Now I’m not trying to get into another tired debate of whether or not there is a god, nor am I trying to guess what is going on in Tebow’s mind. What I would like to to debate is whether, under the standards of Christianity, Tebow is following those standards.
It is my understanding that Christians believe that prayer should be about communing with God. The focus should be on God, not on the person doing the praying. Correct? Given this, I don’t see how “Tebowing” meets this criteria. Let’s face it, the act is named for the person.
Perhaps this started out with Tim legitimately wanting to praise his God. But it has clearly gone way beyond that. The focus is now exclusively on him. It seems to me that a truly devout Christian would acknowledge that and say something like, “This has gotten out of hand. My relationship with God should be a private one in which the focus is on Him, not me. I will continue to pray and worship, but I will do it privately. I never intended this to be a public spectacle or a distraction.”
Is there anything section of the bible that says “Pray where everyone can see you! Let everyone know and hear that you praise the lord!”? Because these sorts of direct contradictions are all over the place, so he could just say he’s following the other one.
Did someone say Biblical Contradictions??? You betcha. [Matthew 5:15 and 5:16](http://bible.cc/matthew/5-15 .htm) “…don’t hide your light under a bushel; let it shine”
He is only a hypocrite if he only prays in public. My understanding of Tebowing is that it is something he does on the sideline and he was photographed doing. There is no way for him to run into the locker room when he wants to pray once the game starts and there is no part of the sideline where he can not be photographed. So his only options is to pray in public or not pray. If he is doing it to be seen and admired then he is a hypocrite and should not be doing it, but if he sincerely is doing it to commune with God then there is nothing hypocritical about it. His motivations are known only to himself and God so there is no way of knowing. Everyone who meets him seems to think he is very humble and very sincere, so my presumption is that he is praying for the correct reason and is not being hypocritical.
Smitty, I hope this isn’t a hijack but rather a related question. If it becomes a hijack, let me apologize now.
Taking out the question about the existence of god (as you said in the OP) I have to wonder what Tebow is really after.
Does Tebow really feel that his ability to play a game of football is worthy of God’s attention? I guess even if he DID pray at home behind closed doors I’d have the same question but it would not be as, I’m having a difficult time expressing myself here, pressing. Why do it when you’re SURE the camera’s are on. To be fair I’m sure he does it when the cameras are off but … it’s just smacks of proselytizing to me.
There are so many things about Tebow that strike me as weird, self-serving and or self-promoting … my mind boggles.
Weird that Tebow’s God either can’t hear or doesn’t recognize surreptitious prayer, isn’t it? To this non-subscribing football fan, his actions are a cheap appeal for attention after his eye black stunt was banned by the NCAA. Any other endorsement would result in hefty fines.
I know what you mean. I’m not a Christian, but I would think that to believe that capital G God Almighty would actually intervene in something as insignificant as a football game would sort of diminish Him. If you believe that God is as much as you say he is, why would he get involved?
@puddlegum
But that’s the thing. He IS praying in public. As I said, maybe it didn’t start out as his intention. I’m willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. However, it has, at this point, obviously become something of a public spectacle. There is much discussion in the public arena. Other people are publicly “Tebowing”. In my opinion, if Tebow were actually doing it for himself and his own beliefs, he would take it out of the public arena at this point because of all the attention it has garnished.
First, although the first passage says “like the hypocrites”, it doesn’t seem to be implying that solely the act of public prayer makes people hypocrites. The part that makes them hypocrites is that they observe religion in public, but not in private. That we shouldn’t be like the hypocrites in the second part is obvious (obviously we should be holy in private!), but less obvious in the first part — so that’s what he tells us explicitly.
Second, this means that Tebow isn’t using Christian best practice (to pray just in private), but that alone does not make him a hypocrite. He would be a hypocrite if he’s not a moral dude in private (which, as far as we know, is not the case.) And to be fair to Tebow, he’s in a situation where he can’t really do the “enter into thy closet” thing.
Third, there’s no contradiction with Matthew 5:15-16. “Hiding your light” means keeping the good news to yourself; I can’t see how “your light” even could mean “your prayer”. And fairness to Tebow, he certainly doesn’t hide his light. The praying thing only seems to have gotten big because his pose is hysterical (perhaps he should stop doing the pose) — even without the pose, he certainly does talk about God a lot. I do think that he’s sincere when he talks about God.
Fourth, whether praising God for success at sports makes any sense is a bit of hijack. (Since it’s coming up, my preliminary thought is that there’s an inherent virtue in doing what you do the very best you can do it —so thanking God for the game makes some sense if you read it as thanking God for helping you do your best.) Still, hijack.
Is that what he’s praying for? I’m not enough of a football fan that I watch games not involving the Raiders or the 49ers. Is it possible that he’s praying as in “God, protect us as we play this dangerous game… etc, etc, etc.”
I don’t see anything wrong with praying in public, so long as it’s genuine. There’s nothing hypocritical about praying in public if you also pray in private. And it’s unreasonable to think that the Almighty doesn’t want your worship if other people are looking.
Separately, there’s a difference between praying for God to grant you victory and praying to thank God for allowing you to play a game. The latter isn’t that odd.
Such is the nature of the oft-translated Bible: using it as a cite opens one up for debate.The contextual meaning of the aforementioned verses and the use of the word hypocrite is obvious to Christians and non, but cherry-pickers are notorious for waffling between what is implied and what is *explicitly stated *when supporting a stance. Anyone who calls Tebow a hypocrite for his public displays of affiliation will inevitably be shouted down by the light under a bushel camp.
Christians have been praying silently and discretely since the Roman Empire; I’m pretty sure grandstanding genuflection can be likewise avoided unless one revels in detracting attention away from the other players.
Maybe or maybe not. But he does it for every TD and kick attempt. Of course, correlation does not necessarily imply a connection, but there’s an awful lot of correlation.
I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt that he’s not praying for victory but he does seem to be very thankful for all the points.
Yup, definitely. Like I said, that’s definitely a better thing to do than the infamous “Tebowing”. I was trying to make the distinction between “wrong” and “hypocritical”, that’s all.
Although I think Tebow’s stunts are self-serving, I’ve no dog in the “Christians: who’s doing it right” fight. I’m just relieved that bunch stopped sacrificing animals and grains in the name of worship. But I do feel Tebow’s a jerk for stealing attention away from the other team members, such as Von Miller and some other notable Broncos. See this bleacher report article: 5 Denver Broncos Not Named Tim Tebow Who Most Sparked the Team’s Resurgence
Legality isn’t the issue, the attention given to a single player’s off the clock actions (at the expense of the game and other team members) is what we are discussing here. Blaming the media for all our social ills is a cop-out. Someone once said, I think it can probably be attributed to a coach, said “There’s no *I *in team.” Shame Tebow missed that memo.
