Pope Benedict XVI Blog

Letter #4, 2010 -- Tim Tebow

insidethevatican - Feb 6, 2010



Quarterback for Life

During this year's American football championship, the Super Bowl, a pro-life television commercial has sparked controversy. Background on a moving story by Stefanie Stark

By Robert Moynihan, reporting from America

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Controversy over Life at the Super Bowl

Tomorrow evening, millions of America will be glued to their television screens to watch the final championship game of the professional football season, the "Super Bowl" game between the Indianapolis Colts and the New Orleans Saints.

In the weeks leading up the game, there has been an intensifying "quarterback controversy," but not involving either of the starting quarterbacks.

Rather, it involves a young man named Tim Tebow, who just graduated from college in December. He is one of the best young quarterbacks in the country, and a pro-life television commercial featuring his mother will air for 30 seconds during the "big game." Hearing of this, pro-abortion groups have protested and sought to have the ad canceled.

I asked a good friend, a Catholic mother and writer/researcher Stefanie Stark, who lives a short distance from the Tebow family in Jacksonville, Florida, to look into the background of this controversy. She filed the following report. —Robert Moynihan

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"God Sent Me a Quarterback"

"I asked God to send me a preacher. God sent me a quarterback." —Bob Tebow (Tim's father)

"And He said to them, 'Go into all the world and preach the Gospel to all creation.'" —Mark 16:15

by Stefanie Stark

JACKSONVILLE, Florida, February 6, 2010 — Across the country tomorrow, many families and friends will gather around their flat-screen televisions to watch the Indianapolis Colts battle the New Orleans Saints in the Super Bowl XLIV airing on CBS. But the football player who has dominated the headlines is not the Colt's Peyton Manning or Saints' quarterback, Drew Brees. Instead, it is a player who has not yet been signed to the NFL: recent University of Florida graduate and 2007 Heisman Trophy winner, Tim Tebow.

The 22-year-old Gator quarterback has been called the next Brett Favre and is well known not only for his incredible talent as an athlete but also for the public witness to his faith by writing Bible verses in his eye black during games.
Unless you've been living under a rock, you know by now that CBS is scheduled to air a pro-life ad during the Super Bowl that features Tim's mother, Pam, discussing her decision to refuse her doctor's advice to have an abortion and to have Tim.

The ad was funded by the Christian organization Focus on the Family and, according to Tim Tebow, the central message is "Celebrate family. Celebrate life."

On the other side of this so-called "controversial" ad are the "pro-choice" groups such as National Organization for Women (NOW) and Planned Parenthood, who have called CBS's decision to air the Tebow commercial "an outrage" because they believe "it sends the wrong message."

These women's groups have launched their own televised campaign demanding that CBS pull the 30 second Tebow ad.

At this point, it looks as though the network will continue with its plans to run the ad.

There are also rumors today that a second Tim Tebow ad, an uncut version of the one scheduled to run during the Super Bowl, will air during the pre-game show.

Why are many outraged over a gifted athlete and his mother with a moving, pro-family message, while so many other outrageous things seem to be accepted with no protest at all?
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posted by Dr. Denice Hanley, DPM, M.Div. @ 11:59 PM