Since I don’t care much for football (much less understand it), it’s hard for me to imagine that God might care about the sport either. It’s not like there is any eternal value (or dis-value) for a team wining or losing a game. And what exactly does God benefit from players who make public expressions of faith and results in the mocking of Christianity more broadly? God could care less about football…right? Unless you’ve been living under a rock, most are aware of the current fascination with Bronco football player Tim Tebow. His famous pose that shows him giving thanks to God, now known as “the Tebow,” is stirring some curious conversation about God’s interest in things earthly. So, does God care about football? If not, what does he care about and where is the line?
Similar to Jesus’ statement that we will always have the poor among us, I tend to believe the same is true for the complainers who can’t handle public expressions of faith—and we’re seeing it intensify with the Tebow story. Tebow has found himself the target of crass reactions from talk shows to Twitter, from those whose mission in life is to ensure a separation of church and everything else. “Comedian” Bill Maher’s infamous Christmas Eve tweet ended with (I’ll spare you the expletive portion) “Somewhere in hell Satan is tebowing, saying to Hitler “Hey, Buffalo’s killing them.” Christians can’t cower to the complainers or Christianity will be silenced entirely.
So back to the main question, does God care about football? Liberal political analyst Bob Beckel from Fox’s “The Five” has been quite helpful in considering this question, especially since he’s the one who raised it. As a commentator, Beckel often comes across as a mean-spirited ideologue, but his new stint on “The Five” has revealed a man with serious Christian convictions and a perspective on “the Tebow” that I can appreciate. This now endearing Beckel holds, and I am paraphrasing, that “the Tebow,” the Jesus-Tebow (fan-created) shirts, and similar expressions of faith related to this new movement are irreverent and perhaps complicit in cheapening the message of Christ through mass media. Beckel has been open about his Christianity on “The Five,” and though I don’t know anything about his doctrinal views, his concern about reducing our relationship with the Redeemer to a seasonal football fad is a point well taken. But their conversation on the topic persists and he continues to pose this question—does God care about football? Because Beckel seems to want to protect a view of God that separates his holiness from our sinfulness, his assumption is no—God could care less about a football game. But is he correct?
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