tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7071311819299185126.post794704451728450608..comments2009-07-26T09:59:42.823-04:00Dan Shanoffnoreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7071311819299185126.post-45050530239949599812009-07-26T09:59:42.823-04:002009-07-26T09:59:42.823-04:00Dusty, <br /><br />I think you&#39;re missing my point. We can&#39;t know Tebow&#39;s intentions. So long as Christian morality is privledged in our society, acting publically as a great christian--and existing as a public figure--will necessarily be self-serving both in a spiritual sense and in a practical sense. There is no way to distinguish between the two or to know whether Tebow performs his faith genuinely or in the interest of myth making.<br /><br />Of course, his insistance on performing his faith publically (and striking the heisman pose for photographers while holding infants) suggests that he&#39;s certainly not exactly lacking an understanding of the PR implications of his actions.sammyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04870847853010689142noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7071311819299185126.post-86697583084307080152009-07-24T19:41:10.828-04:002009-07-24T19:41:10.828-04:00Tebow has obviously established a college career that ranks among the all time greats, and he deserves whatever praise he gets in that regard.<br /><br />But I think there&#39;s a disconnect between saying he has no qualms about talking about his faith, going to prisons to preach to convicts about accepting Jesus Christ as the Lord and Savior, and stating that he doesn&#39;t push it on people, and that we should &quot;just trust you&quot; on that. Is that from personal experience that we should trust you, or just because of the mythic Tebow.<br /><br />I&#39;m not saying he is, but I don&#39;t think he&#39;s stupid, and he knows full well the platform he is given due to his popularity. So maybe he&#39;s not pushing it on individuals he comes across (prisoners aside), but I think its naive to suggest that he&#39;s not utilizing his platform to push his particular Christian beliefs. If he isn&#39;t, then he wouldn&#39;t be consistent with the beliefs he supposedly professes.<br /><br />Tebow seems to be a great kid. But we, as a society, tend to rush towards anyone we can put up on a pedestal. And while I hope he never falls, because I don&#39;t ever want to see that with anyone, its important to remember that he&#39;s still human, and we should be weary of the current deification that seems to be taking place.Donhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11979849100747302956noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7071311819299185126.post-53741041485216496702009-07-24T15:41:52.584-04:002009-07-24T15:41:52.584-04:00In response to Sammy,<br /><br />Just because someone is rewarded for their obedience doesn&#39;t mean that that is their reason for being obedient.<br /><br />If you live your life in obedience to Christ because that&#39;s what you believe you should do and want to do, then it&#39;s not self-serving. <br /><br />If you happen to make a purchase at a store and then win a prize because you are their 1 millionth customer or something, is that self-serving? No, you were just going in to buy something. And because of just doing what you did, you were rewarded. That&#39;s out of your control. Same with Tebow. He&#39;s doing his best to be the best example of Christ he can be. He&#39;s not doing it to become mythic. If he is truly authentic in his faith (which I think he is), he&#39;s just trying to show the rest of the world what it&#39;s like to be a true follower of Christ. Something a majority of us Christians have failed at doing for so long. If God so chooses to reward him for that, well, that&#39;s great and a bonus.<br /><br />A true Christian knows his reward is not here, but in heaven. In the story of Joseph in the bible, Joseph honors God in everything he does and is rewarded all the way to the point of being placed in control of Egypt second only to pharaoh. He didn&#39;t work hard to impress his bosses and be rewarded by them or to have stories written about him. He worked hard for God and to show others his love for God.Dustyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01127041394822639920noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7071311819299185126.post-26034316212809032092009-07-24T13:29:50.965-04:002009-07-24T13:29:50.965-04:00The Tebow admission to being a virgin, honestly can be a good thing for college football, and is a sample of an individual that has good moral values and beliefs, and a great role model. Considering the athletes that play football continuously have to face the stigma of being overly aggressive, power hungry and no moral valued monsters. Hearing something about a person&#39;s sexual experience has nothing to do with what happens on the playing field, and will not alter his performance on the field. He is just another one of the great examples that isn&#39;t a baby factory or law breaking athlete that are given undeserved media attention, Tebow gathers media attention for the right reasons. <br /><br />sportsthinknoutloud.blogspot.comKellyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05147795721462511704noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7071311819299185126.post-43831359748708303512009-07-23T18:26:48.355-04:002009-07-23T18:26:48.355-04:00An interesting take, but I think you setup--only to ignore--the clear counter argument. If Tebow&#39;s faith is what allows him to become &quot;mythic&quot; on a level above that of other college atheletes (perhaps more accurately, on a greater scale than most college atheletes, who generally become regional legends), then how can his actions and expressions of faith be anything but self-serving? I.e., just as you can&#39;t separate Tebow on the field from Tebow off the field, you can&#39;t separate either of those Tebows from Tebow the self-promoter. <br /><br />Of course, this brings up lots of other questions about whether public figures can ever truly act benevolently. I&#39;m not going to claim to be able to answer those questions, but I would maintain that the questions exist.sammyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04870847853010689142noreply@blogger.com