For Tebow, abortion is not political, but a matter of life and death

Perhaps like no other college athlete in history, Tim Tebow has lived in the glare of the media spotlight for the past four years. But in recent weeks, it has become clear that most of the media, for all of its veneration college football’s premier star, does not understand truly him. Perhaps clearest of all is this: the media does not understand his Christian faith and the kind of selflessness it requires. 

The latter is not exactly news, but it has become increasingly evident in the days leading up to SuperBowl XLIV in New Orleans. Focus on the Family will air an advertisement during pro football’s Emmy night that features Tebow and his mother, Pam.  It will tell of the circumstances of Tim’s birth: while pregnant with Time, Pam contracted amoebic dysentery through drinking water consumed onthe mission field; doctors told Pam that her child would likely enter the world with debilitating birth defects. They encouraged abortion. But the Tebows trusted God and gave birth a vigorous baby boy on Aug. 14, 1987. We now knows the rest of the story.

As one might expect, a firestorm of controversy has arisen surrounding Tebow and the commercial. In Monday’s USA Today, Tom Kratten maker, a thoughtful writer who recently published a book on sports and faith entitled “Onward Christian Athletes,” echoes the same refrain as much of his brethren in the secular media: Tebow has gone political with his faith. And he doesn’t like Tebow’s new team; Kratten maker called Dobson and Focus on the Family, “the embodiment of the staunch anti-abortion, anti-homosexuality politics that characterize the Christian right.” Further, the writer speaks of how his own tribe, the main stream media, has “deified” Tebow. The SuperBowl ad, he writes,provides  “a miraculous birth narrative to complete the deification of Tim Tebow.” Flag on the play: personal foul for unnecessary snarkiness. Krattenmaker is indignant that CBS would vet such an adfrom the “Christian right” and then allow its appearance as if only leftward-leaning viewpoints qualify under the First Amendment. But I digress.  This is merely one example among many and some are far more critical of Tebowand CBS.

The heart of the misunderstanding is not really so much about Tebow, but, is rather a fundamental misunderstanding of the fundamental reason why many evangelicals are staunchly pro-life. Tim Tebow is not politicking for the religious right, whatever that is; he is defending life out of a belief in an inspired and inerrant Bible which teaches that abortion is the high-handed, premeditated murder of a human being. For Tebow, this is about theology and not politics or winning a culture war. No, his motivation is not to further his career (infact, one wonders how this will play in the sometimes politically-correct world of pro sports) or to prepare to run for office or any such machinations. Tim Tebow simply knows what a man of God is called to do: he must stand between his family or those who cannot help themselves and protect them from the world, the flesh and the devil. This is what biblical Christianity teaches, it is what biblical manhood does in response, and it is part of a Gospel-centered life; it compels a man to risk life and limb and even a good name or lucrative profootball career to protect the weak, the innocent and those whom he loves forthe glory of God. It is what a sinless Savior did long ago “on a hill far away” in standing between His rebellious people and the wrath that their sins deserved.

That is what Tim Tebow is up to with the advertisement. Krattenmaker admits that Tebow has proven that he is made of warrior material: “Tebow has proved like few others the ability to withstand the heat and stay in the kitchen.” Indeed, but the stakes are far higher on this issue than most in the mainstream media will ever understand. For Tebow it is a matter of life and death. Stand strong, brother: “Be watchful, a stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong.