Tim Tebow, the former Heisman winning quarterback for the Florida Gators, is a very religious and spiritual man. That much, pretty much anyone who knows ANYTHING about him is well aware of. He's been on the record as saying that he hopes that his abilities in the sports world, which he attributes to God, enables him to further his message for Christianity to more and more people.

And now he's taking that step by filming a pro-life commercial to be aired during the Super Bowl in a few weeks. He's teamed up with James Dobson's Focus on the Family to produce this commercial which has many people upset.

We all have the right to voice our opinions, and Tebow has the right to voice his opinions, even those that I am fundamentally opposed to. However, now Tebow is putting himself out there front and center by taking part in a commercial for "Focus on the Family" to be aired during the Super Bowl, in which he talks about his mother's troubled pregnancy with him, where she was sick in the Phillipines. She was urged to have an abortion, and instead she had him, and he went on to greatness on the College Football stage.

As a Christian, I don't really have a problem with this. He comes off as a very positive man, someone who walks the walk, so to speak. He doesn't seem to be a hypocritical person.

This isn't the case of a politician who is vehemently anti-gay rights, and is a closeted homosexual. Tim Tebow is someone who is strong in his convictions, and so I don't really have a problem with it, because he's sincere.

There are many, however, who are opposed to this. While I'm not someone who believes that politics and the sports world should mingle, I don't have as BIG a problem with it, considering who it is.



Tim Tebow is a genuine person. He's not a "Pat Robertson" type character who preaches on hate and evil, while pretending to be a Christian. From all reports, Tebow is one of those "too good to be true" type stories, only it appears it's true. He does missionary work in third world countries, and is made out to be the second coming, or something. And that irritates many people.

I listen to sports talk radio, and one thing that I hear a lot is people who are tired of hearing about how great Tebow is. They openly root for him to fail so they can laugh and point and say "see, I thought you said he was good?". They openly tout how they think he's going to fail in the NFL and never amount to anything.

And so to see him getting so much more attention now, and being put in the limelight even more, is irritating to many people. Throw in the fact that the commercial involves a lightning rod subject such as Abortion, and well, you can see why there's some controversy here.

However, as I said I don't really see the reason to be up in arms. So he's preaching a message you don't agree with. So what? Isn't that what's so great about this country? That we have free speech to be able to voice our opinions, to be able to support any candidate we want, endorse any political message, any doctrine that we so choose?

People who are opposed to his message, have every right to disagree and make their opinions known. However, when you cross the line between simply disagreeing and voicing your disapproval into the area where you are trying to force the commercial to not even air, and to silence any opposing view that you find offensive or even reprehensible, then that's going into territory that should not be breached.

And the irony here, is that many people on the liberal side of things, who tend to be of the "there is no God" and "Christianity is the most evil thing ever" crowd, are up in arms about this, and are protesting and want CBS to refuse to show the commercial. Meanwhile, they are also the ones who get upset when those on the conservative side want to ban books that display things they don't like.

Why is it not okay for Conservatives to ridiculously try to ban "Heather Has Two Mommies" because it portrays homosexuality in a "positive light", or Stephen King books when they feel the books present ideas and situations that they are fundamentally opposed to, and yet it's okay for Liberals to condemn and try to get Tebow's pro-life commercial off the air before it even runs?

I don't get it. I've gotten so disillusioned with the whole political process that I don't even know what to refer to myself as. I'm not a conservative by any stretch of the imagination, however there are issues that I believe in, that would land on that side. And even though there are issues that I'm fairly liberal on, particularly social issues, I don't claim to be a Liberal despite many people who know me believing I am.

John Amato, over at Crooks and Liars, who I usually agree with on many issues, said something in his piece HERE that I kind of disagreed with and took issue with. He believes that Dobson and Focus on the Family are using Tebow as a "pawn" in this situation. I find it kind of offensive that people would say that, only because that lends to the idea that Tebow doesn't know what he's doing. He's not some dumb hick that just got to the big city and is being hijacked by some street hustler who's conning him into doing something he doesn't wanna do.

Tebow knows EXACTLY what he's doing, this is exactly what he wants to do. He has spoken of using his platform of sports to speak his message of Christianity to the world, and that's what he's doing. If anyone's using anyone, I would think people would suggest Tebow is using Dobson's influential reach to get his message out via the Super Bowl. Would there be a commercial without such an influential group like Focus on the Family? I don't like them, and think Dobson's a joke, but let's not deny the obvious that there's many many people out there, both influential and not that respect him.

And speaking of the Tebow commercial, let's face it: the reason that so many people are probably up in arms is because Tebow's got a helluva story. I mean, his mother was sick in the phillipines and told she was going to die or the Tim would die if she gave birth, and was urged to have an abortion. She refused, and carried him to term, not only surviving the birth, but her son goes on to be one of the most celebrated college football athletes the country has ever seen.

I think many who are for the right to choose, are intimidated by that, and are afraid that it will cause people to perhaps think about that and say "well, she gave birth and she's okay and look at what her son did", and unfortunately I think that was a, to be honest, miracle situation.




Everyone that is facing a life threatening birth is not going to end up like Tim's mother and him. In many cases like this, the mother and child would both die, or one of them would. That's why we NEED to have the option of abortion to at least be there in situations where the mother's life is in danger.

I personally am not for abortion, although I don't know ANYONE who wants babies to die, no matter what that vile creature Ann Coulter would tell you. However, in my view, despite my unwillingness to tell a woman what she can or can't do with her body, it should only be, excuse the pun, on the table for situations where the mother's life is at risk, or the baby will be born dead. Also in cases of rape or incest. That's it. I don't view abortion as a "get out of sex consequences free" card, even though technically abortion IS a form of birth control.

Hopefully the ad will run. I don't necessarily agree 100% with it airing during the Super Bowl, but CBS has stated that they will accept opposing view ads as long as they are "responsibly done". So one of the pro-choice groups can pony up the cash and present an "opposing view" ad to run on CBS.

Then if CBS balks at that, then we can discuss whether or not CBS should be running only one side of political issue such as this. Especially in light of CBS refusing to run an ad supporting gay rights in the past.