Why is Tim Tebow so Offensive?

First off let me say I am not an expert on American Football, and this article isn’t about sports. But I do enjoy the game and reserve a great deal of admiration for athleticism exhibited by those who make their living in the sport. If you’ve casually followed the NFL season this year you know that one of the most dramatic narratives of the season has been the emergence of Tim Tebow as the starting quarterback.

On the surface it is a good storyline from a sporting perspective. The Denver Broncos starts the season with a 1-4 record before their starting quarterback gets injured. Their second string QB then leads them on a remarkable run of 5-1, complete with plenty of critical last ditch scoring plays and fourth quarter comebacks.

Now I don’t know much about the technical arguments for and against Tim Tebow as a player. I do tend to enjoy those who play any sport in an inventive way and it seems that he does that. What’s more is that from a win-loss perspective it seems to be effective. At the same time I understand that there are those who know the game who believe his unique style of play will soon enough be broken, some coach will figure out how to defend it and his mediocre ability to execute a traditional offense will render him obsolete—an interesting footnote in NFL lore, who mattered for a season but accomplished very little. Only time will prove whether or not the skeptics are correct.

But that skepticism is only one side of the controversy surrounding Tebow. There is another side, that the non-sporting media seems to have firmly latched onto, and that is his outspoken Christian faith and the way he expresses it both on and off the field. There are those on both sides of the sacred-secular divide who either love him or hate him for the very same things—kneeling to pray before games, thanking Jesus in press conferences, deferring praise for the Broncos recent success. What interests me most about all this is that despite the media’s scrutinizing it, he really doesn't seem all that outspoken about Christianity, or at least not in a way that should be at all offensive. Despite the attempts of some to paint him as some sort of bible-thumping fundamentalist he really just seems to be a someone who takes his religious convictions seriously.

Should this really be offensive? If a doctor took a moment to himself to pray before seeing a patient, asking for wisdom and skill to perform his job well, it would be harsh to criticize him for it. The only difference with Tebow seems to be that a camera is on him.

Of course it is true that Tebow is intentional in what he says, that his consistent expressions of faith are in their own way evangelical. It is not too much to say that he is using his position of influence to express a belief that he holds. But why should that be offensive? To express one’s point of view is not only a legal right in this country it is also something most people do constantly. Even in cases where personal opinion does not match up with the majority view it usually doesn’t cause offense. Whether in trivial matters of taste (i.e. “I like the taste of anchovies”) or more important matters of political viewpoint (i.e. “I would vote for Ron Paul for president”) we generally allow people the room to hold opinions that are different from our own. You may hate anchovies, and you may think Ron Paul would be the worst person to lead the country, but my personal endorsement of these things should not open me up to hostility. If, however I insist that we get anchovies on a pizza that both of us will eat, or I compel or manipulate you to vote for Ron Paul against your convictions, then I have done something worthy of criticism. That said, I think it would be utterly irrational to suggest that Tebow praying before games, pointing to heaven when he pulls off a good play, or thanking Jesus in press conferences anyway denies someone else their liberty to hold a different position regarding faith. Nevertheless such displays of personal conviction are bothersome to us as a society and it must somehow be accounted for.

Stay with me on this, but at this point I believe it would be worthwhile to dip into the realm of the hip-hop and rap culture. Whether it is in liner notes or at awards ceremonies, it is frequent for a rapper begin his acknowledgments with the same line, or one very similar to it, that Tebow uses at press conferences, “I’d like to thank my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” The only criticisms I’ve heard of this practice within the R&B world has been from religious sources decrying the apparent hypocrisy. The secular world seems utterly unaffected by it.

Should we take away from this phenomenon that we are, as a culture, okay with a musician working hard to make an album that glorifies any number of things we culturally will deem morally reprehensible (self-aggrandizement, objectification of women, illicit drug use, gang violence) and then publicly thanking Jesus for making that work possible? While at the same time we are not okay with an athlete performing well in his sport and then doing the same? If so what does that say about as a society? The only conclusion that I can draw from this apparent contradiction is that we are only okay with expressions of religious faith if we don’t think the person expressing it really means it.

It is precisely because the rapper exhibits so little religious conviction in his art and lifestyle that we find his expression of faith inoffensive and non-threatening. Tim Tebow’s expressions of faith seem instead to be indicative of a sincere and earnest faith in a God who is worthy of glory and calls his followers to humility. In short, we can disregard it when Dr. Dre says it. “Don’t worry,” we think “he doesn’t mean anything by it.” But when Tim Tebow says it we worry that it means something.

To say it another way it seems that as a society we are more comfortable with hypocrisy than integrity. And that should make us worry.

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I found this article from a secular perspective very thought provoking:
http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2011/11/the-refreshing-seriousness-of-tim-tebow/249151/

Rest

It's a words sort of the day. The kind of day one might spend curled up reading a book while the fire crackles. Or maybe the kind of day one might spend writing a blog post. One of the two. My wife and i just so happen to be covering both of those bases.

