More the former than the latter. But they were funded by Focus on the Family, which is hard at work to make abortion illegal in the US. From their website:
Fight back? You mean, by stating their opposition to your views and explaining why you think their views are wrong and harmful? Sure. Who here is saying that Tebow should be exempt from criticism on that score?
But he’s entitled to his own beliefs about the morality of abortion, different though they may be from mine, and I’m not going to waste perfectly good saliva on frothing about the fact that he’s been invited by an organization that shares his beliefs to speak to a voluntarily-assembled congregation of organization members who also share his beliefs. That sort of thing doesn’t even stir the needle on my outrage meter.
Who is Larry Fitzgerald?
Be good to get an Easter sermon from Gregg Williams, though.
We wanna see the horns ripped right offa Lucifer’s head today, and there’ll be a little extra something in the communion for the congregant that does it!
Look, I’m pro-choice, but that doesn’t mean that I think that those who are pro-life are evil. They think that the life yet to be born needs protecting. And when I think about that life very close to birth, it’s hard to not see their point. Abortion is a tough issue, one where I don’t think you can say one side or the other is really “wrong”. For me, it comes down to competing rights and that pushing abortion back into the underworld is not good for women, particularly poor women. But both sides of the abortion debate can be construed as furthering laws that “hurt people” as you say.
As far as Tebow, he seems to be a devout Christian. He’s famous, and a congregation asked him to deliver a sermon. In what universe is this even a little bit odd? ::shrug::
Frankly I prefer athletes that deliver sermons and donate piles of money to charity to ones that kill dogs, smuggle cocaine, set off guns while strippers are wriggling on their laps, smoke crack and hire underage prostitutes, fight with their wives in ways that lead to them falling out of trucks and dying, etc. Tebow seems to work hard at being a good guy, good for him.
Yeah, I don’t share his religious beliefs and I really, realllly wish people who do would take to heart the not-so-fine print about separation of church and state, but seriously:
meh
Yeah, seriously. I really don’t understand why Tebow is now being pitted for going to church.
This thread reminds me that we’re likely to have Tebow in the headlines for decades, perhaps to the end of my life.
Shit.
Probably not. He’ll be cut by the Jets next season, and that will probably be the end of it.
I’m also someone who generally enjoys mocking the stupidity of American Christians… and I give this pitting a big meh. The only way I’d even come close to supporting it was if there was evidence that Tebow had bullied his way into doing something that no one actually wanted him to do, and there’s no evidence of that afaik.
(And I want people to remember this thread, in which someone criticized a Christian public figure and the overwhelming response was “lame pitting, dude” the next time someone starts going on and on about how anti-Christian the dope is…)
You make a valid point. As a Christian I have been very surprised in the past few months … there are some pretty darn reasonable, intellectually honest atheists/agnostics around here 
The problem is … there are some REALLY loud, really hateful people on the Dope who happen to share your beliefs (or lack thereof), and they drown out the rest of you that aren’t foaming at the mouth.
It’s kinda how Christians feel when the God Hates Fags posse shows up um, anywhere.
Tebow’s future is in politics or mega-church/television ministry. Frankly there’s more money in the church hustle but there’s more camera facetime in politics. So I predict politics.
When his extraordinarily attention-garnering but otherwise unnotable NFL career ends, it will not be the end of the media’s fascination with him.
Chicharito Hernandez, who plays striker for Manchester United, drops to his knees in the literal middle of the pitch just before kick off and blesses himself. I have yet to read any comments about it in the UK press.
I know very little about Tebow and I would not attend the sermon. Nor do I agree with many of his views. However, he seems a lot classier than a number of his critics.
Ugh. No kidding.
Troy Polamalu visibly prays on the field as well, and no one gives him any gruff for it, because Troy is not showy and obnoxious about it. Now, granted I’m a Steelers fan, but Troy’s bowing his head and crossing himself comes off like he’s actually praying, and Tebow may as well be shouting, “Look at me! I’m praying!”
I have no proof here, but I sense a whiff of the hypocrite about Tim Tebow. I am irrationally convinced that someday soon, Tim Tebow will be found in a mess of strippers and coke. And I will feel…vindicated.
You have a vivid imagination.
Well, it’s such an “in your face” act of religiosity.
Perhaps it’s the sentiment in Matthew 6:5?
Or assuming that God would intervene in a sport’s match rather than to save a starving orphan?
He’s not asking the camera to focus on him, and he’s not asking God to intervene in the game. Some people just pray as part of their everyday lives. Other people have to get over it.
I think it’s more of a “God give me the strength to play my best in this game”, etc. Same as Troy. Besides, I believe Tebow actually goes off to the sidelines and kneels – you’re not allowed to go down on your knees at the end zone, IIRC.
Seriously, he seems like a nice guy. Honestly, I wish the Steelers had a quarterback more like him, than Rapistberger. (Even if he didn’t commit the assault, he’s still rumored to be a huge asshole. Two of my relatives have had run-ins with the guy)
As a Christian I have been very surprised in the past few months … sometimes the pretty darn reasonable, intellectually honest atheists/agnostics around here are reasonabler and intellectually honester than the Christians.
And, y’know what, Timbow? I pray when something goes right, too. But no one can tell, because I’m not making a big deal of it (that, and there are tragically few TV cameras on me).
Wanna wager on that?