Why Tebow bothers me...

[acroyear]

...and it isn't just the whole "Thanking God When We Win" (as if God really cares who wins a football game).

When you pray, you are not to be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners so that they may be seen by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full.  But you, when you pray, go into your inner room, close your door and pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.  When you pray, don't babble on and on as people of other religions do. They think their prayers are answered merely by repeating their words again and again.  So do not be like them; for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him. (Matthew 6:5-6:9)

The problem isn't that he is a Christian.  The problem is that he is going out of his way to make a display of the fact that he is a Christian, and then he is reaped praises by the evangelicals for his display of faith.  Yet these same Evangelicals would condemn a player in the harshest of terms if he happened to be Muslim and decided that in the middle of a game he was going to make a display of praying towards Mecca.

This is not true Christianity.  This is wearing the label of Christianity on as a badge of honor, praised upon by others in a show of pure, raw tribalism.

This is what God truly commanded us NOT to do when we were ordered (by those very Commandments these people want to put up in every American courthouse, in spite of the dubious Constitutionality of them) to "You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not leave him unpunished who takes His name in vain.".  That is what he and others are doing, they are wearing God's name as a vanity (the true meaning of this term), and as such he is in my opinion setting a bad, very UN-Jesus-like example to his fans.

And yeah, I have a problem with that.  People like him are the reason I have overtly declared (in spite of my faith, such as it is), that I am not a 'Christian' anymore.  I refuse to wear the same label as they choose to own and control and wield as a tool to control others.  They can have it.

Comments

[acroyear70.livejournal.com]

We were told (by the Angel at the grave, the end of Mark first version (other verses were added later) to "Go and Tell".

I have no problem with "Go and Tell", especially to those who ask. But our actions, our piety, is not what we are necessarily to tell. Piety itself that which we should be witnessing and advertising, but it is what the evangelicals believe is most important (look at all the public displays of religion by the current crop of candidates for the GOP).

It is putting piety on display that I have the problem with, that i believe He told us explicitly NOT to do (Paul's take on it is something different of course, aside from Galatians, and there are times that I believe Paul himself is in contradiction with the Gospels). Perhaps he is being used by the religious right, a good man being used as a poster child by corrupt men looking to increase their power and influence by pointing out the *wrong* parts of this man's behavior as the role model.

I never heard of his kindness off the field (maybe it is there, maybe it isn't), I never hear of his real family life (perhaps we shouldn't even if it is a healthy happy family, as such matters should stay private), I never hear of his charity work (ok, for his income this is something to know), I only hear that he's a Christian because openly he prays in public, and that to me was one thing listed as a negative thing in BOTH testaments. (meanwhile as I said, these same people who praise his public displays of prayer would turn around and condemn a Muslim for doing the same.)