Lots of professional sports teams — mostly in baseball — have made videos for Dan Savage’s “It Gets Better” project, but no NFL teams have stepped up to the plate yet. There’s a new petition at Change.org asking the Denver Broncos to be the first. I think this petition is wonderful and hilarious because Tebow.
Little Timmy Tebow is all the rage right now, idolized by Fundamentalist Christians for his willingness to show off his faith to everyone by kneeling and praying, AKA “Tebowing,” in the middle of the field. Also, his throwing style is quite unique, drawing comparisons to the throwing styles of six year-old girls. Indeed, people are talking about him so much that last night, his name was connected to two of the Republican candidates for losing the presidential election to Barack Obama.
9.16pm: Asked why he is so rubbish, Rick Perry claims that like star quarterback Tim Tebow – actually not a very good quarterback but he somehow still wins games – he can be better than he looks. “I hope I am the Tim Tebow of the Iowa caucuses,” says Perry. Perry will be lucky to be the Forrest Gump of the Iowa caucuses.
Rick Santorum reached the milestone of visiting all of Iowa’s 99 counties in November, and he’s making return trips now — by car and minivan, rather than bus. Chuck Laudner, a Santorum backer, has been involved in many Iowa campaigns. Laudner suggests Santorum is a bit like the underestimated quarterback of the Denver Broncos who has led the team to a string of surprising victories.
“They’re watching the Tim Tebow of the Republican process out there, working all the way through the 4th quarter,” Laudner told Radio Iowa this morning.
Uh, yeah, wow. Both of those links come from Tbogg by the way.
So yes, I want an “It Gets Better” video from Tim “Aren’t You Glad I Wasn’t An Abortion?” Tebow and his team. And maybe it will even make Timmy himself feel better, next time he’s having one of those games that causes him to cry. It gets better, LGBT kids, and it gets better, Tim Tebow!
Look, it’s Wingnuttia’s favorite football player, Denver Bronco and Focus on the Family spokesperson Tim Tebow, sharing a loving and enthusiastic kiss with Demaryius Thomas on the field:
When the news began to fill up last year with stories of gay kids committing suicide after being bullied relentlessly, did you immediately think, “You know who’s really getting bullied? Blastocysts.” If you did, you are a wingnut. Here is a letter by a Stephen M. King, a professor at Southeastern University, which started sort of reasonably:
Sue Carlton of the St. Petersburg Times lauded (op-ed column, Aug. 17) the community responsibility ethic of some of the Tampa Bay Rays’ players, and some fans, who made a video. The effort is titled “It Gets Better,” and is aimed at bringing attention to the abuse and bullying endured by teenagers who practice homosexuality and lesbianism.
While I applaud the Rays’ players, front office and fans for bringing to the public’s attention the ever-increasing use of bullying in today’s public school system, and for their encouragement of the bullied teenagers to stay encouraged because “the world gets bigger and more accepting,” I do not agree with their efforts to highlight only a fraction of students who are bullied.
See now, this is where I thought this was going to go: He says “I don’t agree with their efforts to highlight only a fraction of students” who become victims of bullies. I thought he was going to say, “I wish, along with the emphasis on anti-gay bullying, we could really find ourselves with a renewed emphasis on all bullying, regardless of why.” That would make far too much sense, right? I would probably not have even written about it, but if I had, I would have agreed but pointed out that, sadly, it’s taken the well-publicized suicides of gay kids to really ignite a focus on bullying, in general. That, as a result of programs like It Gets Better and increased anti-bullying protections as a result of what’s been going on, all kids are likely to, ultimately, be safer in school.
Oh, but no. Here is where King went instead:
Why does the Rays’ organization, and other professional sports’ organizations and players, for that matter, want to bring attention to the bullying of teenagers who practice homosexuality and lesbianism? Because it is the chic and politically correct thing to do.
