Tebow/Super Bowl ad is pro, not anti

"Bitterness, name-calling, political posturing - those are the weapons of culture war."

What is an anti-abortion ad EXCEPT political posturing?

No amount of Mr. Daly's disingenuousness ("It's just an inspiring story from the Tebows...celebrating family and celebrating life," said with wide-eyed innocence.) can change that.

I really don't care how his group spends its money (although I can't help but think about all the down-and-out Americans -- not to mention Haitians -- who could have been helped by that ad fee). But if you're to do that kind of crap, don't lie about what it is. Don't pretend there's no agenda. Don't be "surprised" at the "firestorm" of controversy you've caused.

Because it's what you intended all along.

Take cover, Mr. Daly. Many people want to bash for the sake of bashing. Don't forget, we live in the United States of the Offended.

The problem with the ad is that it is an endorsement of an extremist leader who is fanatically against democracy and freedom. James Dobson/ Focus On The Family has spent decades trying to be more extreme than Pat Robertson. His Taliban-like views would be national policy and law for everybody if he gets his way. That includes all access to birth control and abortion, the sexual freedom of every adult, censorship, and a dramatic increase in legislation regarding victimless "crimes." The Tebows were simply unwitting dupes like the Prejeans. However, their actions have now further enabled a twisted Mullah who so no consequences with child sexual abuse occurred at his Christian youth camp.

Antga,

I am not sure I have heard anyone on here make so many generalizations. Not all Christian or Islamic fundmentalists want a theocracy. It is only the small minority that do (I agree that it is not appropriate to have a theocracy and it is important to remember the religious persecution of the past - this is coming from me, a Christian). You simply hear of these small groups more in the news (i.e. Islamic Terrorists). It is grossly unfair to say that every Christian wants a theocracy. I would take offense to that but I just can't. Your post seems so much more backed by hate for religious groups, that unfortunately, your points get bogged down and cannot be taken seriously.

What you seem to be suggesting is completely ridding faith from the public sector. All faiths should be welcome to practice, and yes, place TV commercials if they pay for them and the commercials are appropriate. Of course, no one should be forced into one religion or another. You sound more like the person persecuting religions (based on your own set of beliefs -- which one may argue is a "religion"not the other way around.

I don't mind Focus on the Family paying CBS millions of dollars to air their pro-choice ad; some of the money will trickle down and will help women who need to terminate their pregnancies pay for their abortions.

Gimpi, FYIColumbiaMD, Laboo, Patroklos and others have made the point far better than I can, but here are my two cents anyway.

FOTF is a radical organization that, among other things, supports the idea that women should not make choices or even think for themselves because they were made to be subervient to man. The fact that they have wrapped their rabidly sexist, anti-choice agenda in fluffy happiness doesn't make them any nicer, it just makes them sneakier; this ad should be - and may look like - a celebration of choice, but it's really just another fundamentalist broadside at women's reproductive rights. Congratulations to the Tebow family that a potentially tragic pregnancy turned out so well, and here's to the CHOICE that made it so.

fr Garoth:

>...As a counselor with a PhD. in psychology, I often wonder what CrackerJack box Mr. Dobson got his degree from - in my thirty years of counseling, I have had to undo much damage he has caused, especially with families who have homosexual members. I regard Mr. Dobson as anything but family-friendly, and much of his right-wing ideology posing as psychology as dangerous. So, when Focus puts on a commercial, I must say that I, too, am immediately suspicious. That should not suprise Mr. Daly, or anyone who has had dealings with Focus or Mr. Dobson.

When I came out to my family, my mother had dobson's gulag send me a book that he had written. I sent it back, refused, return to sender, and demanded that they NEVER send me their garbage again. They haven't.

dobson needs to have his license permanently revoked, and his fotf gulag shut down for false teachings. He's probably done more damage as a "psychologist" than anyone around, because of his ranting against glbt's and pro-choice people.

Good point, alex35332. As a matter of fact, there are quite a few similarities between Christian fundamentalists and Islamic fundamentalists. For instance, both want theocracies rather than secular governments which respect civil rights and personal freedoms and liberties. And much like communism - which is wonderful in theory but an utter catastrophe in practice - theocracies exist in third world countries because they're backwards! They don't respect human life - they respect books - scripture - the "words of their gods."

I think these American right-wing religious nutcases should travel to the middle east to experience life in those societies; they should read about the dark ages; they should live under theocracy rule for a few months or years - - then come back to a SECULAR country like the U.S. where church and state are kept apart (for now THANK GOD), and kiss the ground and thank all those who fight against all attempts to merge faith with government!!!

Also, these religious zealots should take refresher courses on US history (you know - them thar LIBERAL educational courses?) and remember it was founded by those escaping tyranny and RELIGIOUS persecution. What these simpletons don't get is that only SECULAR governments allow them the freedom to practice their faith.

If pro-lifers hate it so much living in a country that has abortion, maybe they could move to some of the no abortion allowed nations. There is still one left in the modern world, Ireland, after that your choices are mostly the "undeveloped" world.

Mr Daly, thank you for the article. Focus on the Family considers the Bible as the word of God provided to humanity for the purpose of bringing us all to God through Jesus. I am sure that there will be many readers who will take one or two verses out of context to "prove" the FOF is wrong or evil or to try to make the Bible seem irrelevant or behind the times. However God will not be mocked. Folks remember that Eternity is Reality. We will all live forever; it will either be with God in heaven or in hell. Your choice.
Posted by: schmitt_fam | February 1, 2010 9:01 AM
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LOL IALMAO a little follower you will wind up in hell for your intolerance so sayeth the lord LOL

When the estimated 100 million tuning into the big game really see what we're saying, rather than what others are saying about us, I have every confidence they will be more inspired by love than mired in controversy. If that happens, pardon the pun, it will be a touchdown for life.
By Jim Daly | January 29, 2010; 11:00 AM ET
LOL touchdown for life wow what a load of garbage, phonies, hypocrites, and disgusting, American Taliban a few of my favoriite words lol

Surely Jim Daly is not naive enough to believe that the simplistic message: "this is pro not anti." On it's face, it is pro... but you know damn well that such "pro" positions must be anti something (in this case, choice).
Jim, is either very naive or he is taking very shrewd strategic position - to make it appear that right-to-lifers are all just so positive and decent about the issue and never take steps to silence, chastise or harm the other side (see doctors and women who have been harmed, killed or intimidated by fundamentalist nutcases).
Posted by: ANTGA | February 1, 2010 11:40 AM
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Amen I am sure Jim prayed and rejoiced over the killing of Tiller
He is a phony sick f%%%

"When the estimated 100 million tuning into the big game really see what we're saying"

This is what Focus on the Family will be saying: "Give us your money."

And those people among the watching millions who believe they can telepathically communicate with a Jewish zombie will in fact give away their money.

President, CEO, Focus on the Family Jim DalyDaly is recipient of the 2008 World Children’s Center Humanitarian Award and the 2009 Children’s Hunger Fund Children’s Champion Award.
No I don't think so I and most people I know will think you are a hate mongering intolerant group of interfering phonies who only see the word and life through their glasses.I think most people feel you are a phony much like Palin Tebow is just a stupid puppy with his bible verses below his eyes do you phony self righteous people really think that is what christ had in mind nah why bother w/that when you can be a terrorist group the 3 ml better not be tax deductible and it is a waste so many hungry people that would have been where to spend the money you repulsive phony

I agree with the other commenters who say this is an incredibly dishonest propaganda piece. Everyone knows "Focus" is a far-right pressure group with extreme political ideas.
Posted by: squier13 | February 1, 2010 12:03 PM
Really they are just sickos bent on ruining someone else's life maybe they are just uptight and need to be laid

Oh I can see fundamentalist missionaries' eyes light up when situations like Haiti pop up... thinking it's time to win some minds and hearts... oh and helping too. You know they confide in each other that these situations offer the perfect opportunity to fulfill their obligations to save their own souls (a requirement by some whacko religions). Secular aid - on the other hand - has NO AGENDA!!
Posted by: ANTGA | February 1, 2010 12:08 PM
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You are right it is like an orgasm to them ooops someone just got offended !! Phony Self Righteous blithering fools wow they are so lost so well they are like a buch of mice following the peid piper I jsut do not think this is what Christ had in mind but lest not forget it is not about christ it is about them

These ant-choice taliban do not understand tolerance and they do not understand or tolerate anything that disagrees with their view very much like Hitler and taliban they live and preaxch hate bigotry and even violence in the name of christ what a load of crap they are and act

To SayWhat4: The PRO-CHOICE people aren't anti-free speech. I can't count how many people here have said they object to the commercial for various reasons - but they never said they have no right to air it.

PS - I love your use of the politicized term, "PRO-ABORTION." It's not that people on the other side feel abortion is a good thing.... it's about a woman's right to govern her own body and not have the government tell her what she can and can't do. And as far as judging those who decide to actually get an abortion is concerned, it's up to god - not mortal people - to judge.

