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With Tim Tebow now gracing the cover of virtually every sports magazine (and other mags, I saw him on the cover of the National Enquirer this morning while standing in line at the supermarket, the photo adorned with the headline "Tebow's Hush-Hush Marriage") and the NFL divisional playoffs looming tomorrow, I felt it appropriate to republish an article I wrote about Tebow in 2009 when he was a senior at the University of Florida, terrorizing the SEC and glorifying God all the way. Gender Blog ran my article under the healine "Tim Tebow: A Pleasing Dilemma," but with our dear brother now taking snaps for the Denver Broncos, the dilemma is solved: my son may embrace him as a full-blown hero.  Below is my article from Sept. 29, 2009 and I republish it because my appreciation for Tebow has only grown much as has his propensity for, by God's grace of course, willing his team to victory:



For nearly four years, Tim Tebow has presented something of a dilemma in my home. He is an all-American quarterback, perhaps one of the two or three best players ever to play the college game. He is, as we say in my rural Georgia hometown, "tougher than pig iron," often battering his body and willing his troops to victory like Aragorn at Helms Deep. Opposing players see Tebow in the huddle and shudder. He plays every down as if it were his last. I really like that.

But, herein lies our dilemma: he plays for the Florida Gators, the national champions, and my family has for decades bled the red and black of the Georgia Bulldogs, my alma mater's entry in the toughest sports conference in America. For us, the operative equation goes something like this: Dawgs plus Gators equals mortal enemies. But here is my recent problem: Tim Tebow is my brother in Christ. He shares the Gospel, undertakes missions work, and seeks to live a Godward life with the same tenacity that he displays when it is third-and-goal on the opponent's one-yard line. Tebow wears eye black emblazoned with John 3:16 and he plays football the way a Christian should: smash mouth, grit-and-gunpowder, all out all the time, to the glory of God. It is exceedingly difficult to root against such a brother. Tebow's full story is available here.

Last season (2008), after Florida suffered its lone defeat of the year, Tebow publicly shouldered the blame for the loss. In a memorable post-game press conference, he pledged to apply every ounce of his strength toward winning the remaining games. Florida won 10 straight (steamrolling our beloved Bulldogs along the way), its final victory coming in the national championship game against Oklahoma. Florida's streak began with Tebow exhibiting a concise summary of biblical manhood - tenacious humility. And Tebow's tenacious humility became the tracks upon which the streak rode. Last weekend, Tebow suffered a concussion against Kentucky, but I suspect he'll be back very soon. He's not the game-missing kind.

Recently, my oldest son (now nine) asked me if it would be okay if he adopted Tim Tebow as a hero so long as he maintained his primary allegiance to a certain team from Athens, Ga. (where, incidentally, head coach Mark Richt, a vibrant follower of Christ, is also a wonderful example of biblical manhood). I didn't have to think very long. "Absolutely," I told him, wondering if I had really just signed off on such a request. This dilemma has stretched me; it has made me pray for the grace to live in accord with the difficult imperatives of Romans 12, which is always a good thing. In the same manner as Paul admonished believers to imitate him insofar as he imitated Christ, I want my boys to be like Tebow because he is a very clear and winsome example of what biblical manhood should look like in a young man.

One does not have to delve very deep to find a vibrant and orthodox faith living within college football's brightest star. This past summer, Tebow was asked about his commitment to stay pure until marriage. Could it be true? "Yes," he told a cynical media corps, without blinking. Tebow believes the Bible teaches that sex is the exclusive privilege of a man and woman within the bonds of marriage. He said so without blinking, later admitting that he does not date. And so authentic was his answer and so authentic has been his walk before a watching public, the usually snarky fifth estate received the answer without the customary ridicule. "How can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to your word." (Ps. 119:9)

Tebow is unashamed of Christ and all the implications that come from following Him. He is willing to endure mockery and ridicule for Christ because, as he recently told ESPN in an interview, living for Christ is life and death. And football?  Well, he told ESPN, it is just a game and it is by no means ultimate; Christ and the Gospel are. (Note from 2012: he reiterated this point after last Sunday's stunning overtime victory over Pittsburgh in the NFL playoffs)

This is what biblical manhood does. Biblical manhood carries out assigned tasks with diligent effort to the glory of God. It walks unashamedly with Christ and risks alienating the city of man on issues such as sexual purity because it lives with a greater city in view. It lovingly, humbly, and with biblical tenacity, leads and protects those placed under its care, manfully shouldering the blame and repenting when it fails. Biblical manhood enjoys the good gifts God has given while worshiping the Giver as the supreme treasure. And it pushes fathers to teach their sons that love for the body of Christ trumps affections for their favorite football team.