Would the Rays or other sports organizations, or other professional sports figures for that matter, come out strongly and enthusiastically for making a video for the protection of unborn life? Would they come out and make a passionate plea for protecting the natural right to life, to bring the public’s attention to infanticide? No, I strongly doubt they would.
Protecting life, or even advocating for the protection of life, such as former Florida quarterback Tim Tebow has done, is not politically correct.
Yeah, Tampa Bay Rays, why aren’t you making misogynistic videos about sluts like Dr. King wants you to? And why aren’t you standing up for poor, poor failure Timmy Tebow?
Because no one — NO ONE — gets made fun of more at school than Tim Tebow. And unborn fetuses. They get teased all day, and for the dumbest reasons.
The majority of the “pro-family” movement is simply anti-gay. They do virtually nothing to assist parents with child rearing or creating marriages that last. The one organization that occasionally seemed to offer some value to Christian parents was Focus on the Family.
However, in recent years, the somewhat constructive work was largely overshadowed by the destructive, aggressively political agenda of the organization’ founder James Dobson. His addiction to bullying leaders in Washington, purification purges of the Republican Party and an obsession with attacking gay and lesbian people branded the organization as mean-spirited and intolerant.
“Dobson and his gang of thugs are real nasty bullies,” House majority leader Dick Armey (R-Texas) once complained.
Fortunately, Dobson recently left Focus on the Family and has been replaced by Jim Daly (pictured), who pledges to take the organization in a new direction. One of the first things he did was dump the group’ obnoxious “ex-gay” road show Love Won Out. Over the years, it became a fountain of fabrication and a mountain of misinformation on LGBT issues.
Daley claims to hold similar social views to Dobson, but he does not appear to want to shove his religion down peoples’ throats. At least that is the message he is trying to sell us. On the surface, he seems more open to dialogue and not quite as arrogant at his predecessor.
For example, instead of the propaganda-spewing Love Won Out conference, Focus on the Family actually participated in a Colorado Springs panel discussion where dissenting views were allowed. AOL News reports that some panelists were openly gay, while Focus on the Family provided “ex-gay” employee Jeff Johnston, who discussed his “journey out of homosexuality.”
Daly was out of town for the panel, but taped a welcome message. “We’re not always going to agree,” he said on the video, but added, “I’m not here to tell you what to do.”
The fact that Focus on the Family is still pushing the tired and tragic ex-gay myth is dispiriting. But, allowing openly gay people who actually live fulfilling lives to speak is a definite step in the right direction.
More important, Daly seems to be moving away from Dobson’ quest for Christian dominion over government. “The Christian label means a lot to me,” Daly said in the AOL interview. “We don’t want a theocracy. We want a government informed in moral principle.”
While we hold different viewpoints on marriage, Daly, seems to understand, on some level, that allowing gay couples to wed isn’t catastrophic.
“I’m not fearful that change will happen in America. It will happen. … I don’t know what will happen with same-sex marriage, but I’m not going to be discouraged if we lose some of those battles,” he said, noting that for “98 percent” of people, traditional marriage will remain relevant. “It’s going to be difficult in this culture and the way the demographics are going right now,” he continued. “You look at the under-35 age group. I think it’s splitting 60-40 support for same-sex marriage. There’s a lot of people in the U.S. [who] basically come to the conclusion that this is something between two adults. I will continue to defend traditional marriage, but I’m not going to demean human beings for the process.”
Compare this to the doomsday response to marriage equality from Dobson: “Homosexuals are not monogamous,” Dobson told The Daily Oklahoman on Oct. 23, 2004. “They want to destroy the institution of marriage. It will destroy marriage. It will destroy the Earth.”
Focus on the Family is also striking a different tone on abortion. It ran a controversial feel-good ad during the Super Bowl featuring football star Tim Tebow. Strategically, it seems like a wise move to persuade mothers to “choose” to give birth, rather than have angry zealots browbeating pregnant women in front of abortion clinics. (Of course, Focus on the Family would have more credibility pushing the “choose life” message if it actually weren’t cynically working to overturn Roe v. Wade.)
