I’ve weighed in on the Tebow issue before, several times in fact. But, it really is like the gift that keeps on giving… reasons for me to rant about in print.
I got on the Twitter last night and fired out a couple of comments I would like to hear Tim Tebow say. Now, to be clear, I’m not anti-Tebow. I’m anti-Tebowmania. I like the guy. I think he’s doing the best he can with what he’s got, and I don’t think that it’s his fault that all this religious scrutiny is thrust on his shoulders. He’s passionate, young, zealous, and trying to live his faith the way he believes it should be lived.
That’s actually what gets me worked up, that Tim is doing what he believes he should be, expressing his faith the way he feels an athlete should— a belief that is really not his own, but the prevailing belief of Christianity in America: if you can become relevant enough through what the world thinks is important—fame, money, power—you can become a much better mouthpiece for God. It’s as if we feel God is a god of pop culture, and he needs to be at the forefront of it to make an impact; that the most holy thing we can do is get ahold of the mic for fifteen minutes.
This is not Tim’s idea, it’s simply the execution of the a commonly accepted faith delivery system in America. Christians have been looking to celebrities to champion their cause for a long time now, because it honestly thinks the faith needs them too. I’m also a Christian athlete, and when I first got into this gig, I did so under the thinking that I was going to save the world through sports by wielding the social power inherit within. God would “bless me” by getting me to the big leagues as a side effect of wanting his message spread. In fact, within my Christian circles, if I didn’t make it to the Bigs to do God’s work, I was in some way wasting the talents God gave me. There is this thinking that in order to do the faith right you need to know how to manipulate your vocation properly to capitalize on how obsessed we all are with jobs, status, and titles. The more important job you have, the more recognizable your title, the more weight your testimony is given through it. Therefore, try to be as rich, powerful and famous as you can because you’ll not only get more opportunities to talk about God, people will also care about what you say more.
This is a very sad fact. Deny it if you must, but everyday we spend on, turn the channel too, and buy the brands of what we truly feel is important, then link God to them as a way of advertising the belief. Dress it up if you want, pour out your Christienease and religious code wording, but it’s all a perpetuation of the Prosperity Gospel in the end. We acknowledge those with fame, power, and money as reaching the pinnacle of our culture’s definition of success. The Church says they were blessed there. The other rich, famous, but non-believing… well, they just got lucky. I’ve always found that part disturbing. I mean, riches for entertaining, fame, glam; they’re some of the most hollow and distracting things in our world. Yet, when a Christian has them, they are blessed. What gives?
In some ways, I think Tebow is one of the worst things to happen to Christianity. For many, his fame and hype will keep the idea that God is a God who not only wants you to be rich, powerful and socially relevant to do his work, he needs you to be. Again, none of this is Tebow’s fault. It’s our fault. There are 300,000,000 professed followers of a poor, homeless, carpenter in America today, and most of us are an embrassement to the faith because we’re stagnant in our worry about money, status, and occupation. That’s why I found myself wanting to hear Tebow acknowledge our faith’s sad state, if only so the throng of Christians hanging on his play and commentary would get a wakeup call.
I proposed he speak the following tweets:
I stand by my words.
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