Go Dawgs, but God bless you brother Tim. Thank you for giving my sports-crazed son a snapshot of Christ and a reminder of the supremacy of the Gospel.

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Some predictions are rather safe to make. 2012 is almost certain to be a determinative year on the issue of same-sex marriage. Multiple courts appear poised to strike down the Defense of Marriage Act [DOMA] and, even more urgently, the appeal on California's Proposition 8 at the Ninth Circuit U. S. Court of Appeals will set up a certain appeal to the U. S. Supreme Court. Given the facts of this case and the significance of the nation's most populous state, the Supreme Court is almost certain to take the case. This sets the stage for the courts to make some determinative statement on same-sex marriage within the next several months - a decision that will go a long way toward setting the direction of the larger culture.

At the same time, the same-sex marriage issue will play a part in the 2012 presidential campaign. The reason for this is quite simple. The issue of same-sex marriage is about far more than marriage as a legal institution and about more than sexuality and personal autonomy. It is the great inescapable issue, and we will know in fairly short order what all the candidates believe about the issue.

Then again, maybe not.

President Barack Obama has done far more to advance the cause of gay rights than any previous president. His executive orders and administrative policies have granted benefits to the domestic partners of federal employees, ordered the Department of Justice not to defend the Defense of Marriage Act in the courts, and ordered the Department of State to make the rights of homosexuals a major priority and principle of American foreign policy. Beyond all that, the President led the effort to repeal the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy, leading to the full integration of active homosexuals within the U. S. armed services.

But, what about the question of same-sex marriage? The President has explained that his views on the subject are "evolving." Just a few weeks ago, the President told George Stephanopoulos of ABC News that he is "still working on" the issue. The President has clearly affirmed something like same-sex marriage, assuring a gay rights group in October that "every single American deserves to be treated equally before the law." In that context, there is little room for seeing that statement as anything other than a call for same-sex marriage.

The President has insisted that he is not for same-sex marriage . . . yet. He undermines the Defense of Marriage Act, assures activists for same-sex marriage that he is moving in their direction, but is still "evolving."

In the aftermath of the Stephanopoulos interview, New York Magazine stated the obvious with this headline: "President Obama Won't Say if He'll Stop Pretending to Oppose Same-Sex Marriage Before the Election."

Now, The New York Times has published a major article arguing that the President is allowing his surrogates in the Administration to advance the issue for him. In "Obama Still Lets Surrogates Take the Lead as Gay Rights Momentum Builds," reporter Mark Landler explained:

"President Obama has long relied on his oratorical gifts to ease him through tricky political situations. But on the emotionally charged issue of gay rights, Mr. Obama has been content recently to let his lieutenants do the talking. And they have said some striking things."

On the specific issue of same-sex marriage, Landler reported: "There is little indication that Mr. Obama plans to endorse same-sex marriage before the presidential election in November, despite recent statements that tiptoe right up to that position."

Thus, the dance continues. The reason for the President's reluctance is clear enough. Landler nailed the rationale head-on, explaining that the President "is reluctant in an election year to be drawn into a culture-war issue - one that reliably helps Republicans turn out evangelical voters in their favor and also strikes a particular nerve with religious black voters, a bedrock Obama constituency in battleground states like North Carolina and Florida."

This disingenuous waltz will be a hard dance to maintain, and the President must know it. Nevertheless, some political authorities in Mr. Obama's own party are advising him to keep it going.

Interestingly, the latest of these is former President Jimmy Carter. Mr. Carter recently told the Associated Press that President Obama has endangered his re-election prospects by alienating too many voters. His words to President Obama sound like an encouragement to continue his evasive dance on the issue.

President Carter said, "If your main goal is to get re-elected, avoid a controversial subject as much as you can in the first term."

Mr. Carter recalled that he alienated too many voters during his first term, and, as he told a group recently, was "involuntarily retired."

Maybe that explains it all. The first Obama term is all about "evolution" on the issue. Clarity will come only after the 2012 election. Then, and only then, will the dance end.

