaries are concerned. They are evil, constricted religious lunatics that beat Native Americans for speaking their own language and such.

[thulldud]

Abortion besides being the worst thing to ever happen; is also a plan to eliminate the less desirables and not just the disabled.

This Tebow ad makes the lefties apoplectic possibly because it reminds them that the "undesirables" whom they most want to eliminate through abortion are those most likely to avoid it.

[BenKenobi]

Very true. I wrote an essay on a prof’s alma mater that was founded by the Jesuits as a Catholic mission to all of the West.

Unsurprisingly got a D, despite primary sources. You want to piss off a liberal, praise missionaries and the work that they do!

[Arkansas Toothpick]

RC Sproul, Jr. says that “things not being as they should be is as they should be” We live in a world that spirals downward into a moral toilet. But, I take heart that God knows all and is sovereign. His will is unassailable. As it says in Isaiah, “the Zeal of the Lord WILL ACCOMPLISH THIS”

[highlander_UW]

When you listen to real libs talk about missionaries you will find they hate them more than the 9-11 bombers. They have some non existant template up as far as missionaries are concerned. They are evil, constricted religious lunatics that beat Native Americans for speaking their own language and such.

For the most part, liberals are the most intolerant people I've ever encountered...and I used to work with muslim apologists attempting to interfere with muslims seeking Christ.

Actually, the cognitive dissonance that can be found in muslim apologists is quite similar to that of liberals.