But I felt less argumentative and more intrigued the other day when he posted the following about Tim Tebow backing out of an appearance at First Baptist Church in Dallas.
"What do you think? Should Tebow have backed out of this event?"
For those unaware, the First Baptist pastor, the Rev. Robert Jeffress, "has taken polarizing social stances, fanning flames of controversy in exactly the kind of way that the NFL works tirelessly to avoid."
"In a 2011 interview, for instance, Jeffress declared that Islam and Mormonism were religions that are 'heresy from the pit of hell,' took a hard line against Judaism, and claims that America is being 'brainwashed' into accepting a homosexual agenda."
"Also in 2011, he criticized the Catholic church as 'the genius of Satan' and 'corrupted' by cults. Say what you will about Ray Lewis, but his public displays of religion were inclusive and inspirational, not exclusive (well, except for the ones that excluded everyone who wasn't Ray Lewis)."As someone who doesn't care what religion you belong to, or none at all, as long as you're not hurting anybody; supports gay rights and is married to a Catholic (although Mrs. Last Honest would probably be the first to tell you she's not a particularly good Catholic), I don't like Jeffress' worldview. I think it's safe to say he wouldn't like mine, either. So be it.
But back to Tebow, my friend didn't offer an opinion about the First Baptist event, and I'm not going to either. However, it did get me to thinking about Tebow's place in American sports culture, the likes of which I'm not sure we've ever seen.
Of course, the possibility exists that whatever Tebow's beliefs on other religions, gay rights, abortion or any other social issues, his Christianity has other priorities. His messages on Twitter announcing he was cancelling his appearance (the quote below is from the article about him backing out linked above) could perhaps hint at that.
"While I was looking forward to sharing a message of hope and Christ's unconditional love with the faithful members of the historic First Baptist Church of Dallas in April, due to new information that has been brought to my attention, I have decided to cancel my upcoming appearance. I will continue to use the platform God has blessed me with to bring Faith, Hope and Love to all those needing a brighter day. Thank you for all of your love and support. God Bless!"Yet there is another possibility, which to me is where things get interesting.
Tim Tebow is extremely popular and extremely polarizing. How popular? If you believe Deadspin, the dude caused ESPN to change the way it covers sports. That's some serious stroke, folks.
I'm going to go out on a limb and say that, with the possible exception of the areas in and around Gainesville, Fla., a lot of that appeal is due to his open and overt Christianity. Now that I'm on that limb, I'm going to wander out onto a branch and say that the people who love him for his Christianity are probably conservative.
He's one of them, except for one little thing. While I don't have any illusions -- let's just say I don't envision him doing any events with Chris Kluwe or Brendon Ayanbadejo any time soon -- Tebow has pretty much stayed out of politics. Even the content from Focus on the Family Super Bowl ad from a couple years ago that caused so much controversy before that game wound up being a whole lot of no big deal.
So what that leads to is Tebow being a pretty polarizing athlete, but for two reasons that aren't necessarily polar opposites. Yes, some people find his public expressions of faith off-putting, but the dislike for that pales in intensity to that of the people who love him for it, and the backlash that does exist is probably as much about him not being a good NFL quarterback and all the attention he gets in spite of that.
Yet however much he may turn some people off, particularly those on the left, I don't think there are too many people who hate him, which means he's safe to do endorsements. (I actually think this TiVo ad is pretty good. I'm OK with people who can laugh at themselves.)
The only way I can see this sort-of-uneasy truce between what people are pretty sure he is and not holding it against him is him becoming what he hasn't shown to be yet ... someone who would call Islam and Judaism "heresy from the pit of hell," say America is being "brainwashed" into accepting a homosexual agenda or other such stuff ... or at least someone who would publicly associate with a pastor who feels that way.
That could give his critics as much reason to despise him as much as his fans love him, because then, it's personal.
Now, let me say again that it is entirely possible that Tebow is not interested in espousing his Christianity the same way Jeffress does. Absent any evidence to the contrary, he is due the benefit of that much doubt from the people who are offended by Jeffress' beliefs.
However, the story of the cancelled First Baptist Church appearance does show that if Tebow and his advisers are interested in maintaining his commercial viability, he walks perhaps a tighter rope than Michael "Republicans buy sneakers, too" Jordan ever did.
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