At the very least, President Carter has helped us to see the dance for what it is.

(R. Albert Mohler Jr. serves as president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., and is a member of the CBMW council. This article originally appeared on Dr. Mohler's blog at www.Albertmohler.com)

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A science journal has uncovered a fact that God's Word has been telling the world since the creation account in Genesis 1:27: men and woman are different. With a tone that borders on startled, the London Telegraph reports the findings of research conducted by the Public Library of Science One:

A new analysis of a survey of 10,000 people found that each sex has firmly entrenched characteristics, with women showing more sensitivity, warmth and apprehension than men. In contrast, emotional stability, dominance, rule-consciousness and vigilance are more typically male characteristics, experts said. Previous research has claimed that that average personality differences between men and women are small. The survey showed that men and women exhibit traits traditionally associated with their particular gender and that only 18 percent of men were reported to possess traits more commonly seen in women.

The entire story may be read here: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/8992639/Men-and-women-have-distinct-personalities.html

That this research and story confirms the obvious aside, this represents something of a landmark admission by a secular science journal. Since the advent of feminism in the 1960s, secular academics and researchers have been hard at the task of seeking to prove that gender differences are negligible, circumstantial and not a part of design.

This research once again confirms God's good and design: He has created men and women in His image to play equally valuable, but complementary roles. To accomplish this, it has pleased God to equip us with different gifts, different strengths and different weaknesses-all perfectly congruent with those of the opposite gender.  It will be interesting to see how much play this article gets in the media and how (or if) the secular academy responds.  

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[Editor's note: The following post was originally published on Crossway's blog at http://www.crossway.org/blog/ and also on Carolyn's blog Radical Womanhood at http://solofemininity.blogs.com/]


Two years ago this month, I joined a group of people who were starting a new church in Arlington, VA. Men, women, families, and single adults made up our team of primarily young adults who were moving to the urban suburb that once was part of the nation's capital.

As with any new venture, it was all-hands-on-deck to launch our church, and that meant single women were integral from the start. One of the pillars of the team was a then-single woman named Johannah-the administrative assistant who kept everything on schedule, allowing our lead pastor to concentrate on the vision and theological foundation for the new church. (Johannah was married this month and moved a few hours away, a bittersweet moment for our pastors!) Another single woman, Lauren, helps administrate our children's ministry and co-leads a weekly prayer group. Jen assists a single man who leads one of our small groups. Several single women joined the worship team, contributing their skills as musicians or vocalists to serve the congregation in music. Others signed up for communion service, women's Bible studies, meal coordinators, greeters, outreach ministries and much more.

From the start, single adults-men and women-were treated as serious components of this new venture. Perhaps it helped that our lead pastor had been a singles pastor for many years and was attuned to the serious contributions single adults can make within the church. Or maybe because the residents of our new hometown are largely single, too-nearly half of Arlington's households are single residents.

But contextualization and previous pastoral experience aside, Scripture reveals how important single adults, especially women, are to the church. After all, the first church ever planted in Europe began with a single woman.

Lydia, a successful businesswoman in the luxury trade of purple cloth, was the first person that Scripture records responding to the apostle Paul's preaching when he reached Philippi (Acts 16:11-15). Her immediate and joyful response was to offer hospitality to Paul and his disciples. From there, the church in Philippi began to meet in her home.  Due to her business, Lydia was no doubt influential in her city, but she was far more influential in the spread of the gospel as she teamed with Paul and Silas to establish the church there (Acts 16:40).

Today's single women are just as necessary for new churches. While our leadership-focused American culture can put so much emphasis on the individual who leads any organization, a leader without committed and fruitful followers is leading a vacuum. A church-planter is one individual among many-a very gifted and called individual, for sure, but he can't do it alone. And one of the ways he can ensure a new church will take root is to encourage the women of his church, married and single alike, to follow Lydia's example in using their homes as outreach centers. Scripture does not make room for the American concept of the home as a personal retreat from the intrusions of others. Instead, we are to follow the many New Testament commands to offer hospitality and thereby connect with those around us-hospitality is not contingent upon marital status!

Lydia's example is also relevant for the workplace. She traded in a luxury item and obviously had much influence in the marketplace to be able to do so.  A single women today can also exert much influence in the marketplace and needs the support of a diverse church to help her wisely reach out to fellow workers.