Additionally, Daly has started a program to reduce the number of legal orphans in foster care by recruiting families to adopt hard-to-place children. His Wait No More program has expanded to five states and has already halved the number of children in foster care in Colorado.
Daly’ cheerful style is particularly welcome at a time when many fundamentalist organizations are losing their marbles. For instance, Andrea Lafferty of the Traditional Values Coalition is running around Capitol Hill demanding that Congress defeat the Employment Nondiscrimination Act (ENDA) to keep “she-males” from becoming gym teachers.
Eugene Delgaudio the executive director of the anti-gay organization, Public Advocate of the U.S, sent out an insane fundraising letter this week. It warned that “Radical homosexuals will terrorize day care centers, hospitals, churches and private schools…Wedding-gown clad men smooching before some left-wing clergy or state official is just the beginning….You’ll see men hand-in-hand skipping down to adoption centers to “pick out’ a little boy for themselves.”
Still, not everyone is sold on the surface changes at the Colorado Springs-based mega-ministry.
“There is clearly a concerted rebranding effort within FOtF, with the communications team placing a focus on creating a nicer, sweeter, less hostile Focus on the Family,” wrote blogger Jeremy Hooper on his popular Good As You website. “But they seem to want this change in impression without actually creating any change within their own operation… We on the side of LGBT equality buy into the “nicer, softer” myth at our own peril!”
Hooper (pictured) points out that, “This is still the group that, just two weeks ago, declared that an openly gay SCOTUS nominee is automatically a non-starter, regardless of merit and qualifications. This is still the outfit that donates hundreds of thousands whenever gay rights are up for contention at any one of our state’s polls.”
Will Focus on the Family actually start helping real families rather than fixating on gay people? With Daly’ leadership, there is at least hope that the culture war will eventually turn into a civil cultural discussion.
But if this is all spin and no substance his plan will sow distrust and backfire. It won’t take long to know if Daly’ hugs are thinly disguised headlocks. While outspoken homophobes are unpleasant, they are always preferable to insincere hypocrites.
[I]f the anti-choice position is so true, so mainstream and so critical to the future of our nation, why did Focus on the Family spend $2.5 million to avoid saying anything whatsoever about it? Pam Tebow’ lines were all oblique references to her choice not to have an abortion, but if FotF felt the need to couch her story in such coded and oblique terms that it could have been an ad for Wii Family, doesn’t that say something incredibly telling about how weak and radical their position actually is?
Yep. They had to water it down to make it palatable, in the hopes that they would simply look like an organization that “embraces life,” much as one might embrace puppies and flowers!
I also believe that they intended to make the ad lame and benign in order to score a cheap point against those of us who were raising very real concerns about their true message. (Look at dem mean abortionists! All I see is a big miracle baby tacklin’ his mama!)
Women like Pam Tebow wouldn’t be heroes in any sense if it weren’t for Roe v. Wade. Those of us on the pro-choice side of things are the ones who actually support women like Pam Tebow, because we want them to be able to make these choices for themselves, with their doctors. (Read More)
On this site, Evan Hurst wrote about new suspicions that Tim Tebow’ mother, Pam, may be fudging her story about defying a doctor’s recommendation to abort her unborn football star son Tim (pictured left) when she was facing a difficult pregnancy in the Philippines. CBS will air a controversial Focus on the Family ad during the Super Bowl where Ms. Tebow is portrayed as a hero, ironically, for choosing life.
The problem is, it appears unlikely that Tebow could have made this decision, since abortion is outlawed in the Philippines. Those who violate the law are often prosecuted and jailed.
As the facts come out, Ms. Tebow’ tale is under increased scrutiny. And if there is one thing we know, fundamentalists love magic stories of transformation, even if they are not true. In fact, the entire “ex-gay” industry is built on whoppers that often set a compelling narrative, but are left factually wanting.
