‘Tebowing’ was can’t-miss TV, had people choosing sides

    In our gotcha culture, which seems to regard hypocrisy as the last unforgivable sin, Tim Tebow’s practice of genuflecting and praying as a spiritual payoff after the Broncos hit pay dirt has launched a thousand snipes.
    Mike Lukovich, an editorial cartoonist with the Atlanta Constitution, had Tebow kneeling in prayer, with the bubble above his head reading: “Please let me play like Drew Brees…”
    Someone wrote that just before Christmas, Tebow failed an NFL drug test for “frankincense and myrrh.”
    “Saturday Night Live” had “Jesus” visiting Tebow and the Broncos in the locker room after another “miracle” victory and informing the quarterback that he was too busy until the fourth quarter to help Tebow out on the field.
    “Have you watched the game films of the first half?” Jesus asks Tebow. “Come on, Tim, 3-for-16. I can throw better than you, and I’m 2,010 years old.”
    It’s no wonder the public is wary of public displays of religion. Heavyweight champion Mike Tyson, who converted to Islam, raised the bar on the hypocrisy meter when he once bellowed at Lennox Lewis: “I’m coming for you, man. My style is impetuous. My defense is impregnable, and I’m just ferocious. I want your heart. I want to eat his children. Praise be to Allah!”
    Public display of private religious devotion makes many people uncomfortable and even angry, and Tebow’s public display of faith certainly has moved the squeamish meter. At the same time, any ridicule to which Tebow has been subjected seems to have been swamped by a cult following of true believers disproportionate to the level of his play.
    How could a quarterback with such serious accuracy issues, a quarterback who has the worst arm of any playoff quarterback since Joe Kapp, become such a lightning rod of adulation and criticism?
    How has Tim Tebow become can’t-miss TV?
    The answer, I think, lies in the intersection of culture and religion, of authenticity and hypocrisy. Jesuit Father James Martin is one of my favorite authors, and he had an insightful take on this whole controversy of whether or not God is “answering” Tebow’s prayers.
    “Well, in good Jesuitical fashion, the answer is: Yes, no and I don’t know,” Father Martin says.
    The answer is “yes,” Father Martin says, because Christians believe God hears everyone’s prayers – sending the rain to fall and the sun to shine on the just and the unjust.
    The answer is “no,” if you believe in the “Prosperity Gospel,” which promises there will be no suffering in life if only you pray “hard enough.” Most of the 12 apostles, Father Martin indicates, met with excruciatingly painful deaths.
    The answer is “I don’t know” if you consider fully the mystery of suffering. Why do the fervent prayers of a family whose child is dying of cancer seem to fall on deaf ears? It is the mystery of suffering.
    “We need to set aside the notion that if we pray, all will go well,” Father Martin says. “False religion is the idea that if you believe, all will go well, and there is nothing to worry about. Real religion is the idea that if you believe, all may not go well, but, in the end, there is nothing to worry about.”
    By all accounts, Tebow is a man of faith and is the genuine article. At a time when other multimillion-dollar athletes with pathological disorders have abandoned any responsibility to be role models, Tebow lives his life in a glass house, shining a light that to critics seems to be too much “in their face.”
    Society – and particularly the media – will be watching to see if Tebow’s walk continues to match his talk.
    Ultimately, though, Tebow’s professional success will rely more on his arm and legs than on his mouth. That’s why all parties on either side of the Tebow divide can’t take their eyes off him.
    Does making the sign of the cross before stepping into the batter’s box work? Only if you can hit the curveball.
    Peter Finney Jr. can be reached at [email protected].