The Tebow Effect

For some reason, Tim Tebow has caused all kinds of media attention in his career as a football player. It started as a high schooler and his recruitment. Then it was his play at the University of Florida. Now it is his role as the starting quarterback for the Denver Broncos.

The scope of the attention he has garnered has grown as his role has grown. As a high schooler it was recruiting sites and message boards. As a college player, it was college media. Yes, the coverage was everywhere; CBS basically made him a god. Remember the rain game at FSU when he had mud on his face? The jump pass? The speech? ESPN, owning much of CFB TV rights also played him up across their platforms. But even then, he was known to mostly college football fans... and many grew tired of hearing about him.

Now, he is in the NFL, and a whole new set of the country will pay attention. The northeast, the midwest/Chicago market, and LA have all been exposed to Tim Tebow on a level they had not before. I mention those areas because they are the top media markets in the country. Whereas before, the college football media coverage was primarily through the southeast and midwest... it touched the southwest and the pacific northwest. But considering Tebow's career took him to teams primarily in the southeast and he beat only a few Big Ten schools, the sustained media impact on the major markets did not arise until he made the leap into the NFL.

With that established, I think Tebow has received the attention he has for three reasons, primarily. First, he plays a very passionate, unorthodox style of football which many find unique and attractive. Second, he is a very good, nice guy. People who meet him like him. He is a good teammate and gives credit to other teammates. Third, and this is the main focus of my post, he has brought religion to the public sphere and it has challenged many people's belief systems in one way or another.

The United States was founded with the idea that people could believe whatever they wanted. The state could not interfere with the on goings of a religion and one religion could not be endorsed by the government (in order to prevent the type of tyranny that had swept across Europe with the combination of monarchies and state run religions). So it is in our nature to not want to publicly discuss religion because it is personal to many and because the public arena is dominated by either government endorsed institutions or private institutions with a share of the market not wanting to alienate any customer.

So Tebow's desire to bring his religious beliefs into the public sphere challenges many people who either do not like religion or who do not want religion discussed for the reasons above. This is completely acceptable and the right of each person to think this. Tebow has the right to discuss religion publicly and people have a right to not want to listen. This may cause most of the discontent with his assertion to have religion in his conversations, but I doubt that is all of it. I think it is more like a tool or avenue for something deeper to surface.

Chuck Kloesterman brought this up in a great piece on Tebow in a Grantland article. He said that people were becoming outraged or attracted to Tebow because they thought he was potentially being rewarded with wins for being a good Christian. I think this was at the heart of many people's response to Tebow; some people liked it, some people didn't, but almost everyone was paying attention.

Here is the retort most often people had, "Does God not have something better to do than to decides who wins a football game?" Certainly this is an interesting insight into the belief system of those who say this. I think this is probably an insight into people who probably don't think a lot about God, because most people who think about God either think he is an omnipotent being or he does not exist.

Allow me to elaborate. To think a god exists who does not control something is to think the god who you believe in is not sufficiently powerful to exist. So it very possible that god is not really much of a god at all. And considering the tradition that Tebow comes from, the god he believes in is most likely omnipotent. Therefore the response to his assertion is to downplay his God's influence. But his God, according to Christian Tradition, created the world. So in essence, the argument becomes his God can create the world but not control a football game in it.

I guess that is possible, if that god is the god of Deists. Jefferson was a Deist. Being a man of scientific understanding and a son of the enlightenment, he recognized the need of a Creator. He also saw that the world was vast and abided by certain natural laws. He surmised that a creator existed, put laws into place, and allowed the world to work; kind of like a watchmaker. However, the God Tebow believes in also is a personal God who took a human form to sacrifice himself for people who stopped wanting the relationship he first established when he created the world. So to argue that Tebow's God has no interest in a football game is to call Tebow's God non existent because he cannot be both an omnipotent god and one who does not have control, therefore Tebow's God exists in control or does not exist at all.

