Wednesday, February 03, 2010

The latest flashpoint in the culture war

The “Tim Tebow” Super Bowl ad

The ad, featuring Tim and his mom, sponsored by Focus on the Family tells the story of Tim’s mom declining to follow the advice of doctors and abort Tim. The rest is history. As far as I know, not many people have actually seen the ad yet and it already is causing all sorts of controversy. It has become a rallying point for pro-lifers, it is a sign of imminent theocracy to pro-abortion folks and an opportunity for sports writers to pontificate on issues in the real world. That rarely goes well. I think most sports writers have a complex about not being “real” journalists so they love to write about “real” issues and they normally show very quickly why they should stick with writing about sports (for proof, read almost anything non-sports related by Mitch Albom).

Jemele Hill, writing for ESPN, wrote a very nice editorial in praise of Tim Tebow. Her counterpart Tim Keown was not so generous. I am not as interested in slicing up Tim Keown for his ugly hatchet job on ESPN.com, a piece that shows all the journalistic subtlety of a sledgehammer, but I am interested in sharing some thoughts on what this points to, so here are some excerpts:

Tebow represents certainty, fortitude, resolve. There does not appear to be any visible gray area in Tebow's world, and there are times when those of us who see the world through shades of gray would trade places. It's got to be far easier to be so sure.

Focus on the Family is a far-right, fundamentalist organization that does many good deeds and holds many views that are outside of mainstream thinking. Dobson's advice on child-rearing sometimes borders on the absurd…

Tebow is not an innocent, and he does not appear to be deluded
(my note: that is faint praise indeed!)
. He may agree with everything Focus on the Family represents. But he's still a young man, still breathing the fumes of a home-schooled background with two parents who believe in the inerrancy of every single word of the Bible. Now, they could be right and I could be wrong on the Bible thing -- although it's going to be hard to convince me the whole belly-of-the-whale thing wasn't allegory -- but he could be setting himself up to be associated with causes and beliefs that may not be his own. All the qualities that make him admirable -- earnestness, devotion, a willingness to expound on his beliefs -- make him vulnerable.

There are zealots on all sides, of course, from the women's groups who are wrong-headedly demanding that CBS refuse the Tebow ad to the fundamentalist groups who are undoubtedly salivating at the thought of putting a face as wholesome and striking as Tebow's on their cause. There are countless extreme-right fundamentalist groups that would love to trot him out as their hood ornament. Does he want to be held accountable to all their various beliefs and actions? Is a young man whose stated goal is to promote Christ's message equipped to sift through the offers and choose wisely?

Tim Tebow has grown up with this type of indoctrination the same way some athletes grow up with the single-minded obsession of a domineering father. Again, this isn't necessarily a bad thing, and this isn't an attempt to infantilize him. He appears to be as devout and honorable as his press clippings indicate, but an image is a personal thing. Tebow's is both well-cultivated and well-received. The challenge is to keep it that way.


Apparently, Tim Tebow is a naïve Neanderthal, who was raised by Neanderthals and is being manipulated by Neanderthals. I love the “still breathing the fumes of a home-schooled background with two parents who believe in the inerrancy of every single word of the Bible”. Oh the humanity! Breathing those fumes of home-schooling and Christian indoctrination like some sort of noxious gas! It is interesting that Tim Keown helped write Josh Hamilton’s book Beyond Belief about getting away from a life of drugs, finding Christ and getting back into baseball. I guess that is permitted, as long as you are kind of quiet about your faith, you are O.K.. Start getting too uppity about it and then you stray into “right wing fundamentalism”.

While I am concerned about Tim Tebow becoming a culture warrior (and as a side note I am worried about him as an NFL quarterback), I do appreciate that he is willing to take a stand that many of us would not, a stand that puts the label “controversial” on him and perhaps will cost him millions of dollars. I am also concerned that the message of the ad is: “don’t abort your baby, he might grow up to be a Heisman winner!’. That is possible but he or she might grow up to be a garbage man or a housewife, and that is every bit as precious. Our defense of the right to life should start and stop with the value of human life and not be concerned in the least with what an aborted child could grow up to be.

That brings us to: So what? I am not advocating that we form new and better legal defense funds or that we hold rallies to protect our rights or that we strive to elect politicians of the proper stripe. I am not interested in “worldview” training to teach kids to prepare them to defend the “Judeo-Christian” values of America.

I am asking a question. How many “Christians” in America are ready for this? This is the way of the future. Maybe not for me, maybe not even for my kids, but it is the way of the future and it is picking up speed. Being a church-goer has virtually no cost in America, in fact not being a church-goer has traditionally been far more difficult. Those days are coming to an end. From “hate crime” laws to France banning headscarves, there are all sorts of signs that cultural Christianity is headed the way of Christendom and the days when standing for your faith is going to mean more than membership in the local church of your choice are just around the corner.

Has the church in any way, shape or form prepared Christians to have an expectation of persecution? What has the church prepared Christians for other than to show up dutifully on Sunday morning and vote Republican in the fall? I was reading last night about the Anabaptists who often were gagged or had their tongues torn out to keep them from preaching and praising God on the way to a horrific death. Where is that sort of faith, where is that zeal today? We better start spending more time telling the next generation to expect and embrace persecution and less time trying to entertain them or turn them into culture warriors. We are not called to win the “culture war”, we are called to proclaim Christ and being faithful to Him always has a cost.


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2 comments:

Brian Rollins said...

Arthur, I've enjoyed your blog for a while now, and this post is very well done.

I'm thankful that my pastor does regularly tell us that persecution is very likely to come. But I am probably failing to adequately prepare my four precious children for that reality.

Keep up the great work!

Bean said...

Believe it or not, NOW (national org. of women) stated that the message this commercial gives is, "an act of hate disguised as love". What on earth does that mean????????? Also, no one has actually seen the commercial yet, but it does give a strong PRO LIFE message, and the pro death crowd are freaking out!
WIth continued prayer, and opportunities to educate hearts and minds are changing and the majority of Americans are PRO LIFE and ANTI abortion!

Three Cheers to Tim Tebo and his Mother!