It snowed today here in Dallas. Not much, but enough to look pretty while it fell and collect in places that were cold and not too wet from the several hours of rain that had preceded them. It is helping along the general mood of the day. A time of hibernating. A time to rest and reflect.

In the Creation account the day starts with the evening "it was evening and morning on the first day". The Sabbath also begins with the sun going down. In George MacDonald's book "Lilith" the Raven points out that this means each day's rest precedes it's work. He argues no one can deserve a good night's sleep, instead God in His mercy gives us rest before we need it, preparing us for what is to come.

It feels like big things are coming. Life has gotten bigger than it ever has been even though i feel like i am more than ever mired in the concerns of just getting by. Struggling to figure out how to provide for my wife and child to be while also being faithful for the calling i feel God has laid upon us as a family. But these few weeks feel like a beautiful time to sleep easy and dream beautiful dreams. To rest before we work.

love,
luke

What you can expect...

So, the blog yet lives. It has been revived from the ash-heap of spam and neglect. Sort of. There is still a lot of spam comments on older entries that i've yet to delete. Maybe i will someday, but don't count on it. However! I am now moderating comments, so there will be no new spam. Hooray!

Why is the blog being revived? Well, i haven't written much poetry lately, so it's not for that reason. And i don't have many stories to tell, so it's also not for that reason. But life is moving forward and i am hoping that very soon there will be stories to tell and (hopefully) poems to write and i would like to get back in the habit of sharing. If the Lord so wills Sarah and i will soon be missionaries and i would love to have a venue for keeping with people back home and across the world. Blogs seem to be handy for that.

So even though we don't have a time-line yet i figured i might as well get into the practice of putting myself out there in writing. If anyone still reads i hope you enjoy. Maybe this bit of virtual space will be useful for something yet.

love,
luke

Spam spam spam

I'm so sorry my precious blog. I neglected you for so long and now you are so incredibly spam ridden.

love,
luke

Thoughts worth thinking but not writing down

I wrote sometime in September (or perhaps October?) that i was going to take a break from theological ranting and rambling. That i was going to step down of the soapbox for a while and not use this space as a place to sermonize or diatribe until i could learn how to speak the truth in love. Well, i'm still working on learning that. And i'm learning under a new tutor called matrimony, gentler and more difficult than any professor i've yet sat under. I confess i still have a long way to go, longer than i ever initially expected.

But as the months have passed since i was last in the academic setting, and as my life settles into a more normal civilian routine i do find myself musing on questions of contemporary importance. But i beginning to realize that just because a thought may be worth thinking that by no means entails it is worth writing down, much less for others to read. Our meditations may instruct and enlighten our own mind, but they to me to be almost entirely contingent upon the vast and incomprehensible matrix of our own minds and emotions, and therefore largely incommunicable. A word only intelligible to the mind to which it is native.

So even as i find myself reading again (i had forgotten how wonderful fiction is!) and as my mind begins to return to its lettered ways i think i will consider a more regular return to this space. But not to set down weighty things deeply entangled with my own peculiar heart, but perhaps to record snatches of rhymes, beautiful occurrences, the happenings in my herb garden: things that can be understood as they are and for what they are, that require no great intellectual effort to interact with.

love,
luke

Repenting of a Common Sin

All that ever Is and Was
Knelt down before us
Rolled Himself up, broke His own back
Slit His wrists and bled out wine

And we stand before that sacrifice
And fight over what meanings are rightly found
In the mystery
So if the wine stops flowing
If the wheat stops flowering
If our ribs stick out
And our mouths go parched
Who can we blame but ourselves?

The bounty of the universe
Lay down before us, broken so we could be one
Bleeding so we could have peace
And we traded theology for grace
And a fistfight for our wedding bed.

Thus the whisper comes, "Repent"

The Wind blows through the Wheat
It shakes my knees
And i am awestruck, hungry
Before these mysteries.

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love,
luke

Kitsune facing the Sun

Go down to the river
Just before dawn
The water stirs
A crane flies
Through rising mist

The river does not lie
The river runs straight
between the boundaries of the banks
Weaving like the crane
Working life into the earth

The river runs down to the sea
Spills its song into the waves
Wastes its life
Nourishing
What is never sated
Filling
What is never filled

But the fox on the bank is a liar
But not a thief
A trickster
Who might devour children
But only as a joke
If a pun could be made

The mists rise
The crane flies
The river runs to the sea
And dies
And the fox lies beside the river
Pondering the next deception.

But after sudden sunrise
When the mists scatter
And the crane cries
The river runs on (but no longer dies)
And the fox turns away
Before the light
His seven tails shining briefly
Before he descends to the den
From which, one day
He will never rise.

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love,
luke