The RPs Debate Tim Tebow: The RP Provokes

Over the past two weeks, we’ve launched a new tradition at The Recovering Politician: a great virtual debate on the issues of the day among our recovering politicians; with provocations, rebuttals, responses, and defenses.  Our first discussion focused on presidential leadership; our second on legalizing marijuana.

This week, the RP goes where no progressive has gone before:  a liberal defense of Tim Tebow.  The RP starts off with his provocative article from The Huffington Post.  Tune in every half hour to read what other RPs have to say.  

SPOILER ALERT: There will be fireworks.

The RP‘s Provocation

Like much of the spiral-pass-challenged intelligentsia, I’ve held a high-school-rooted grudge against many of America’s handsomest sports heroes; they too often remind me of the spoiled jocks who applied wedgies, received special treatment in the classroom and always got the girl. Fortunately, Tom Brady (the supermodel-marrying quarterback of my beloved New England Patriots) helped relieve me of this affliction. (Click here to read my ode to pretty boys I begrudgingly admire.)

Tim Tebow, of course, presents a different and, indeed, unique case.  (The 24-year-old virgin isn’t exactly stealing and breaking the hearts of other guys’ girls.)  Tebow instead plays to a different one of my childhood insecurities — that of being one of the few Jewish kids in my Bible Belt home of Lexington, Kentucky.

Certainly, there’s no athlete in recent memory who’s worn his Christian faith more on his sleeve — and sometimes even his eyeblack — than Tim Tebow. Tebow’s constant public declarations of devotion to Jesus Christ remind many of us non-Christians and Christian liberals of the small — but much-over-publicized — collection of angry tele-evangelists and hypocritical politicians who manipulate religion to multiply support by fostering division.

Tebow’s warm embrace by organizations that oppose women’s choice and gay rights gives many of us additional pause.  It’s no wonder that a recent poll showed that Tebow was viewed favorably by 68% of Republicans but only 39% of Democrats.

Ultimately, though, it’s the four little letters and three numbers most associated with Tebow that give many of us the most discomfort:  John 3:16. As you probably know by now, it’s a verse from the New Testament that Tebow famously sketched into his eye black during the 2009 BCS Championship game, and that became the subject of an international Miracle of Lourdes-like exegesis after Tebow passed for 316 yards during a miraculous finish to a recent playoff game….

Click here to read the remainder of The RP’s “The Liberal Case for Tim Tebow”