Opposition To Tim Tebow Isn’t Equal To Opposition To Jesus Christ

I don’t like Tim Tebow. I don’t think he’s going to lead the Denver Broncos or anyone else to the Super Bowl. That opinion alone is enough to get one declared an anti-Christian bigot within some evangelical circles. Tebow is the latest Christian for whom any opposition is deemed a sign of unbelief and heresy. It’s yet another extreme over-reaction by evangelical Christians. Tebow isn’t that great of a quarterback and I dare say some of what makes him so popular with evangelicals is what makes him not the best Christian to look up to.

He is perhaps the worst person for the evangelical community to rally around. We are after all talking about a football player. There are any number of legitimate reasons why people might not like Tim Tebow. There are plenty of people, myself included, who can’t stand the Florida Gators. There are others out there who can’t stand the Denver Broncos, I don’t particularly care for them.

There are others who rightfully note that Tebow doesn’t have good quarterback skills. His mechanics are dreadful. By this time next year NFL defenses will have figured out Tebow’s spread option offense and they’ll eat it alive. NFL players are bigger and faster than college players and once a NFL defense has the wrinkles in an offense figured out it ends the run of that offense. Especially when the quarterback can’t throw the ball properly.

These reasons why people might not like Tebow or think much of him isn’t proof of an anti-Christian bias. It’s proof that fans pick and choose the teams they like and they generally don’t like the players on other teams. Football is a sport of subjective good vs evil. My team is good, everyone they play is evil. It’s nothing personal and it really doesn’t matter who is wearing the other teams colors. When it comes down to it, we’re really just cheering for jerseys. It doesn’t really matter who’s wearing them. Opposition to Tim Tebow isn’t personal.

There’s another reason out there to dislike Tim Tebow, namely his overly dramatic prayer pose that’s been called Tebowing. I don’t care that Tim Tebow prayers before, during or after football games. What I care about is his dramatic posed prayer. God tells us to pray in silence, to not draw attention to ourselves. When Tebow makes his big dramatic Tebowing prayer, he’s saying ‘look at me, I’m so holy.’ That is the opposite of how God wants us to pray.

Yet evangelicals aren’t much interested in this. Unfortunately the evangelical community has often placed appearances above scripture. Whether it’s with something like Tebowing or with various sins swept under the rug to avoid a negative appearance, it’s become a staple of the evangelical community. The biggest concern I have with Tebow is what are these evangelical Christians going to do when it’s discovered that Tebow is a homosexual or has sired 18 illegitimate children or is a closet drunk or drug addict? All these kids who are being encouraged to idolize someone because he makes a big dramatic prayer pose in the end zone and mentions the name Jesus once or twice in his post game press conference are going to be let down big time when it is discovered that Tebow isn’t all he’s been made out to be. That will be not the fault of Tebow but the fault of people who exalted him beyond his station.

I’m a reformed Christian so I don’t care to be accused of hating Christians. Quite the contrary, I consider Tebow to be a brother in Christ. But I think those within the Christian community need to temper their praise for this guy and they need to stop accusing those who don’t like him or don’t think he’s a great quarterback of hating Christians. The accusations being thrown around lately quite frankly make Christians look like absolute idiots. We are after all only talking about a football player. Surely there must be greater attacks on our faith in this country that far exceed an Oakland Raider’s fan or a Florida State fan not liking Tim Tebow.