Whether you agree with abortion or not, I am hopeing that everyone can agree that Mr. Daly has a right to the view he has. If you don't like the commercial, then don't agree with it. My thoughts:

1. I think the point of the commercial is "ant-abortion" unlike what Mr. Daly says in his article (I am a Christian -- and yes stricly pro-life). I don't think there is anything wrong with that. If his group pays the money to have the ad and it is appropriate, then the ad should air. I have noticed a few comments on the male only dating site commercial not airing...I could be wrong, as I never saw the ad, but what I heard about it made me think that it was inappropriate for children (people making out etc -- however, this comes from me not actually seeing the ad myself).
2. Sometimes I hate the word "Tolerance". I am sorry but no one wants to hear thier spouse say "I tolerate you". I think we should all practice a little more love instead of tolerance and the world would be better off. It would certainly help some of the rude remarks/name calling made on this site (from both sides of the "aisle"). You can disagree with someone, but still practice love. The Bible teaches this quite clearly.
3. I think the point of this commercial is also to show that no matter what a woman's circumstances are (how horrible), you don't know what your child may be capable of. A lot of people give reasons such as poverty or drugs etc as reasons to take a child's life, but what could that child have done? What if that child could have grown up to cure cancer? You don't know. We so much want to presume to know that the child cannot become anything. That is just not true. I have seen so many people with sad childhood stories do so much in life! Who are you to determine whether that child's life is worth it? Who are you to say you know the future? I have hope that all children could rise up and become something great. I would think that if you were to ask any of those people who have had hard childhoods whether they wish they were aborted -- they would say no! As would I! We all need a little more hope. Again, the Bible teaches hope :)

The question that comes to mind reading the posts here is why is the pro-abortion crowd so Anti Free Speech? Why are they not mature enough to handle hearing an opposing position on a national broadcast?

People are suspicious, Mr. Daly, because Focus on the Family has a reputation of being a religious organization that is more interested in forcing Americans to live by their morality, religious beliefs, and standards. FoF has an assumption that they can make the decisions for everyone's families according to their own beliefs, instead of minding their own business. That doesn't help your reputation, or earn you any trust.

If you don't know that, then maybe reading the comments on this board will help. With FoF, it's your way or the highway, period, and your goals of having your moral standards made into national law is not going to win people to your side, no matter how much money you spend on Superbowl commercials.

Mr. Daly should not be suprised at the "firestorm" this commercial has already caused - no matter how innocuous the actual commercial turns out to be. There is good reason to be suspicious of Focus on the Family. Over the years, James Dobson has proven himself to be neither a decent psychologist nor student of the Bible, as he purports to be, and his supposed commitment to sound psychology and to scripture has been regularly compromised and subsumed by right-wing ideology.

I remember taking a group of teens to a Creation Festival where his group did a presentation - which consisted mostly of Clinton-bashing, even to the point of making fun of Chelsea's looks - such a deplorable display of unChristian behavior that, I understand, they were asked to leave. As a counselor with a PhD. in psychology, I often wonder what CrackerJack box Mr. Dobson got his degree from - in my thirty years of counseling, I have had to undo much damage he has caused, especially with families who have homosexual members. I regard Mr. Dobson as anything but family-friendly, and much of his right-wing ideology posing as psychology as dangerous. So, when Focus puts on a commercial, I must say that I, too, am immediately suspicious. That should not suprise Mr. Daly, or anyone who has had dealings with Focus or Mr. Dobson.

fr Matt56:

> I'm sorry that we Christians have hurt you with some of our words and actions in the past....

News for you, Matt. I'm a Christian who just happens to be gay, and so is my wife. Alex is my pen name.

NOTHING except an abject apology fr "dr" jimmy and his entire gulag for their attitude towards glbt's would be acceptable.

A great deal of time and energy is being wasted here in bitter accusations and generalizations, threats, etc. If you can't say something constructive . . . we would be better off using our energy to care for expectant mothers, children and families so that the significant decision on whether or not to carry a child to term will not be strongly influenced by poverty, poor education, absence of possible childcare, food, medical care, accurate information on choices, etc. This would improve lives and reduce the number of abortions.

bruce18 said: "Whether we like it or not, abortion, gay behavior, etc all have an impact beyond the individuals involved."

For the sake of argument only, I'll accept your assertion on abortion. Can you explain to me what effect "gay behavior" has beyond the individuals involved?

Ah, Farnaz, you are so obsessed with the injustice of a so called "pro-life" ad during the Superbowl that you can see no other injustice in the world.

I hope you're being sarcastic. I wouldn't call the airing of the ad an "injustice." If anything, I would call it socially inappropriate. My point with my earlier post is that it's misleading to compare the two ads, no matter where one stands on either of them.

Oh I can see fundamentalist missionaries' eyes light up when situations like Haiti pop up... thinking it's time to win some minds and hearts... oh and helping too. You know they confide in each other that these situations offer the perfect opportunity to fulfill their obligations to save their own souls (a requirement by some whacko religions). Secular aid - on the other hand - has NO AGENDA!!

The reason that so many people are suspicious of FOTF's ad is that this group has a long history of intolerance and religious righteousness. Even if this ad is a harmless "celebration of family", it is reasonable to assume that it is one more step in achieving their "agenda" by using a public relations maneuver to suggest that they are a virtuous organization. Since there is absolutely no proof of a god and no evidence that some guy named Jesus even existed, there is no foundation for their beliefs. Faith is nothing more than saying "I don't have any answers, so I'll make something up!" The idea that some god would be on the side of FOTF is enough reason not to believe!

I agree with the other commenters who say this is an incredibly dishonest propaganda piece. Everyone knows "Focus" is a far-right pressure group with extreme political ideas.

The world is all about judgments and decisions. Some are more important than others: What will I have for lunch? really makes no difference at all. Some: Should I have this child? have a dramatic impact on another humans life, in this case the child, but also those who will come into contact with the child throughout its life.
While our society wants to permit any choice an individual makes, they are not all morally equivalent. Whether we like it or not, abortion, gay behavior, etc all have an impact beyond the individuals involved. Its not harming you is an insidiously wrong justification for any decision.

Meanwhile,

Port-au-Prince, Haiti (CNN) -- Ten Americans detained and accused of child trafficking in Haiti after they allegedly tried to bus 33 children into the Dominican Republic.."

"George Willeit of SOS Children's Villages -- who said that Haitian police and the social ministry brought the children to his group -- said some of the children have living relatives.

"Some of them for sure are not orphans," he told CNN. "Immediately after she arrived here, a girl -- she might be 9 years old -- was crying loudly, 'I am not an orphan, I do have my parents, please call my parents,' " he said.

"And some of the other kids as well, they have their phone numbers, even, with them from their parents," he said. He said he believes that at least 10 are not orphans."

These are not organized child traffickers but Daily's inbred Huckabee cousins, the Baptists.

Would you "Christians" look the other way, or even make lame apologies, for such an atrocity if Pakistani Muslims from Vancouver arrived in Boise, "only trying to do good" after an earthquake there and scooped up white American children there to illegally take them to Canada to teach them the "love of Allah"?

To jprfrog: Keep speaking in cryptic, irrational style... Try talking less like a character from the bible and more like the mere HUMAN you are. I mean - if you want to play that immature game, I can do the same:

Pie Iesu domine, dona eis requiem. Pie Iesu domine, dona eis requiem. Pie Iesu domine, dona eis requiem. Pie Iesu domine, dona eis requiem.

And Saint Attila raised the hand grenade up on high, saying, 'O Lord, bless this Thy hand grenade that, with it, Thou mayest blow Thine enemies to tiny bits in Thy mercy.' And the Lord did grin, and the people did feast upon the lambs and sloths and carp and anchovies and orangutans and breakfast cereals and fruit bats

And the Lord spake, saying, 'First shalt thou take out the Holy Pin. Then, shalt thou count to three. No more. No less. Three shalt be the number thou shalt count, and the number of the counting shall be three. Four shalt thou not count, nor either count thou two, excepting that thou then proceed to three. Five is right out. Once the number three, being the third number, be reached, then, lobbest thou thy Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch towards thy foe, who, being naughty in My sight, shall snuff it.'

Amen.

Of fine-sounding talk they’ve no dearth.
I would probably find greater worth
In their clamor v. Roe
If they started to show
Some reverence for life after birth.

Surely Jim Daly is not naive enough to believe that the simplistic message: "this is pro not anti." On it's face, it is pro... but you know damn well that such "pro" positions must be anti something (in this case, choice).

Jim, is either very naive or he is taking very shrewd strategic position - to make it appear that right-to-lifers are all just so positive and decent about the issue and never take steps to silence, chastise or harm the other side (see doctors and women who have been harmed, killed or intimidated by fundamentalist nutcases).

An ad from intolerant, hypocritical Huckabees: good...An ad from a gay dating web site: bad.

Those are not comparable, and I would say the same if you were taking the opposite stance. A comparable situation would be if Daly's group or GLAAD had sought to advertise its position on same-sex marriage. Just a hunch, but I suspect the gay dating ad doesn't take the position that straights should be legally compelled to turn gay.

