Posted on 12/07/2011 8:14:19 AM PST by rhema
When Pam Tebow was counseled to abort her baby to save her own life, the doctor referred to him as a "mass of fetal tissue."
"(M)aybe she just called me that to toughen us up for the names I would be called the first time I played at LSU," Tim Tebow, who became the Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback for the University of Florida, writes in his 2011 book "Through My Eyes."
Now that Tebow is a Denver Bronco and under intense scrutiny in the role of starting quarterback, his congenital instinct to push through adversity and ignore the naysayers is again at work.
"Polarizing" is the sports commentariat's typical term to describe national reaction to Tebow since he went pro. The negativity flows in part from his initially rocky performance. But much more seems to be reaction to Tebow's Christian faith. Critics want him to keep it to himself, a pattern that is increasingly common in American public life.
Of course, there's already plenty of God-talk in professional football. (Type "Green Bay Packers" into Twitter and see how many players give God a shout out in their profiles.)
Talking is one thing. Walking the talk is another. That's where Tim Tebow stands out. Born in the Philippines to missionary parents, he not only is outspoken about his faith, referencing it frequently in word and symbol - such as biblical citations in his eye black. He's also as intense about living out his faith as he is about playing football - and winning.
And he's done a good bit of winning. For a 24-year-old who's been, in his words, "the center of so much spilled ink" since his high school days (before graduating he was the subject of a documentary), it's amazing he's full of anything other than himself. Instead, he brims over about his faith, family, football and teammates.
While the attention hasn't gone to his head, it does seem to have gone to his heart.
Tebow takes seriously the burden of his "platform" - a word he uses frequently in his book to refer to his opportunity to influence others for good. Such disciplined, purposeful stewardship of a leadership role is rare in anyone, but particularly someone so young in a field rampant with narcissism and bad behavior.
Even for observers who consider the eye-black evangelism corny or juvenile, it's simply no comparison to the "youthful indiscretions" that haunt so many public figures for years. And even through jaded eyes, the trademark Tebow kneel to give gratitude to God after a great play hardly can be as obnoxious as others' on-field (not to mention off-field) antics and outbursts.
"Tebow is just a guy with the good sense to say thanks. Instead of taking his cue, we mock his faith. And that says more about us, none of it good," writes Jennifer Floyd Engel at Fox Sports.
What the mockery of Tebow's faith "has revealed about religious discourse in America is ugly," she says. "And this defense that Tebow invites such scrutiny with his willingness to publicly live as he privately believes calls into question what exactly it is we value."
Public expression of religious belief is an essential aspect of what has been called America's first freedom. This nation is founded on the principle that religious individuals and institutions would have the freedom to live out their faith. But in recent decades, policy and social pressures have suggested that faith should be pushed into a private sphere.
Tim Tebow runs right through that line, surprising its defenders - just like he did to the New York Jets on his game-winning, fourth-quarter touchdown.
Did Tebow "ever sit back, smile and admire" the events of November, a reporter asked on the last day of the month? With Tebow starting, the Broncos jumped to 7-5 from a losing record.
"Well, I sit back and smile a lot just 'cuz ... I smile," Tebow responded, with his reflexive grin. "I continually try to smile a lot."
It's true. He's kept smiling while showing remarkable magnanimity toward critics. One, former Broncos QB Jake Plummer, suggested toning down the religious rhetoric. Tebow responded that if it's a good idea for a husband to tell his wife he loves her as often as he can, then wouldn't it be appropriate to do the same when it comes to the most important relationship in his own life?
"If people want to bash me for that, that's OK. It really won't bother me. At least they know what I believe."
Americans express appropriate indignation when a public figure is discovered to lack integrity. How ironic that one who shows consistent virtue should meet with consternation.
Jennifer Marshall is director of the DeVos Center for Religion and Civil Society at The Heritage Foundation and author of the book "Now and Not Yet: Making Sense of Single Life in the Twenty-First Century."
I thank God for the few practicing Christians like you all that we have left in America. Have a Blessed Day all of you!
But the homosexual lobby can be in-your-face with their gaudy, immoral parades; the atheists can display billboards ridiculing believers; the Hollywood elites can flaunt their ungodly lifestyles; the ACLU can drag public figures into court for displaying the 10 commandments or uttering a public prayer in a public arena.
Keep it to himself??? “Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your God which is in heaven.” Keep shining, Tim. I'll keep glorifying God for your faith.