Let’s be clear. The veracity of Ms. Tebow’s story may be verified. She could be honestly and sincerely recounting a true event in her life.
But, if Tebow is twisting the facts or exaggerating the circumstances to fit a desired storyline, perhaps she thinks that she can get away with it because the alleged incident took place overseas.
However, the truth almost always seeps out. Focus on the Family and Pam Tebow should remember the cautionary tale of another football player, Pat Tillman (pictured left). The military shamefully tried to conceal how the gridiron star turned soldier died at war in Afghanistan. They invented a heroic fictional storyline and thought they could get away with it because the incident took place in a distant land.
They were wrong.
If Focus on the Family executives believe that they can air a hoax and won’t be exposed as frauds, they are in greater denial than the hapless token “ex-gays” they keep on-staff.
A multi-million dollar ad aired during the Super Bowl will likely be investigated. Remember, there is a doctor still out there (unless he or she has passed away) who offered the alleged abortion advice to Pam Tebow. This doctor, if found, could very well contradict the her story.
Focus on the Family is already facing serious challenges, such as cutbacks and layoffs due to the recession. Their founder, James Dobson, is leaving the group next month to start a rival radio ministry with his son Ryan. If Mrs. Tebow’s story turns out to be a con job, her fable could destroy this once venerable, and now vulnerable, right wing organization. (Focus compound pictured left)
If they are wise, leaders of the Colorado Springs-based ministry will immediately dispatch a team of private investigators to the Philippines to rigorously fact check this fishy story. If they find a discrepancy and have the decency to pull the ad, Americans will be very forgiving. If the ad airs, however, and it is a fraud, they will lose face, trash their honor, destroy their reputation, and squander their already low stockpile of credibility.
Focus on the Family’s name is clearly on the line with this ad. If a mistake of consequence and magnitude is made, it will haunt this group and may cause the organization to go out of business.
As Joe Jervis points out, we’ve been hearing the propaganda for weeks now about how Tim Tebow’s mother was confronted with a difficult pregnancy, encouraged to have an abortion, and made the heroic and courageous choice to carry the pregnancy to term, so that her son Tim would one day sport Bible verses in his eyeblack and have a really hard time at NFL tryouts. As you all know, the propaganda has become even fiercer as Focus on the Family has spent $2.5 million on an anti-choice ad to be aired during the Super Bowl featuring Tebow’s story.
So, CBS rejects a pro-gay church ad a few years back and now a gay dating site with a comedy kiss. Yet, they are allowing Focus on the Family to broadcast an anti-abortion ad featuring football star Tim Tebow. Is this a double standard or did the dating ad deserve to be rejected? I’d love our reader’s thoughts on this matter.
In a dramatic move, University of Florida’s legendary football coach, Urban Meyer, abruptly quit the sport on Christmas Day. His decision came after a hospitalization for chest pains and a realization that he had nearly worked himself to death building a championship team. Meyer’s prodigious work habits included neglecting his family and e-mailing recruits in church.
“I’m a person of faith and I wanted to make sure I had my priorities straight,” said Meyer. “A lot of times, coaches do not have their priorities straight. You put business before God and family, you have a problem.”
Of course, this is wishful thinking. If Meyer had actually prioritized God and family before the pigskin, he’d make a fine deacon and a great father…..and a mediocre Division II coach. Those who reach the pinnacle in sports have a rare combination of natural gifts and an obsessive need to win. For example, the two most successful basketball players in my lifetime are Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant – both of whom are pathological competitors. Their need to win likely crosses over into a disorder – but that is what it takes to be a champion.
For all his talk about God, it was the text messages and e-mails from the pews that catapulted the coach into sainthood in Gainesville. The choice was to worship on Sunday or be worshiped by adoring fans each Saturday – and Meyer chose the latter. This is not a criticism, just a reality check on Meyer’s message that he could have reversed his priorities and still had the same successful career. I doubt he could have.