Posted by: Carstonio
_____________________________________-

Ah, Farnaz, you are so obsessed with the injustice of a so called "pro-life" ad during the Superbowl that you can see no other injustice in the world.

Look - the issue isn't whether this commercial should air - it's their right to air it as long as broadcasters are OK with it. The issue for me is precedent - that is - what this will lead to. I can see right-to-lifers, right-to-choosers, women's rights, animal rights, civil rights, religious fundamentalists, gay activists - - - YOU NAME IT - - - all trying to get their messages out during big time events like the super bowl. For me, watching sports events like this is time to escape from the ranting and raving about politics and causes... Now this oasis has also dried up and it pis*es me off...

However, I agree with you that it's unfair of people to condemn the ad without seeing it first.

Valid point. My criticism is not of the ad's content itself, since I haven't seen it either, but of the idea of using ads for such events to promote positions on divisive social issues.

Mr. Daly wrote: "The national media firestorm around our ad that's going to air during the Super Bowl has been a little surprising to us here at Focus on the Family - especially since none of the groups and individuals criticizing it have actually seen the spot."

I suspect that your surprise is somewhat feigned, given your group's very public track record of anti-choice and pro-discrimination positions. However, I agree with you that it's unfair of people to condemn the ad without seeing it first. I hope you and your organization will practice what you preach the next time a "controversial" book or movie comes out.

I'm not Israeli. I was born in Iran, am Iranian-American.

Thanks for the correction.

Mr. Daly tries to put a pretty face on the work of Focus on the Family.

It would be so nice if what he claims they do is true. However in today's world Family is a term applied to so many arrangements and he is only willing to except some of them and disregard the others. I think it is fine that Pam Tebow decided to have her son and not an abortion and she obviously did a great job raising him. Would the commercial be as pretty if you showed a mom who had her son who ended up being a serial killer? Of course not. So the point of being pro-choice is to let the mother decide what she wants to do? Whether she can have her child or not. The issue isn't what the child turns out to be. That isn't something you know when as a woman you make that decision.

It would be nice if one day focus on family would really do that. Work and focus not on being anti-gay which they are, or on the unborn- but rather on all the children who are born into poverty and need help. That alone would be worthwhile without trying to foist their religious leanings on families.

Putting a pretty picture on Focus on Family still doesn't excuse them from the terrible things they have said and in essence done by being both anti-some families and therefore anti- some children.

Let me get this straight, even if a person is an atheist, they MUST follow the Christians' belief that abortion is wrong? So are the Christians suggesting that all the atheists start having large families (as the bible commands) and raise their kids to be, (of course), ATHEISTS?

An ad from intolerant, hypocritical Huckabees: good...An ad from a gay dating web site: bad.

Those are not comparable, and I would say the same if you were taking the opposite stance. A comparable situation would be if Daly's group or GLAAD had sought to advertise its position on same-sex marriage. Just a hunch, but I suspect the gay dating ad doesn't take the position that straights should be legally compelled to turn gay.

CBS logic:

An ad from intolerant, hypocritical Huckabees: good

An ad from a gay dating web site: bad

Cut and dried. Free Speech in America, like liberty and justice, is not "for all" anymore.

Abortion is murder. Mothers who abort thier child are murders. They should be sentenced to life in prison for their crime.

Posted by: LeeH1
__________________________________--

Capital punishment and pre-emptive war is murder. Religious leaders and their followers who support, or look the other way at these, are complicit murders. They should be sentenced to a life in prison for their crime.

For clarification, the second and third paragraphs after the link should have been in italics as well.

This article below suggests that the problem is much larger than simply the Tebow family's position on abortion. Remember Ryan Church?

http://blogs.usatoday.com/oped/2009/10/column-and-id-like-to-thank-god-almighty.html

...there's a shadow side to this. If their take on God and truth and life is the only right one — which their creed boldly states — everyone else is wrong.

Not a mere abstraction, this exclusiveness sometimes morphs into a form of chauvinism and mistreatment of non-Christians...

Tim Tebow must be applauded for the good he does working on his father's missions, but he should be seen, too, as one who promotes a form of belief that makes unwelcome judgments about everyone else's religion. Let's not forget the twinge that is felt by sports-loving Jewish kids and parents, for example, or by champions for interfaith cooperation, when adored sports figures like Tebow use their fame to push a Jesus-or-else message.

Abortion is murder. Mothers who abort thier child are murders. They should be sentenced to life in prison for their crime.

Mr Daly, thank you for the article. Focus on the Family considers the Bible as the word of God provided to humanity for the purpose of bringing us all to God through Jesus. I am sure that there will be many readers who will take one or two verses out of context to "prove" the FOF is wrong or evil or to try to make the Bible seem irrelevant or behind the times. However God will not be mocked. Folks remember that Eternity is Reality. We will all live forever; it will either be with God in heaven or in hell. Your choice.

Humans can say "I have a right to have as many babies as I want!" and it is possible to keep pumping them out at a high pace. But remember, FOOD to feed those additions is a 'seperate right.' You can't farm the whole world and expect the world to stay at the same temperature and the soil to stay fertile. Remember that as you are starving and praying for food when it all collapses.

Nice to see all of the "tolerant" liberals demonstrate what a bunch of bigoted hypocrites they are.

Posted by: bobmoses

--------------------------------

As usual, the bigoted Huckabee calling the kettle black.

I support you, but I was bothered when you said, "I entered 2010 with two resolutions: To lose a little weight and to expand the dialogue about important subjects like the sanctity of human life. I have to confess, I'm not doing so great on the first one." Aren't you subscribing to the newest American fad that it is enough to try and not necessary to succeed?

America has got too used to the idea of well meant failures, but you should not be saying, "I am only human, I tried, I failed, I am an American." Try harder!
Even better, SUCCEED!

The Tebow family was living in the Philippines when Pam Tebow allegedly was encouraged to obtain an abortion . . . in a country that has had abortion illegal for all reasons, to include the health of the mother, since 1930.

So call me sceptical, even if the ad is supposedly all about love, and butterflies, and warm Christ-y feelings.

try telling me what one of my family members can or can't decide to do with their bodies/health and see how far you get.....go ahead, make my day fool.

Famous non-Christians and their view of the Jesus Christ and the Bible continued:

Thomas Carlyle
"Jesus is our divinest symbol. Higher has the human thought not yet reached. A symbol of quite perennial, infinite character: whose significance will ever demand to be anew inquired into and anew made manifest."

James Anthony Froude
"The most perfect being who has ever trod the soil of this planet was called the Man of Sorrows."

Charles Dickens
"I commit my soul to the mercy of God, through our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, and exhort my dear children humbly to try to guide themselves by the teachings of the New Testament." (in his last will and testament)

Shakespeare
"I commend my soul into the hands of God, my Creator, hoping and assuredly believing, through the only merits of Jesus Christ my Saviour, to be made partaker of life everlasting." (in his last will and testament)

Lord Byron
"If ever man was God, or God man, Jesus Christ was both."

Matthew Arnold
"To the Bible men will return because they cannot do without it. The true God is and must be pre-eminently the God of the Bible, the eternal who makes for righteousness, from whom Jesus came forth, and whose spirit governs the course of humanity."

Diderot
"No better lessons can I teach my child than those of the Bible."

Professor Huxley
"I have always been strongly in favor of secular education without theology, but I must confess that I have been no less seriously perplexed to know by what practical measures the religious feeling, which is the essential basis of moral conduct, is to be kept up in the present utterly chaotic state of opinion on these matters without the use of the Bible."

This is in response to RDG7359 post below. Note that all of these men WERE NOT CHRISTIANS.

Benjamin Franklin
"Young man, my advice to you is that you cultivate an acquaintance with and firm belief in the Holy Scriptures, for this is your certain interest. I think Christ's system of morals and religion, as He left them with us, the best the world ever saw or is likely to see."

Thomas Jefferson
"I have said and always will say that the studious perusal of the sacred volume will make better citizens, better fathers, and better husbands."

Daniel Webster
"If we abide by the principles taught in the Bible, our country will go on prospering and to prosper; but, if we and our posterity neglect its instructions and authority, no man can tell how sudden a catastrophe may overwhelm us and bury all our glory in profound obscurity. The Bible is the book of all others for lawyers as well as divines, and I pity the man who cannot find in it a rich supply of thought and rule of conduct. I believe Jesus Christ to be the Son of God. The miracles which He wrought establish in my mind His personal authority and render it proper for me to believe what He asserts."

Ralph Waldo Emerson
"Jesus is the most perfect of all men that have yet appeared."

Napoleon Bonaparte
"I know men, and I tell you Jesus Christ was not a man. Superficial minds see a resemblance between Christ and the founders of empires and the gods of other religions. That resemblance does not exist. There is between Christianity and other religions the distance of infinity. Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne and myself founded empires. But on what did we rest the creations of our genius? Upon sheer force. Jesus Christ alone founded His empire upon love; and at this hour millions of men will die for Him. In every other existence but that of Christ how many imperfections! From the first day to the last He is the same; majestic and simple; infinitely firm and infinitely gentle. He proposes to our faith a series of mysteries and commands with authority that we should believe them, giving no other reason than those tremendous words, 'I am God.'