Phoebe's example is important to consider, as well (Romans 16:1-2). Paul calls her a patron, a benefactor of himself and many others. Like Lydia, Phoebe was also likely to be wealthy and well-connected, carrying Paul's letter to the Romans to introduce him to believers there who had not experienced his ministry in person. Her wealth and social connections helped Paul to spread the gospel. But it was her service to her local congregation in Cenchreae that caused Paul to refer to her as diakonos, the word most often translated as "deacon" elsewhere in Scripture. No matter your ecclesiology or polity today, church-planters need single women who are so committed to serving the church that they are known as sisters and helpers who invest the gifts and talents they've received for the benefit of the gospel. In turn, we single women should be as eager to carry the rich truths of Romans to others as Phoebe was!

The beauty of church-planting is that it is symbiotic. Church-planting pastors need fruitful and committed members to embody their vision for a new church, and a diverse flock needs a gifted and called group of elders to lead them in a new adventure. Each are gifts to the other, evidences of grace from a generous heavenly Father who is eager to build his church so that through it, the manifold wisdom of God would be on display (Ephesians 3:10).

From the beginning of the church, single women have been making important contributions to the advance of the gospel-and that call remains on us today.

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At the risk of sounding like one who has missed the real meaning of Christmas, I have to admit that one of my favorite aspects of the holiday season is the presence of myriads of important (or pseudo-important if your team wound up in the Weedeater Bowl) football games. The NFL season is wrapping up and the playoffs are looming, but, best of all for me, college teams with at least six victories are playing bowl games.

For me, it is an important marker on the annual calendar: the end of college football buries the last vestiges of autumn and gives way to the cold, gloom of winter (read: I would prefer to boycott winter). Friends have teased that in the Robinson household there are three annual seasons instead of four: baseball season, football season and basketball season. Indeed, this lies close to the truth.

In recent years, my sons have begun to watch games with me and it has forced me to think through this pursuit in terms of "how to" and "how much." So, here is one father's guide to navigating the bowl games (or NFL contests if you prefer the well-salaried tackle footballers) over the next few days:

• Keep the remote control in your hand (Or keep it beside you if you are a more animated fan). Commercials often attempt to capitalize on the prurient interests of men. This reality gives dads the opportunity to guard his own heart and protect his family, while modeling for his sons the profound care that a godly man must take in determining where his eyes will roam. Beware: there is much filth out there and it must not enter your household. Guard your heart and those of your family with vigilance at all times when the TV is on.  "You must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds...Take no part in the fruitful works of darkness..." (Eph 4:17; 5:11)
• Look for opportunities to discuss God's sovereignty over sports. Countless times I have heard, "Come on, God has better things to do than mess with football. He doesn't care about who wins and has nothing to do with it." But, as the great Dutch statesman/theologian Abraham Kuyper so famously said, there is not one square inch of creation about which God does not say, "Mine." Tell your kids that God is sovereign over football, even when your highly-ranked team loses to its unranked rival. This truth should help neuter proclivities toward the sinful sore-loser syndrome which can, in the brief span of three hours, turn a grown man into a sniveling, pouting boy. "Who has spoken and it came to pass, unless the Lord has commanded it?" (Lam 3:37)
• Look for opportunities to point out the way in which God has gifted athletes. When Ochocinco makes a great catch and then struts like Nebuchadnezzar, tell your boys that it was God who gave the wide out his gifts and that the glory belongs to Him alone. All athletic ability comes from God and must be employed for His glory - end zone dances notwithstanding. "All the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing; and he does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth." (Dan 4:35a)
• Watch games (and television/Internet in general) in moderation. Don't stay on the couch so long that you become as much a fixture in the den as the armoire or sofa. Tell your children that football is one of God's good gifts among many, but remind them that it does not make a satisfying God. Only Christ and His Gospel satisfy. Tell them. Show them. Spend more holiday time doing other things with them than you do in front of ESPN3. "Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil." (Eph 5:15)

We at CBMW pray that each of our readers will have a blessed 2012 and that in the New Year, God will give all of us the grace to live in light of Paul's admonition to the Corinthians: "So then, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all things to the glory of God." (1 Cor 10:31) Thank your for your faithful readership in 2011 and for all the encouragement and discussion we received by e-mail. Grace and peace to each of you!