By Tom Bartlett
I know everyone will agree with me that it is unseemly seeing inter-racial couples showing affection in public. Don’t get me wrong – I acknowledge that they have a right to get married, but do they need to rub it in the faces of the rest of society? Hand-holding and a peck on the cheek should be reserved for times when they are alone at home and such demonstrative behaviour is inappropriate.
For that matter, what’s with that Tim Tebow guy kneeling in prayer on the football field? Sure there are people absurd enough to believe in a God, but flaunting his faith in public forces his personal beliefs on the rest of us. Whatever happened to the separation of church and state?
Okay, so maybe opposing simple shows of affection between mixed races isn’t that offensive. Let’s be honest: any rational human being would recognize such a complaint to be borne of ignorance and bigotry. So why is it that Tim Tebow’s expression of gratitude toward his God evokes outrage or is even controversial according to the self-appointed arbiters of tolerance?
I am no NFL fan, but am intimately acquainted with the Tim Tebow controversy. His long established pattern of expressing gratitude to his God by bending his knee in reverence has been met with hoots and rants from ardent non-believers and been the subject of talk shows which venture to determine whether such behaviour is unseemly, fatuous, or even acceptable. Many have offered mocking derision and condemnation based on their distaste for this silent show of piety.
A favoured attack is to accuse Tebow of showboating; twisting a sublime act of humility into a blatant show of arrogance. If so, what are we to make of the victory dances in the end zone that is the standard M.O. of so many of these players? They are clearly telegraphing their own superior performance and boasting of their athletic prowess. They turn the spotlight on themselves while Tim Tebow humbly directs attention to God. I maintain that this is precisely what fires up these malcontents.
For any crying foul for the comparison of Tebow’s public kneeling and inter-racial relationships, my premise is that both acts are innocuous, but the latter is not a subject of mainstream talk shows. Like Rush Limbaugh often says, the best way to illustrate absurdity is with absurdity. If my secular friends wish to make the case that Christians show their intolerance in the context of other social issues, I will be happy to expand my analogies. Before I do so, however, let’s put to rest the risible claim that aversion to inter-racial relationships has any basis in Christianity – a charge I have heard some secularists make.
So what about the issue of homosexual relationships? Well, I have yet to hear any organized Christian opposition to mild affection shown by homosexuals in public. I have heard opposition to crude and graphic content. Many justly criticise the hypocrisy and inappropriateness of public nudity and overtly sexual or anti-Christian displays at “Gay Pride” parades. Those making such legitimate complaints are attacked as “homophobic” as was Mayor Rob Ford for not attending. Christians have also fought against homosexual marriage and forced promotion of homosexuality in our public schools as they undermine the foundational underpinning of family and Christian values. Does this equate with a man praying during a football game?
Let’s look at abortion. Any pro-lifers I’ve had dealings with are filled with compassion for woman in a crisis pregnancy and/or grieve with and for women who have aborted just as we grieve the unborn. We silently protest and pray outside abortion clinics and provide services to women and men struggling with the thought or aftermath of abortion. We work against the tide to educate the public about the life issues and seek protections for the unborn. Weigh this against a man’s grateful public prayer.
I believe that Tim Tebow exposes the guilt and despair many secularists feel about their own lives. They know that Tebow is the genuine article and deep down they desire such an intimate relationship with a loving God. Their conflicted feelings cause many to to denigrate a godly man. Many doubtless indulged in schadenfraude at seeing the Bronco’s trounced after a great run up to the playoffs merely because of the quarterback’s zeal. They invented the storyline that his prayers were for victory and denounced any losses as proof that Christ was failing him.
Tebow is not just a bold Christian example, but an indictment of the entire secular pro-abortion mentality. Tim was born to a missionary couple and his mother suffered from amoebic dysentery and fell into a coma while pregnant with him. Doctors advised abortion, insisting that her son would be severely disabled. Tim’s mother was a woman of strong faith and rejected the dire predictions. Tim subsequently survived four near miscarriages. I would certainly feel deep gratitude to God that my parents weren’t “pro-choice.”
Tebow lives out his faith boldly ministering to others in prison’s hospitals, and in the Philippines – all aside from his witness on the field. This is why he is despised.
Hi,
While I personally harbor no ill will towards individual Christians, I am an Atheist, and I would like to attempt to explain why I personally find the Tebow thing strange.
America is a country where something like 85% of people are Christian. It’s not like Christianity is some persecuted religion here (regardless of what the conservatives here are insisting is what goes on). It’s just a little strange when almost every football player is probably playing, and Tebow insists on making sure that everyone knows that he’s praying. Despite that, I would like to stress that I think Tebow is a wonderful person. There are few people in the world that blow their money on helping others… I just wish he would let others talk about his strong faith like everyone else does, rather than making sure that everyone and their mother knows he has a strong faith. To me, it just smacks of worrying about what men think of you rather than doing it for the cause…
P.S. By US standards, I’m a disgusting liberal (that leans Socialist even!). Your blog is far better than any conservative blog I have ever seen based in the US. While I definitely don’t agree with all of your conclusions, I really wish that conservatives in our country were asking the kind of tough questions that you demanded of liberal society. I personally believe that everyone would come out better off.
Devin,
I appreciated your respectful answer and kudos for the site. I certainly believe that discussion would be much more respectful, civil and productive if you were representative of more who participate in “debates” which almost always mischaracterize the argument or denigrate the perceived “intent” of the writer rather than responding to the content.
As to the substance of your points, in a country that is roughly deemed to be 85% Christian, why would this be controversial in the first place? It sounds to me like a circular argument – Christians are in the majority so they can’t be discriminated against, but public displays of his faith (one shared by the vast majority of the population) should be kept off the field and out of the public eye.
The fact is that, if the U.S. is made up so predominantly of Christians, why are Christian values so misunderstood and deemed politically to be extreme and outside the pale. Here in Canada under soft socialism, we are in the same boat – only worse. There is almost no one championing Christian values and liberal/secular/socialist concepts are considered “mainstream” and that is across all our major political parties.
The reaction to Tim Tebow shows exactly what is wrong culturally. Elitists in government, academia, the media, and in the courts are undermining the very values that the majority of the country would appear to hold. My view is that “Christianity” has become a largely elastic and meaningless term due to infiltration of liberal ideology across the culture. To be a Christian is to be a devout follower of Christ (his teachings, his example) and embracing his sacrifice under recognition we are all sinners. Far too many self-identifying “Christian’s” reject almost all that Christ and the bible proclaim. They also don’t have a “love” for sinners – most of whom are bible-believing evangelicals and their is no examination into their own dark hearts. That is exactly why sites like noapologies and christiangovernment exist and why Tim Tebow’s bold example is so needed.
Most who reject Christian/conservative values reject a mythology of what the public is told they are. Tebow is deemed a showboat rather than devout because that is the liberal narrative. When you have embraced the life changing reality of accepting Christ as your personal saviour, you should want to let everyone know about it and be a powerful witness. The only other options are to make your faith irrelevant by denouncing it’s very value; or forcing it on others. These aren’t options, but a betrayal of all that Christianity stands for.