Goethe
"It is a belief in the Bible which has served me as the guide of my moral and literary life. No criticism will be able to perplex the confidence which we have entertained of a writing whose contents have stirred up and given life to our vital energy by its own. The farther the ages advance in civilization the more will the Bible be used."

I don't really care if Tim Tebow does an anti-abortion commercial and it's shown on TV during the Superbowl. He's using his 15 minutes of fame to talk abotu something he believes in - he's no better or worse than any other celebrity pushing a cause.

I won't be watching the Superbowl and could care less.

What does disturb me are two things:

1 - The country where Tebow was born, the Phillipines, has laws that prevent abortion for any reason. That makes his mother's story suspect.

2 - CBS refused to air a gay oriented ad. If the NFL and CBS are to sell airtime to one issues group, they should sell time to any group who can pony up the money.

We should be a lot more concerned with the picking and choosing by the NFL and CBS over which issue commercials are aired.

Other than the few who produced the ad, those who paid for it, CBS who approved it, and perhaps the Tebow family no one has seen the ad. Still all this speculation on the ad's intent. Mrs. Tebow made a choice. No one forced her to make that choice - why is that not freedom of choice?

I watch a lot of football but I skipped this one and it was surprising easy. Just can't stomach religious interference.
Did FOF apologize for supporting the murdering of the Dr. Tiller in church?

kenger1, my comments to your post did not show up. So let me summarize.

I said nothing about killing illegal immigrants. Where in the world did you get that from? Please actually READ a post before you reply. I said if you give a cell civil rights at conception, immigrants would swarm here to conceive on US soil. I know how conservatives hate to pay for the children of immigrants.

Please pay attention. I know the children of immigrants born on US soil are citizens. The operative word is born. But you claim the unborn have rights. Therefore, simply being conceived on US soil would make a zygote a citizen.

Where does it say all Americans have the right to life? Not in the Constitution which grants rights to those born on US soil. You are quoting the Declaration of Independence which does not grant rights. And if you want to read that document strictly, it only granted those rights to "all men" and no one else. This implies grown men, not unborn. The Constitution, as I said before, says a citizen with the rights of a citizen must be BORN.

In your perfect America a fetus has never been considered a citizen or a person. We don't start counting a child's age until the day of its birth, not its conception.

You admit that considering a cell a life is a value. That is your value and you can cite no scientific proof. What life is is open to interpretation. Is life simply dividing cells or it is conciousness? You want a lump of cells to have more rights than a living, breathing woman.

The country you want to live in is Afghanistan or Saudi Arabia where you can control women completely. I won't force you to have an abortion, and you will not force your values on me. But that's OK. Because in this country we have choices and laws.

I have listened to the material that people at Focus on the Family considers pro-life. No matter how you put it, pro-life is anti-choice.

A woman has to decide for herself what she wants to do with her body. So, I say again, pro-life is forcing a woman to have a baby, that is anti-choice.

If men what to have a choice in the matter, do it before the pregnancy happens. Men can choose not to get a woman pregnant; but, once the deed is done, she's the one who has to deal with the physical consequences.

As you can probably guess, I could careless what any man has to say about a woman's choice to have or not have a baby.

Second of all, what does this boy have to say that would matter to a woman having to deal with the choice? Nothing, his Mom has something to say about her choice, him nothing.

Back to Focus on the Family, they're an organization that can't hid its contempt for anyone that doesn't follow their way of thinking, and I am proud to be one of the people they hold in contempt.

I am black, a woman who has the audacity to think for myself, I do not listen to men just because they are men, and I don't feel my job on this earth is to Breed. The only thing that I don't have against me is that I am straight.

Focus on the Family has done one thing... opened the doors for political ads for the Super Bowl.

kenger1, you didn't read very carefully did you?

A couple of comments about your post:

1) Illegal Immigrants are not citizens either, and I don’t think we have the right to kill them at will.

2) Under current law, children of Illegal immigrants born in the US are citizens of this country.

3) How do people come into existence apart from conception?

4) The life of the preborn is not a value judgment.

5) In America, the right to life is inalienable which means no one has a right of choice to take the life of another.

6) The inalienable right to life comes before liberty and the pursuit of happiness (livelihood).

7) These are the values that define America and there is no getting around the fact abortion is a violation of the most fundamental of the human rights that we hold as a nation.

You have your morality and I have mine. I will not force you to have an abortion, and you will not force me to put the rights of women behind that of a fetus.

The world you want is the same one the Taliban have. I suggest you convert and move to Afghanistan so you can control women.>

Tim Tebow is a class guy. He and his Mother have an important life story to tell us and an important lesson to teach us.

Most people still have and an open heart and mind to care.

By the way, great season!

I am sure focus on the family will apologize for the murder of Dr. Tiller who was shot dead while he and his wife attended church. Focus on the family wouldn't want the public to think although FOF advocates a ban on abortion that FOF also supports murdering those who are pro-choice. Can't wait to see the commercial.

Let's see the Church and abortion. Well Tebow's Mother forgot to mention she was in a country that didn't allow abortions. Yes she was overseas and had no choice. Buth the lie sells with her son being a football hero. I watched a Mother of 4 very young children died as she was told her birth would end with her death and her child. She was two weeks and her Priest said NO. She died and left a husband 4 kids, now surprise the Priest's daughter had her abortion overseas as she was 15 years old. But keeping people stupid works for the Church and using a young kid helps. I wonder if anyone thinks about the dead babies behind the Church of Rome or the millions of kids molested by Priest. Well that's really not important as selling Satan's lies.

You criticize what you label, perhaps in some cases label correctly, as "fanaticism", flacan, yet your post, especially with all the rampant capitalization, reads like the words of fanatic, too.

Lets slow down the rhetoric here. No one has seen the ad so wait till you see it b4 judging it.

arancia12,

A couple of comments about your post:

1) Illegal Immigrants are not citizens either, and I don’t think we have the right to kill them at will.

2) Under current law, children of Illegal immigrants born in the US are citizens of this country.

3) How do people come into existence apart from conception?

4) The life of the preborn is not a value judgment.

5) In America, the right to life is inalienable which means no one has a right of choice to take the life of another.

6) The inalienable right to life comes before liberty and the pursuit of happiness (livelihood).

7) These are the values that define America and there is no getting around the fact abortion is a violation of the most fundamental of the human rights that we hold as a nation.

The conservatives new hope, Scott Brown, speaks out for abortion rights.

"He (Brown) asserted his own "pro-choice'' stance on abortion: "Yes, because I feel this issue is best handled between a woman and her doctor and her family."

Amen.

I have not seen the Tebow advertisement. If a doctor advises you to have an abortion, and you instead decide to carry the fetus to term, that is choice. In my opinion this should be considered a pro-choice preference rather than no choice.
It is a pro choice advertisement. What if she had no choice, she had because of law to obey the law. She would be a non-enity, a slave in the possession of the law, a nothing women who has no choice in her life. That's what religion is all about.

However , in all Focus on the Family ideology you cannot trust the message or the message.

This Tebow commercialhas a huge gray area.
The entire sequence of events related by Mrs.Tebow are very vague, happened 21 years ago. What actually was said, the real circumstances and the Tebow family committeement to the truth rather than a save Jesus mentality., I suspect the truth is, Mrs.Tebow was pregnant, alleges the doctor advised her she should have a abortion, she because of religion decides to birth the fetus, and the fetus wins the Heisman trophy.

I don't believe one word of it other than he is a great football player and won the Heisman. However he has some real issues concerning his masculinity, and wearing his religion in his eye make up.

The whole thing screams -PHONY.

Nice to see all of the "tolerant" liberals demonstrate what a bunch of bigoted hypocrites they are.

Lest we forget, Jim, you are building a case for anti-abortion based on a book that was written by men (only) over a 400 year period from what you claim is the birth of your saviour. How flimsy is that? You expect people to take at face value that your book is the one and only truth in the face of so many other cultural beliefs in the last 10,000 years??! Try explaining that to a Hindu. A Muslim. A Buddhist. An 8,000 year old mason who believed the sun and moon governed his destiny. What a load of Sh..t.

Florida has tried to strip away a womans right to self determination and the ACLU is tryong to help restore her constitutional rights. Florida thinks women are state property with no rights.
Court Forces Bedrest on Pregnant woman
"Tallahassee, the 1st District Court of Appeal heard arguments in a case involving a pregnant woman — Samantha Burton — confined to a hospital bed, against her will, after disagreeing with her doctor's recommendations for treating pregnancy complications. I joined Ms. Burton's lawyer as a "friend of the court" in arguing that the State of Florida had violated Ms. Burton's constitutional right to make decisions about medical care related to her pregnancy.

