Tim Tebow: Does His Evangelical Christian Faith Invite Criticism?

There is a lot of discussion today as to whether Tim Tebow's outspoken Christian faith invites criticism. There are those who will counter that he's just being criticized as an athlete because he's not good enough to be a starting quarterback. 

I'm not sure if there's a statistic for this, but I'm sure if there were, Tim Tebow would by far have the NFL record. The statistic would be NSPGS or National Stories per Games Started. Has there ever been a player who received so much attention from the national media when he wasn't even a starter?

There are lot of reasons for the attention, but the attention goes beyond normal. Other players were taken higher, fell harder and farther, and got far less attention for it. Sure, JaMarcus Russell generated discussion, but not like this. 

Even Brady Quinn, with whom he's battling for the backup job, was taken higher and has been around longer. 

It's not whether or not Tebow is a story, it's about whether he's this big of a story. 

It's closer to obsession than attention at this point and there are a few reasons for it. 

First, Tebow is arguably (emphasis on arguably) the greatest college football player ever. Second, he has a captivating personality. Third, he's an outspoken Christian.

There are three ways that people take this. Some people love it, some people hate it and some people just don't care. 

In order to understand the Tebow obsession, though, you can't just look at Tim Tebow. The two biggest things associated with Sundays in the US of A are church and football. A lot of people are Christians. In fact, according to an ABC News/Beliefnet poll, 83 percent of all Americans say they are Christians. 

That's a big chunk of America. Out of that 83 percent, 37 percent describe themselves as "Evangelical" which means they like to talk about being Christians, and Tim Tebow has become the champion for a lot of them. That means abut one third of Americans call themselves evangelical Christians. 

The second biggest religion is the 13 percent of Americans who describe their religion as "none." 

There's a kind of natural and inevitable friction between the evangelical Christians and the "nones." The evangelical Christians, genuinely concerned with the eternal fate of the unbelievers, are doing what they feel is their honest duty, to speak to other 13 percent. 

The other 13 percent on the other hand genuinely want to be left alone. 

Note that I'm not saying that either group is morally wrong. They are both "right" according to their own world view. 

That world view collides in a lot of different areas. Whether it's views on abortion, evolution or homosexuality, these two groups seem to generally bump heads. It's become an enormous driving force in our society, and there's no denying it.

I'm not suggesting that every evangelical wears face paint with bible verses, nor am I suggesting that every "none" is a Christian hater but friction is there, and whether we're in the "love it," "hate it" or "don't care" there's a certain degree to which we're all caught in this movement and counter-movement.  

It's even gotten to the point that completely tangential topics likes capital gains taxes and the birthplace of Barack Obama are inextricably tied to faith. It's a kind of ripple effect that hits everything. 

It was only a matter of time before it hit the one unifying thing that we had going for us, football. Tim Tebow emerged as the untouchable champion of the evangelical Christians. He wasn't the hypocrite who was giving glory to God in postgame interviews and then showing up as a deadbeat dad, holding a bong pipe or getting in a bar fight.

Then, as though he weren't already enough of a lightning rod, he was drafted by the Denver Broncos, where the fan base is where the Promise  Keepers began. 

He wears his faith on his sleeve, or even more vividly, on his face. But he doesn't  just make a show of it, he genuinely lives it in his life. On a personal level, you never hear anyone say a bad thing about him. He, by every account, is a genuinely nice person who lives a "sin free" life.

Of course the evangelicals want Tebow to succeed and of course, since he emerged in 2000 as a star the anti-Chirstian crowd has been wanting him to fail. They don't mean it against him personally, but his success has just been their bane. 

It's not the fact that he's succeeded that gets their goad, it's the fact that their rivals, the evangelicals, are so darned happy about it. They don't want Tebow to fail so much as they want the evangelicals to be discouraged. 

Whether it is the good or the bad, and whether it's accurate or not. In terms of both praise and critique, it's not what's said, but how much of it is said. For a player that has done so little, good or bad, on the NFL level, he's gotten an inordinate amount of attention and that's very much to do with his faith.