I'm not disparaging anyone for not believing in the God of Christianity or someone's belief in an impersonal god who exists with no control over anything or a belief in a god who is personal but lacks control over something even though he should be involved in other things of more importance than football games. That is their prerogative and I respect their beliefs. However, I do not respect inconsistency in belief because what is the purpose of having that belief? Nonetheless, I am trying to get to the bottom of the response to Tim Tebow, not examine what I think about other people's beliefs. An examination of what people believe is necessary though, because it is the conflicting or concurring beliefs to Tebow's stated belief's that cause the attention.

What do people think God has a role for? What is he supposed to be involved with. As good, open minded people, we cannot logically say that God is not in control of natural disasters, famines, or wars. Why would God do that? How could he take sides? So the idea that he has better things to do than a football game would imply he has to be involved in the major things, right? Maybe not. Maybe he doesn't involve himself in the major or the minor things. Maybe he just exists and steps in with some divine intervention or miracle when we need it most. But then, that begs the question, if he can do that, why doesn't he help all the time? Why doesn't he fix everything? And if could fix things, why does he not have the control to fix a football game or a natural disaster? Dammit!! Who is this god and why or why not isn't he doing anything? Where does his power end or begin? Does he even care what is going on?

I think Tebow's attention came from the fact that he was winning games in dramatic fashion against the odds that he shouldn't. He has a bad throwing motion, running backs fumbled all opportune times, kickers made 55+ yard kicks. I mean, it was basically a sports movie in real life. And as humans we have the desire to belong to a narrative, a human or personal story. We saw this playing out and thought a larger, possibly divine, hand had to be helping. Then the nation as a whole was challenged in their belief systems.

It is nothing for members of orthodox religions to hold the belief that their god is omnipotent. In fact, many people take comfort in a god who controls things. They believe in that god and that god recognizes their efforts or a relationship and seeks to be apart of their lives how he chooses.

For Americans, we have an individualistic streak in us. We want to be in control of our lives, so the possibility that divine intervention could choose one person over another really bothers us. Further, it brings metaphysical, spiritual, or eternal questions into our mind's eye. We don't like thinking about things beyond the physical or eternal. Hell, many do not thinking about the near future... like work on Monday or how to save for retirement. It is big and overwhelming. I suppose that is why many orthodox believers take solace in a god who has it figured out.

I think that bothered many Americans about Tebow. He had a strong confidence in his God and they saw possibly divine work at play. It challenged belief systems they held and ones they did not know they held. It even caused some to be angry with the system they did hold. For example, many did not like that he could be rewarded with wins for his beliefs, but many people think that they will get to heaven or have good karma on Earth for their good works. Their belief is to do good things and be rewarded. Is that much different than Tebow's? Not really, except that Tebow believes his God is omnipotent and controls things where others think they can control their own outcome. And if God did really reward Tebow, then they think that God is exclusive and intolerant.

It is impossible to prove beliefs, that is why they are called "beliefs" and not "proofs". But we all have them. We may not know what we believe, but our actions bear out the values or traditions we hold true, which are based on our beliefs on how the world works. I think Tebow on a large scale challenged many of those beliefs through his exposure to the largest media markets in our country and it caused the media attention to be incredibly high (side note: those markets also lean more left politically. Typically those who belong to the political left in the US does not like religion in public, religion at all, or exclusive religions).

It also caused a lot of thoughtless outrage or praise. I will say, though, it was handled well in many places. People for the most part agreed he was a nice guy, he had a terrible throwing motion and great defense, he was entitled to his beliefs and we are entitled to ours. But the flippant comment that "God has better things to do than determine the outcome of football games" is one that is not thought out (and if it is, it is by someone who does not believe in God but does not want to take the time to explain their rationale, which is understandable considering many negative responses they could receive). I think that reactionary response is the manifestation of the deeper issue regarding that many found when reporting on or responding to Tim Tebow, his play, and his outspoken beliefs.