The ACLU first learned about this case after Ms. Burton's pro bono lawyer, David Abrams, called us for help as he pursued an appeal of the lower court's order confining Ms. Burton to hospital bed rest. Frankly, I wasn't surprised to hear that the State of Florida had stepped in to override the medical decision-making of a pregnant woman — unfortunately we have seen that before. What was even more stunning than in other cases was the unlimited breadth of the court order; the complete lack of any consideration of Ms. Burton's constitutional rights or health; and the fact that the hearing had gone forward with no legal or other advocate to represent Ms. Burton. After a brief telephone hearing, and no review of her medical records or consideration of a second medical opinion, the circuit court summarily ordered Ms. Burton to submit to any and all medical treatments and interventions — including eventually a C-section — that the hospital's medical staff deemed appropriate. To top it off, the court ordered her to remain confined on constant bed rest at the very hospital where the disagreement arose, and expressly prohibited her from switching to another hospital.

At yesterday's argument, Florida defended its request for these measures by insisting that it was a very narrow intervention, for a "short" time, designed to simply preserve the "status quo" until the court could determine the proper course of medical care for Ms. Burton's fetus."
http://www.aclu.org/blog/reproductive-freedom/court-forces-bed-rest-pregnant-woman

Florida has tried to strip away a womans right to self determination and the ACLU is tryong to help restore her constitutional rights. Florida thinks women are state property with no rights.
Court Forces Bedrest on Pregnant woman
"Tallahassee, the 1st District Court of Appeal heard arguments in a case involving a pregnant woman — Samantha Burton — confined to a hospital bed, against her will, after disagreeing with her doctor's recommendations for treating pregnancy complications. I joined Ms. Burton's lawyer as a "friend of the court" in arguing that the State of Florida had violated Ms. Burton's constitutional right to make decisions about medical care related to her pregnancy.

The ACLU first learned about this case after Ms. Burton's pro bono lawyer, David Abrams, called us for help as he pursued an appeal of the lower court's order confining Ms. Burton to hospital bed rest. Frankly, I wasn't surprised to hear that the State of Florida had stepped in to override the medical decision-making of a pregnant woman — unfortunately we have seen that before. What was even more stunning than in other cases was the unlimited breadth of the court order; the complete lack of any consideration of Ms. Burton's constitutional rights or health; and the fact that the hearing had gone forward with no legal or other advocate to represent Ms. Burton. After a brief telephone hearing, and no review of her medical records or consideration of a second medical opinion, the circuit court summarily ordered Ms. Burton to submit to any and all medical treatments and interventions — including eventually a C-section — that the hospital's medical staff deemed appropriate. To top it off, the court ordered her to remain confined on constant bed rest at the very hospital where the disagreement arose, and expressly prohibited her from switching to another hospital.

At yesterday's argument, Florida defended its request for these measures by insisting that it was a very narrow intervention, for a "short" time, designed to simply preserve the "status quo" until the court could determine the proper course of medical care for Ms. Burton's fetus."
http://www.aclu.org/blog/reproductive-freedom/court-forces-bed-rest-pregnant-woman

There's only one reason abortion is an issue of controversy in America: A life hangs in the balance. Because of this, it ia matter of great consequence for America whether allowing a right of abortion is justified.

The pro-choicers would have us believe that freedom of choice is an absolute right, but this is patently false. We have no right to do that which violates the rights of another.

Posted by: kenger1 |
_____________

And this is where your arguement falls apart.

To have the rights you mention, one must be a citizen of the US. Our Constitution says that a citizen is BORN or naturalized on US soil. Therefore, a fetus is not a citizen with the same rights as the woman who carries it.

You should be very careful when treading this path. If you want to change the Constitution so that the unborn are citizens with full Constitutional rights then illegal immigrants will swarm here to conceive on US soil.

If both the fetus and the woman have equal rights, whose take precedence? Should a woman lose her livelihood because the rights of the fetus take precedence? The tables could turn completely where the life of the mother has less value than the life of the fetus.

Women everywhere should be horrified at this illogical reasoning. If a fetus has rights women will become chattel. We will live in a state every bit as parternalistic as Iran or Saudi Arabia or Afghanistan. It's foreseeable that women will not be able to drive in order not to harm the fetus. Or work. Or walk on uneven sidewalks. Or eat unhealthy food.

Poster, what you refer to are individual values, not rights. Your value is that a fertilized cell is a life. It is not mine nor the law of this country.

How old are you people who so vehemently oppose the ad? Did any of you attend March for Life in Washington DC about 10 days ago?
There were about 400,000 people at that march and most of them were high school and college students. No one made them come. Most of them had to raise their own money to make the trip. The times they are a changing.
Posted by: GPFR |
______________

Your point is well taken. Focus and other anti-choice groups prey on the young who don't have the age and experience to understand what life was like when women had no choice. I will work to ensure they never do.

And there were not 400,000. Why must the anti-choice crowd exaggerate?

There's only one reason abortion is an issue of controversy in America: A life hangs in the balance. Because of this, it ia matter of great consequence for America whether allowing a right of abortion is justified.

The pro-choicers would have us believe that freedom of choice is an absolute right, but this is patently false. We have no right to do that which violates the rights of another.

This is at the heart of the debate over abortion that we in America have yet to resolve. Since a preborn is obviously a growing life, abortion is an act that goes against the most fundamental of the human rights that we in America profess to uphold.

The real choice for America is to face up to this truth, and to outlaw a practice that puts us at odds with the very values we espouse.

Can't wait for Tim Tebow to knock up his girlfriend (and oh! will that happen).

GPFR: Your 400,000 count is off by -363,000 attending the March for Life. The good news for most women is that we have Freedom of Religion in our country.Wanting to make all Americans into Christians who have your version of your Bible ...just won't work! The Supreme Court made a wise decision and it will stay..as the morning after pill is more accepted and used...no need to parade in front of any offices nor to shoot doctors.

If Focus on the Family were truly unabashedly pro-life they would be helping women who feel they have no choice but abortion. They would explain to them how carrying a child to term under the eye of their abusive husband, boyfriend, of father only to give it away will benefit them.

Focus would be helping women with health care, child care, mental health, jobs, and housing.

Mr. Daly is disingenuous. Focus has one goal only. To make abortion illegal. They are not about choice, in fact, they are anti-choice.

To "Choose" life implies there is a choice and for many women there is not and if Focus has it's way there will be no other choice.

First, the message of Focus on the Family includes stating that gay people dont really want to marry, they want to destroy everyone else's.
No culture war there?

So, Mr. Daly, you are a lying sack of excrement.

I dont care that you disagree, I care that you are LYING.

There is nothing political about the ad??
Its an AD.
What are you selling then?
what product?

I KNOW the content of the ad, and yes its a story about how a mother ignored doctors advice, claimed to talk to God and has a football playing son that will use his fame as a bully pulpit.

BIG DEAL.

What about the woman who ignores her doctor and dies giving birth?

Or her son isnt a famous footballer that she can parade around and use as her meal ticket with the millions he (might make).

After just announcing teen pregancy is UP, you want to send the message to ignore doctors advice, trust in God and maybe you too can have a son that (might) make millions playing a game.

You know what? My mom DID have an abortion.
Haunts her everday. I could have had an older brother or sister.

OR

I may not have been born at all...
I am thankful for my life, too, Mr. Tebow, and if my mother hadnt had CHOICE...
I may not be here to tell about it.

The problem with the ad is that it tries to put a nice pretty bow on a private, personal decision.

His story is nothing but an advertisement for LUCK, chance and coincidence.

Let's see... maybe they can put the FoF ad between the GoDaddy ads and the L1ngerie Bowl? Or the beer ads featuring sexy women? Or the ads for little blue pills? Why doesn't FoF worry about that stuff, rather than abortion?

In my post I mis-spelled family sorry

Focus on the famile has hurt religion as much or more than Jim and Tammy Baker. Dobson is a hypocrite who thinks he knows everything about a family but in fact knows very little,but all you folk keep sending in the money so they can live high on the hog,oh yeah

Focus on the famile has hurt religion as much or more than Jim and Tammy Baker. Dobson is a hypocrite who thinks he knows everything about a family but in fact knows very little,but all you folk keep sending in the money so they can live high on the hog,oh yeah

Excuse me, Mr. Daly, but you contradicted yourself in your article. You described the organization Focus on Family as an unabashedly Pro life institution, but then you go on to say that the commercial is intended to open the discussion on the difficult choices that people have to make when faced with a variety of situations. Typically, the pro-life constituency seeks to eliminate abortion as a choice. Are you saying that abortion is a legitimate choice when faced with a difficult situation, because you appear to do so. If so, then we are in completely agreement, and your ad is actually a pro choice ad. You are the one who referenced choice in your OpEd.

was the superbowl today?

I echo the comment below about the disingenuity of this piece. Your organization isn't interested in initiating any "dialogue" at all. What you're interested in is imposing your will on other people through any means necessary. That's both pathetic and cowardly.

This is quite possibly THE most disingenuous column ever to appear in a newspaper. Congratulations to Mr. Daly on that!