When Meyer announced his retirement, his 18-year old daughter hugged him and said, “I get my daddy back.” The coach said that he was retiring because God had told him to quit and his daughter’s reaction was confirmation of this divine intervention.
Two days later, following an afternoon on the practice field, Meyer changed his mind and switched his retirement status to a “leave of absence.” He expects to coach next fall.
So, did Meyer misinterpret God, confuse God’s voice with his own desires or is the coach defying His will by returning to the sideline?
In sports, it seems, God is always on the winning side, ready to snatch victory from the presumably heathen team, and deliver the game to the good guys. However, the notion is quite offensive and in some ways ruins the game. Why even watch, after all, if the sport is fixed and a victory is already preordained by God?
In any case, I think that athletes and coaches should get back to scoring touchdowns or drawing up plays on chalkboards. The whole “catch a ball for God” routine is getting quite stale. Just once I’d like to see an athlete say, “I dropped the ball because Jesus doesn’t like me.”
Why not? Does He not get the credit for touchdowns, with an increasing number of spoiled, solipsistic athletes pointing towards the heavens after each score?
It is also outrageous to think that God gives a damn about football when children are starving and wars are raging. On my block in New York City, there are about a half-dozen hobos who are exposed to the harshness of winter. I’d like to think that a just deity would end such injustice before traipsing off each Sunday to the New York Giants game.
For selfish reasons, as a University of Florida alumnus, I am glad Meyer is returning. I like to win and gator chomp and it makes me feel good to marinade in victory. It was exhilarating to crush Cincinnati 51-24 in the Sugar Bowl.
But can we finally keep God off the goal line and have a separation of sports and Scripture? Can former Gator quarterback, Tim Tebow, an incredible athlete and a seemingly decent person, complete one sentence without mentioning Jesus and turning it into a prayer?
The fact that an athlete is gifted, does not mean he is God’ gift to the universe. Fundamentalist athletes and coaches alike aren’t special and should stop acting like Moses, just because they get to appear on ESPN’ Sports Center.
Although, after watching Tebow pass for a career-high 482 yards and three touchdowns while rushing for 51 yards against Cincinnati, I wouldn’t rule out that he could part the Red Sea.
Lots of professional sports teams — mostly in baseball — have made videos for Dan Savage’s “It Gets Better” project, but no NFL teams have stepped up to the plate yet. There’s a new petition at Change.org asking the Denver Broncos to be the first. I think this petition is wonderful and hilarious because Tebow.
The majority of the “pro-family” movement is simply anti-gay. They do virtually nothing to assist parents with child rearing or creating marriages that last. The one organization that occasionally seemed to offer some value to Christian parents was Focus on the Family.
Focus on the Family is also striking a different tone on abortion. It ran a controversial feel-good ad during the Super Bowl featuring football star Tim Tebow. Strategically, it seems like a wise move to persuade mothers to “choose” to give birth, rather than have angry zealots browbeating pregnant women in front of abortion clinics. (Of course, Focus on the Family would have more credibility pushing the “choose life” message if it actually weren’t cynically working to overturn Roe v. Wade.)
Hooper (pictured) points out that, “This is still the group that, just two weeks ago, declared that an openly gay SCOTUS nominee is automatically a non-starter, regardless of merit and qualifications. This is still the outfit that donates hundreds of thousands whenever gay rights are up for contention at any one of our state’s polls.”
On this site, Evan Hurst 
However, the truth almost always seeps out. Focus on the Family and Pam Tebow should remember the cautionary tale of another football player, 
Focus on the Family is already facing serious challenges, such as cutbacks and layoffs due to the recession. Their founder, James Dobson, is leaving the group next month to start a rival radio ministry with his son Ryan. If Mrs. Tebow’s story turns out to be a con job, her fable could destroy this once venerable, and now vulnerable, right wing organization. (Focus compound pictured left)