I will make it a point to keep him in my prayers this week.
Next week, not so much....
good on Tim for living his Faith in Christ, and Jennifer for for the courage to point out the hypocrisy of everyone else......
All my Denver kinfolk are diehard Tebow fans and would be devastated if he left. Tebow is Mile-High GLUE right now.
Probably New Orleans or St. Louis.
Religious folks in both of those places, and St. Louis has the nicest fans anywhere this side of Nebraska (who has the best fans).
Nebraska fans stand and applaud the opposing team without fail. They are an amazing bunch of people there.
If Jax offers Gabbert and their First Round Draft Pick (which should be a fairly high pick), it might be real hard for Denver to pass up.
Why would Denver trade Tebow? Don’t they like winning?
Gabbert looks useless. If Denver was adamant about trading Tebow, I’d go even up for Phillip Rivers, even though Rivers isn’t leading his team to victories. Tebow brings a 12th man to his team which is worth a lot. Rivers is under-achieving.
God Bless Him! I don’t watch much football, but I sure know who Tim is and would love to have a grandson with morals and values just like he has. He is such a great role model for younger kids coming up and is an inspiration to all of us.
I get the feeling the Denver Front Office is reacting, like the owner in the movie “Major League” when the Indians actually started winning....I think deep down they wanted Tebow to fail, so they could get it behind them. Now they find themselves in a bit of a pickle, if they still don’t believe Tebow is their long-term answer.
I give it a 60 to 75% chance Tebow will not be in Denver next season.
I was honestly shocked to find it wasn't that way every where. Dad taught me to applaud the other team, and always salute a guy that got hurt. Even during the OU/NU games, it was a very friendly atmosphere.
Elway was sure fond of him last game, grinning from the sidelines!!!
Ya know who Tebow reminds me of? Reagan.
I’m serious.
No matter HOW much the MSM blasted Reagan, the guy simply refused to react. Indeed his resolve to continue on his own path was so huge that it seemed Reagan wasn’t even TRYING to ignore them —because he WASN’T..!
He genuinely didn’t care what they said about him —a quality we don’t see even in 1 of 100 people.
This reallllly angered the MSM —it’s like the aging ex-QB after high-school finding out people who’ve moved on from high-school really no longer care HE was once the BMOC and will no longer kiss his a$$.
Tebow is like that, too —THAT is how little he cares about what the media & NFL ownership say about him.
Another person is like that, too —Rush Limbaugh.
Rush got fired 7 times, once for using the word, “therefore”.
After he got to Sacramento, Rush was fat as hell and conservative —two things that land you on the Banishment Expressway from liberal media elites.
His new co-workers wouldn’t hang out with Rush, and made fun of him at the downtown gym —only Stan Atkisson and a few others (Tom Sullivan) were even civil to him.
As Rush’s popularity grew, one Sacto broadcasting exec up in Granite Bay invited Rush to a big, fancy dinner at his huge home:
When Rush got there this big-shot stopped all conversation then on-going to tell Rush —a man he’d never formally met, and then sitting at his own dinner-table— that the premise of his show was stupid and that Rush would never be a success. And then this exec & dinner host simply continued marveling for the entire dinner (with Rush sitting there politely listening) about how stupid Rush was and that his show was DOA.
And Rush had to live in the really dilapidated part of Sacto (Rio Linda, near an old AFB, now abandoned). You know why he lived there? Because renting in Rio Linda was all Rush could afford at the time.
You know what? Rush doesn’t complain about that, either (in fact he never mentions it on the radio).
And finally when Rush could finally afford to take a vacation, he simply drove up to Lake Tahoe in the mountains above Sacramento, but his car was such a beater he had to periodically pull-over to keep his land-barge from overheating.
And this was even when all the locals were going nuts about Rush —his salary still sucked, and the management was just as condescending to him, and his co-workers and media colleagues were as nasty as always.
In fact most of them were nastier and re-doubled their declarations that Rush would be a huge failure.
And they STILLLLLLLLLLLLL do that, and RUSH IS STILLLLLLLL MAKING BANK.
What an amazing lesson...!
I hate football, but you know what?
EVERY time I see Tebow on the tube, I instantly start rooting for him, mostly because I genuinely admire him, but also partly because the media loathes him so much.
And that’s also sort of how I am with Rush, and how I was with Reagan.
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