It is sad to read such mean spirited comments. If all those who have posted comments that are anti-Tebow consider themselves Christian, God help us all. On the other hand, FOF could have gotten more for their money had they chose to use it to help the thousands of pregnant women who find themselves in a no win situation but to have an abortion. Being against abortion does not deal with the root causes of why women are having abortions. Until we begin to give hope to women who have no sense of power or worth, there will always be a place for abortions.

How old are you people who so vehemently oppose the ad? Did any of you attend March for Life in Washington DC about 10 days ago?

There were about 400,000 people at that march and most of them were high school and college students. No one made them come. Most of them had to raise their own money to make the trip. The times they are a changing.

I applaud Focus on the Family for presenting an alternative view-point and illustrating that with the Tebow family.

Maybe we should see the ad before passing judgement??

What a joke to call these people "pro-life." Do they by and large support the death penalty? Do they approve of our wars? Do they oppose universal health care?

In each of those three cases the answer is a resounding "Yes!" on the part of their overwhelming majority, but each of these positions costs thousands of lives (hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, of lives, most of whom are wholly innocent and many of whom are children, because we do not have universal health care). The only life they seem to feel worthy of being "pro" about is fetal life (and of course their own and those they know -- well, unless they're doctors who perform abortions, that is).

The problem with the so whimsically named "pro-life" crowd is they want to compel everyone to believe as they do, that a fetus is a fully human being. Science does not support this view, which is wholly religion-based, and our government does not and has never recognized it.

For example, I was born roughly six weeks premature. I did not have to wait an additional six weeks to obtain my age-dependent learner's permit or driver's license, because I wasn't born yet -- I was not yet a citizen, and fetal rights are not and must NEVER be recognized because a large number of us, indeed a majority, regard human life as having, as one of its many necessary qualities, the quality of sentience. Nobody can ever persuade me that a zygote or a blastocyst is sentient.

Of course, the "Focus on the Family" crowd might not consider sentience so important, as so many of their followers seem bereft of it. Oh well...

The fact is, those who oppose the anti-abortionists do so because we recognize that things are not something else, even if they may someday become that something else. A fetus is not a child, nor is it a citizen with with the rights that attach to such a status. If it were, one could arrest and imprison a pregnant woman for smoking a cigarette or drinking a glass of wine -- things proven to be potentially harmful to a fetus -- under child abuse statutes.

One side of this argument want our citizens to decide the courses of their own lives. The others want to control those lives of other people and force their own religious beliefs upon others who do not wish to share those beliefs.

And in a free society, that's just plain wrong.

The problem is not the gullible, hillbilly corn-fed, unworldly, protected, fundamentalist country boy tebow, the problem is the hypocrisy of CBS & the other RICH WHITE MALE CONTROLLED fundamentalist theocrats like Dobson, et al.

I don't have a problem with whatever Tebow and his mother personally believe or what they choose for themselves in the privacy of their own minds, hearts, souls, homes -- it is their business, not mine. It's their choice.

But I and my family get to make our choices also. We will choose NOT to patronize advertisers of CBS. It's a dirty manipulative move by CBS to allow it at a time of national cultural 'fun' and 'games.'

CBS has made a dreadful mistake and I will boycott every company that advertises on their programs, ESPECIALLY SPORTS & SUPERBOWL PROGRAMS!

If only bigots, control freaks, woman haters, gay haters and hatemongers like James Dobson cared about REAL LIVING CHILDREN as much as the abstract ones and the women/girls they want to force into compulsory pregnancy (in order to produce more pittance wage workers living in poverty, with no health care working for wal-mart wages to enrich their republican masters).

If only they cared enough to strive for social justice for the children and families already living on this overcrowded earth instead of seeking to control women's bodies and women's sexuality.

CAN YOU SAY HYPOCRITICAL FANATICS?

SHAME ON CBS!!!!!

BOYCOTT CBS & THEIR ADVERTISERS IF YOU THINK THIS B.S. HAS NO PLACE ON THE SUPERBOWL ADS especially when they refuse to allow innocuous message from the Church of Christ which actually preached love and acceptance, not hate, fear and control.

The TV networks are drooling with glee over the hundreds of millions of dollars the Supreme Court decision to allow corporations to pour unlimited cash into TV ads for political campaigns. The Fucas on the Family Tebow Superbowl sermon is just the first attempt to test these waters. Is Fucas on the Family really a Christian organization? Wouldn't it do better to follow in the footsteps of Jesus by donating the 3 million dollar ad fee to Haitian relief rather than donating it to CBS ?????

Mr. Daly and Focus on the Family are sad and pathetic. They are anti-everything that doesn't look/talk/think like they do and to claim otherwise rings hollow. That Tim Tebow would associate with them is regrettable.

Groups with political and social agendas have no place in sports. People attend/view sporting events to get away from that. There's so much commercial interruption now one can almost forget whose playing.

Tim Tebow is being used as a pawn by the religious right (which is neither by the way) because he is a Christian and a high profile athlete (currently).

My objection to the Tebow ad and to Focus on the Family has nothing to do with the abortion issue. I've already stated that the latter is about the group's sexist views of gender roles in marriages and in society.

Regarding the former, my objection is that there's a time and place for everything. Sports contests are entertainment first and foremost, where the conflict is a form of play for both athletes and fans. Their artificially binary nature of the contests provides a type of sanctuary from the messy gray areas of the real world. When one drags a political issue into that realm, it unnecessarily changes the tone by injecting real conflict. (That's also one of my objections to celebrities using award ceremonies as political platforms.)

I'm not arguing that CBS should pull the Tebow ad. Nor am I arguing that if a group like NARAL submitted an ad, that the network should also pull the ad as well. I'm saying that both sides should voluntarily take their dispute elsewhere, to a more appropriate venue. Imagine if someone invited to give a toast at a wedding or an anniversary party (emphasis on invited) turned the toast into a political rant. Can't we have one day without both sides trying to hijack the microphone?

FOF is an anti choice agenda organization. Why not focus on important news like a TEa Party member arrested for having a grenade launcher and raping a little girl. He claims to be in the teabagger movement. So should CBS air an ad for teabaggers next.
at shortnewsdotcom
'Tea-Partying Militia Leader Arrested: Owned a Grenade Launcher, Raped a Child

Ex-Marine Charles Allan Dyer, 29, was arrested earlier this month at his home in Marlow, Oklahoma, for possessing an unregistered grenade launcher and for raping a 7-year-old girl. Dyer talked openly about trying "to become a domestic terrorist."

Dyer left the Marines after being brought up on charges last year of "disloyal" statements in YouTube videos in which he called for "patriots, veterans and constitutionalists" to violently overthrow the U.S. government.

Dyer is active in the Tea Party movement, playing a bridge role between it and Oath Keepers, a far-right group recruiting law enforcement and military. He´s been called the "1st P.O.W. of the 2nd American Revolutionary War" by some in the movement.

SCOTUS said corps's are like people, CBS is getting religion just like FOF. Now go watch BBC and tell CBS to pray for its survival. Because if it doesn't pull this ad it will have to pass the coffer to pay its salaries.

I think it is inappropriate for either CBS or the NFL advocating a political stand, especially one designed to deny American citizens a right. Deny this right to a medical procedure, then what is next? No more heart medications for the elderly? No more insulin for indigent diabetics?

Soon the government will be tapping the telephones and going through your luggage and stopping vote counts just like some right-wing police state...

Opps! Too late.

The ominous and hypocritical aspects of Focus on the Family and James Dobson are documented in Blumenthal's new book, "Republican Gomorrah" and the Republican strategy in Thomas Frank's book, "What's the Matter with Kansas". American Democracy is in danger!

There's a reason we pro-choice folks call ourselves "pro-choice" and not "pro- abortion". Have all the babies you want-make that CHOICE. Just don't deny others the right to make their own choice as well. Maybe they'll chose NOT to have a baby if the doctor tells them that the child may have severe mental and/or physical disabilities--or if they just plain are not prepared to take on the responsibilities of parenthood. And for those who do choose to take on the responsibilities of parenthood, take on the responsibility. Don't expect the taxpayers to finance the results of your decision.

I'm sorry, Mr. Daly, but Focus on the Family has shown quite well, as detailed well here by other posts, what its agenda is, and what means you're willing to use to promote it.

The issue isn't even the content, which is all you address here; FOF has the right to speak, and to promote its agenda.

It's that the NFL has and continues to refuse to air opposing views during the super bowl, previously claiming that they don't air "political message ads."

I am overwhelmed on how violent everyone is in their comments. It is unbelievable. What is wrong with all of you? Just say that you are pro choice and be done with it. Your comments are just as rabid as the so called fanatic Christians you are ranting about.

To give you the honest truth, I am torn between what is the right way to go. I am not a Christian nor do I belong to any other sort of religion. I do not want the right taken away from women (from me), but I am also a strong believer of life. All life, unborn and born. I believe that man was brought to justice for murdering the doctor this week. I also am a strong believer in no war, no oppression, and that everyone on this planet has the right to be free and alive.

