When it comes to Tim Tebow, what’s not to like? Oh, he has his detractors, especially those claiming offense over his overt religious posturing following a touchdown. As Frank Bruni recently wrote in the New York Times, Tebow’s religious genuflecting, his dropping to one knee in the precise way he does, doesn’t go over so well with him and many other football enthusiasts. According to Bruni, Tebow’s Tebowing is “a sort of self-righteous bait-and-switch,” which subjects football fans who “come for scrimmages” to unwanted “scriptures.”

I’m sorry, but Bruni’s words strike me as hypocritical. Has he ever written a piece on the profane gesturing religious football fans are frequently subjected to by irreligious touchdown scorers? Did he raise a peep of protest over Detroit Lions’ linebacker Stephen Tulloch’s mocking of Tebow’s one-knee prayer, following Tulloch’s sack of Tebow on a 3rd-and-7 play? After all Mr. Bruni, us evangelical Christians watch football games for scrimmages, not for unwanted sacrilege.

How about this year’s planned performance of Madonna at the halftime show of the Super Bowl? Can us spiritually minded football fans expect Mr. Bruni to pen a piece of protest against the appearance of the Material Girl. I mean why should Christian football enthusiasts be subjected to an offensive Madonna concert, when all we want to see is a football game? Can anybody say “Janet Jackson”?

Isn’t it a sad commentary on our country when football fans are willing to overlook repeated accusations of sexual assault against Pittsburgh Steeler quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, but offended when Tim Tebow takes a knee before God. I don’t know about you, but it seems to me, in light of the scandal-ridden atmosphere of today’s sports world, which reeks with everything from the proliferation of performance enhancing drugs to the sexual abuse of children, that the likes of a Tim Tebow should be a breath of fresh air, not something that causes the grandstands to gasp for air.

Still, there is something troubling to me about Tebowing. Tim’s particular one-knee pose has become an Internet sensation, even generating a popular website where people post pictures of themselves Tebowing against different backdrops, such as outside the Taj Mahal or inside St. Peter’s Basilica. As a result, people everywhere are getting caught up in the Tebowing phenomenon. Furthermore, as Frank Bruni wrote in the New York Times, “more and more people are watching” the Broncos “to find out how far God can take a team.”

To assume that God is the explanation for the Denver Broncos’ success this season is a troubling assumption to me. No one, especially Christians, should chalk up Tebow’s winning record to divine intervention, no matter how inexplicable it might be to us otherwise. I suspect that in the grand scheme of things Tebow’s quarterback rating and whether or not the Broncos make it to the NFL playoffs is totally inconsequential to Christ.

Whether it is the authenticity of a church relic like the Shroud of Turin, the success of Mel Gibson’s Passion of the Christ at the box office, or Tim Tebow’s success on the gridiron, contemporary Christians are forever causing our faith to be called into question by tying its validity to the wrong things. Why can’t we understand that erroneously attributing Tebow’s gridiron victories to Christ will subsequently result in football fans finding our Christian faith wanting when the Broncos fail to hoist this year’s Lambardi Trophy? I mean do we really want people to decide whether or not to put on Christ by whether or not Tim Tebow ever puts on a Super Bowl ring?

The Christian faith is neither enhanced by a completed Tebow jump pass nor diminished by a Tebow thrown interception. Neither will it suffer in the least if Tim Tebow, like another outstanding, Christian, Heisman Trophy winning quarterback from the University of Florida, Danny Wuerffel, fails to succeed in the NFL. In my personal opinion, Danny Wuerffel was the greatest ambassador for Christ that I’ve ever seen in sports, college or professional. Yet, Danny wears no Super Bowl ring, never hoisted the Lombardi trophy and will not be joining the likes of John Elway and Joe Montana in the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio; but who cares? Football is just a game and when Jesus comes it won’t matter at all who won the last Super Bowl!

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