I have very close friends who have had abortions. I have supported them and helped them through the aftermath of their choice. I have watched my friends put themselves through hell over their choice, and how much they still suffer years later.

I have been assaulted and I honestly do not know what I would have done if that had resulted in a pregnancy.

What I do know is the violence of words and actions on both sides of this debate needs to stop. I am saddened by the hatred.

Focus on the Family and by extension, Tebow, are liars. FOF has no interest in a discussion, but in forcing every woman regardless of circumstance to carry a fetus to term. They want forced birth even in cases of incest, rape, or life threatening circumstances. Telling Tim's nice little story is a blantant attempt to lie to every person that watches the ad. CBS is supporting false advertising.

Tebow will probably end of like Todd Marinovich once he's had his freedom away from his Bible thumping parents.

What drives me absolutely crazy is this same organization that is determined to make sure every female 12 years of age and older carrying a fertilized egg in her ovaries brings that baby to term. Completely ignores the "living" hungry children, neglected children, beaten children, starving children, sick children. What is Focus on the Family doing for those children in need? NOTHING..how typical.

Tebow and mom are thugs and liars....simple as that. She knows she was never told to get an abortion in the Philippines where that act by a doctor would have been illegal.

Earth cannot accommodate the number of humans it currently has, especially the way humans exploit and destroy everything they encounter.

Earth would indeed have been blessed to not have another tebow released on it, to spread the suppression and genocide of the catholic church.

I will only watch this spot if it is announced in advance that Mr. Tebow and his mother are standing up as a family to announce that Mr. Tebow is a gay athelete and man and that his entire family, and Jesus, for that matter are supportive.

If there has ever been a time for there to be a review of the taxation of our "religious" organizations it is now!

When religion can afford to pay out $2,500,000 for a 30 second superbowl ad it is time they pay their taxes.

___________________________________________

"Organized religion is a sham and a crutch for weak-minded people who need strength in numbers." - Jesse Ventura

"I cannot imagine a God who rewards and punishes the objects of his creation. . . . Neither can I believe that the individual survives the death of his body, although feeble souls harbor such thoughts through fear or ridiculous egotism." - Albert Einstein

"I can hardly see how anyone ought to wish Christianity to be true; for if so the plain language of the text seems to show that the men who do not believe, and this would include my father, brother and almost all my best friends, will be everlastingly punished. And this is a damnable doctrine." - Charles Darwin

"Religion is comparable to a childhood neurosis."...... "Neither in my private life, nor in my writings, have I ever made a secret of being an out-and-out unbeliever." - Sigmund Freud.

"When a man is freed of religion, he has a better chance to live a normal and wholesome life." - Sigmund Freud

"So far as the religion of the day is concerned, it is a damned fake. . . . Religion is all bunk. . . . All bibles are man-made." - Thomas Edison

"I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ." M. Gandhi

“If Jesus had been killed twenty years ago, Catholic school children would be wearing little electric chairs around their necks instead of crosses.” - Lenny Bruce
“I don't believe in God but I'm very interested in her.” - Arthur C. Clarke

“I'd rather laugh with the sinners, then cry with the saints. The sinners are much more fun.” - Billy Joel

“Lighthouses are more useful than churches” – Ben Franklin

“This would the best of all possible worlds if there were no religion in it” – John Adams

“Christianity is the most perverted system that ever shone on man.” - Thomas Jefferson

What a load. As if we need this kid to preach to us?

All we have here is another Christian hypocrite trying to force his interpretation of the Bible, and his vision of a cruel and vengeful God, onto the rest of us.

This pompous little religious blowhard is just like the guys in the Taliban.

The minute this ad comes on, my husband and I will turn off the Super Bowl. We want to watch football, not have someone preach to us. I hope the advertisers who come after this ad, whose commercials we will not see, are happy with the decision of CBS to air this ad. Good business move, CBS.....

The university of Minnesota displays 2 guys preparing dinner on their website for social work,and is depicting them as "a family".
It seems that those who have no desire to be accountable for their morals,take great offense when they are challenged to do so.Here is a classic example with the Tebow Ad.
The reality is that there will be countless scores of the young and nieve girls around the world who may be inspired to give the fetus's that lay in their belly a chance to experience the world,and maybe that child will go on to achieve what Tim was able to,because he was given a chance to do so.
REMEMBER: ABORTION IS THE ADVANCEMENT OF LIBERALISM,DISGUISED AS "A WOMAN'S RIGHT TO CHOOSE".
We may rejoice when a touchdown is scored,but Heaven will rejoice that just "maybe" one of his little ones is going to be able to experience all of His wonderful promises!

Dobson, Focus on the family,
and his butt licking sycophant
Daley would do well to expand their criticism of
abortionists to the greatest
abortionist in history - the
fictional b@stard they "worship" -"God" himself.

80 % of all instances in which the sperm enters the
egg are spontaneously aborted soon thereafter,
unknown to ANY human.

Scientists say this is a result of natural selection.
The result is creatures
better able to survive and
pass on their genes.

The dim brained anti abortionists don't buy it.
They say "God" creates the
fetus. If so, then why does the S.O.B. then spontaneously abort 4/5 of
his "creation"?????

Hogwash. Americans are already talking about choices, especially women, whom these choices affect the most, and gay men and women, for whom open discussion is a question of survival. FOTF doesn't seek a cultural transformation: it seeks to dictate the terms on which the "conversation" would be played out.

The vast majority only listen to (and watch) the Budweiser commercials (award winning). This commercial will rank at the bottom of the pile and no one will hear it or remember it. It's costing $2.5 million (not counting the fees paid to Tebow or his mother to perform on it). It will not up Tebow's market value (expected to go late in the 2nd round or early 3rd round NFL pick).

It's a perfect time out moment to go to the refrigerator, we should be thankful...now if they'd just run an ad for PETA next to it, we would not have to turn the sound back on for a full minute.

It all depends on who your spoke person is:
My I suggest Clifford Davis
He was recently convicked in Florida of killing both his mother and grandfather then having intercourse with his mothers body. You could get Mr. Davis to your spokeperson for considerably less than Mr. Tebow and the public would both an interesting spokeperson and a interesting story to consider in the debate on freedom of choise.

"When did that become taboo for us to discuss in America?"

And there you have it.

When BOTH SIDES of the discussion actually get to discuss it, then it will be fine. When did it become ok for only one side of a discussion to air its views - that's the hypocrisy of the situation and of all the Tebow-ad defenders who ignore the point that CBS is blatantly discriminating against the other viewpoint.

Of course "Pro-Choice" advocates are against the ad. The mother chose to not abort. That is not the correct choice to them.

Meanwhile, the Washington Post and NY Times have policies to call the two sides "pro-choice" and "anti-abortion".....

Has anyone checked out just who the organizations are that issued the awards listed at the top of the article? Anybody can get an award from just about any organization that has a "fellow traveler" orientation.

I am thankful that this young man has the courage to discuss his views on the santity of life to a national audience. America is becoming predominately secular and liberal;thus, hearing an opinion supported by faith and reason from an outstanding young person will be uplifting and welcome when compared to the ridicule and vitriol expressed by the left at every opportunity.

This type of ad has no place during a national non-political holy day. Next thing you know we'll be watching politicians spout their jive every year. Puke.

Additionally this commercial is based on a lie. Abortion is illegal in the Philippines. There is no way any health or government official would have ever suggested an abortion to Mrs. Tebow.

PS....Tebow will never take an NFL snap. This ad is the closest he will ever get to the SuperBowl without buying a ticket.

First , it's not the appropriate venue for an ad like this. Second, when the pro lifers say choice it means they choose how you treat the unborn and unwanted. Tebow may be a great college QB but I don't think he will make it in the pros. The Superbowl ads should be about beer, Pepsi, pizza and Cadillacs, not whether or not to have an abortion.

Why can't you just keep your religious beliefs to yourselves? Why is it the Christianist right always feels compelled to wear its faith on its sleeve? One's spirituality is a personal matter. Leave us alone.

What about the 'sanctity' of Chichen life? What about the sanctity of Cow and pig life? George Carlin: "Here's another question I have. How come when it's us, it's an "abortion," and when it's a chicken, it's an "omlette?" Are we so much better than chickens all of a sudden? When did this happen that we pass chickens in goodness? Name six ways we're better than chickens."

I can't think of one way humans are better than chickens.

It's really simple, Don't Watch the Superbowl. Noway am I supporting the American Taliban. I won't even watch CBS again.

I do not know what the ad will say, but from what I hear his mother made a choice and she is happy with her choice. I just wish all women keep the right to make their own choice what ever that choice may be.

Do Daly, Dobson, Tebow et al REALLY think that anyone is going to make so monumental a decision as to whether to carry or terminate a pregnancy based on a SUPERBOWL COMMERCIAL?
They're just giving themselves a very expensive warm fuzzy.

I do think it's hypocritical of CBS to reject an ad for a church that welcomes gay couples as "divisive" and "political," but accept one from another religious organization advocating a specific position on a controversial issue.

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I look forward to seeing the ad. Free speech for all points of view is paramount. Surprising that it's even controversial. I admire the brave young man and wish him well.

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I intend to yell obscenities at this rat during this ad. I hope he breaks hiss neck on his first pro play. You zealots are the Tlaiban in western dress. Enslaving women is right up your alley.

Mr. Daly,

You lie. We don't need to see your ad--especially after reading your defense of it--to know how it's going to go. Your "humble" young spokesperson is actually your latest carefully-selected and handsome wunderkind who already sees the football field as an appropriate place to advertise Bible references on his face. (I MUST ask you; how hard will you have to bite your tongue when a Jewish or Muslim player does the same with passages from the Torah or the Koran?)

Instead of walking the walk by, say, actively promoting contraception and wide-spread adoption of the hard-to-place teenagers, special-needs children and medically fragile/deformed infants who suffer rejection and neglect every day, you waste millions on your Hallmark-style fluff and declare it pro-choice. Actually, it's manipulation.

Just a month ago, a dear co-worker and friend of mine would have certainly died (no exaggeration whatsoever here) if she hadn't had immediate access to doctors who were not only skilled enough but also legally permitted to perform a delicate laparoscopy on her ectopic fetus. She never wanted to lose that child, but since her womb and cervix are still healthy and intact, she can and will try again.

We work with classes of predominantly autistic preschoolers, and neither one of us would ever toss them aside, nor abort them, even though it's one of the hardest jobs in the world. It takes a toll on us mentally, physically, emotionally, and spiritually, but we keep on. One of the biggest reasons that I can continue, next to my spiritual strength, is because of people like her. I would never discount her or the life-saving CHOICE for any reason whatsoever. I know darned well that you and all your followers could not truly say the same.

The problem is it's politicizing what many think is the single unifying television activity that the vast majority of Americans watch.

So we get a respite from our differences and problems for a few hours.

Until your group comes along and drags us right back into fighting mode again.

And even if the ad is not blatantly hateful, it is still going to direct people to contact Focus on the Family, which is most decidedly anti-family when it comes to my gay friends and their families.

Also, how about spending that money on saving thousands of children in Africa from preventable diseases?

Would Jesus really be spending limited resources on a Superbowl ad when He could instead use it to actually help the afflicted?

The problem isn't that the ad is pro-life. The problem is that other groups were previously not allowed to express their views in a Superbowl (CBS) commercial because they were political. Now this political ad is allowed. Clearly CBS is showing clear bias and that's the the reason for the outrage. The population has listened and knows that it's not fair.

I suspect that you know the difference too, but since the inequity lands on your side, you're fine with it.

Not knowing what's in the ad I would feel kinda stupid commenting on it's content. But what ever it is if you don't like it turn it off. No one should ever be afraid of hearing another person's opinion no matter how much you disagree.

Mr. Family Man,

As a woman who is pro choice I can tell you that the only people inspiried by this particualr ad will be folks who are against a woman having the right to choose. For others this ad is adolescent at best, not at all inspirational, and, we, also, get that you and the authors of this ad would not get that.

So, the ad does not really bother me because I know that women who are contemplating whether or not to abort a fertilized egg's potentiial are not basing their deciion on thinking or feeling about a "what if this egg will one day win a prize."

If this story is true, at all, then it is a very nice personal story for this famiy but it says nothing about the "reality" of any other woman, her pregnancy, her life, her choices or her decisions.

So, she decided not to abort her fertilized egg and this egg became this "football player" who "won a prize." One could also run a similiar ad next week about serial rapists and murders, statingd that this serial rapist's mother decided not to abort her fertilized egg and look at all the women he has brutally raped......

Please....run your add if it makes you feel good...most folks understand the adolescent perspective behind it. They also understand the seriousness of a woman's right to choose.

What is the problem here?
If the beer companies can spend all their money pushing their product...

Let FOF use a few seconds to sell theirs.

If you don't like it then take a 30 second potty break.

Abortion is essentially the killing of human life for the sake of convenience. Slavery was also convenient but not for the slaves. I thank Focus of the Family and Pam and Tim Tebow for reminding us of this. Maybe the conscience of this nation will be pricked to stop the genocide.

Mr Daly insists FOF and its superbowl commercial are all about being 'pro-life'. And who could find offense with that? Who after all is 'anti-life'? This clever linguistic legerdermain has been going on for decades. FOF isnt 'pro-life'. Its 'anti-abortion'. It advocates taking away a right women in this country have had for years. And CBS is OK with this, but got their feathers in a ruffle about a goofy ad for a gay dating site? But its nothing to do with politics? Riiigghht!

There is absolutely nothing wrong in expressing different opinion, the other side should do thier ad expressing their side, this is what would make for a comprehensivediscussion about the issues. i want my children who soon will be adult to see both side of the story and then make their own decision, if they had a decision to make.

The hypocrisy of the lunatics is beyond reproach. Their double and triple standards are typical fanatic point of view.

I have more respect for used car salesmen than I do for anyone affiliated with Focus on the Family.

Oh, brother. This guy, Daly, is "playing dumb" saying that Tebow's ad is "just inspirational". To a 5th grader, it's anti-abortion.
And Tebow has to wear Bible versus under his eyes, all the while LOOSING a championship?
How insecure.
BTW, 100% of all men and women in jail, prison, and death row had a mother too, and look how they turned out!

Although no one has seen the ad the history of your organization is telling and it is not a history that a pro athlete should become involved with.

Also it is very telling that you care nothing about the sanctity of the human life but rather care about pushing your uneducated religious dogma. Anyone who cares about the value of a human life would be supporting a universal health care system because so many people die every year because they lack the proper health care. So unless you have joined the push for a universal health care system you have already failed miserable on your new years resolution! You should also be ashamed to call yourself a Christian because you have no idea what Jesus died for!

Jim Daley wrote: "That's the motivation behind our commercial - to get the country talking about the choices we have to make when faced with all variety of life challenges, not just unplanned pregnancies. And as one of only a handful of people in the country who has, of yet, seen the spot, I'm optimistic that's exactly what it's going to do."

Glad to hear you are embracing choice. No one on the pro-choice side ever said abortion was the first choice, or the only choice. Its always been a private personal choice, between a woman and her doctor. And that includes the right to choose to have a child, even if your life is in danger, even if deformaties are an issue. No one forces abortions, no one forces carrying to term.

I've always wondered why the anti-choice crowd simply debated in absolutes. Its always been a choice, even when abortion was illegal and back-alley abortions were available. To hear the FOTF is now leading with ads about the benefits of carrying to term instead of absolutes, I, as someone who is firmly pro-choice, applaud. Demonizing women in situations where a choice is considered helped no one. Now, if only we could hear about the support FOTF is giving to those who choose to carry to term, financial, day-care, housing, etc.

Where there is life, there is hope.

Tim Tebow is a perfect example to keep abortion legal.

The world would be better off without another pious evangelical telling women what they should do.

I am Catholic and I am opposed to abortion. Thus I advise my loved ones not to have one. And I support efforts that provide alternatives to abortion for women who are thinking of choosing not to bring a baby into their family for many reasons, poverty being among them. However, in a pluralistic society with people (like my wife, who is Jewish) who do not hold the same religious belief about life beginning at conception as we Catholics do, we cannot legislate our religious views on others. That is a cheap way out to salve our consciences that we have not prevailed in our religious belief becoming the consensus belief by the power of our moral persuasion and by the way we live in a loving, nonjudgmental fashion that invites people to consider the sanctity of life.

Focus on the Family is entitled to have their say, but make no mistake about it – they want to see abortion outlawed altogether. OK, so if they want that, then they should also have the full courage of their convictions to say that they will require women to be put in jail for having an abortion (i.e., practicing infanticide). Have they done that, or do they prefer to shunt that inevitable and ugly reality off to the state, which of course we would all pay for with taxes?

As a father of four and the son of a young, unwed mother back in the early 60's, the issue of abortion has been in my thoughts since I realized how lucky I was that my mom chose life.
The issue is touchy and to some offensive, however, the story that Tim tells in the ad is one that supports choosing life, anyone that cannot see the importance of weighing the positive possibilities of a pregnancy, despite the urge to end one, is not confronting the truth and needs to consider the choice their mother made, and then thank her.

The Super Bowl is not the appropriate forum for such debates. This is a political hot potato and it should not interfere with the one day everyone can lean back and forget politics. Tebow needs to concentrate on his football skills {which were lacking in the Senior Bowl} and not push his political views onto others. As much as he wants to claim it is a religious view it became political when it was decided to use the Super Bowl as a venue to present such a divisive subject. When all is said and done the only ads that will be memorable will be the beer ads and those who tickle our funny bones. Tebow's interjection of the abortion issue will only make the subject more divisive and will only add to his already lack luster appearances in post season events. I suggest he paint his eyes shut and leave by the back door before he is given the boot by the NFL for being a divisive figure. Let us watch football in the traditional way and do not insert political ads in what should be a day without politics.

It's nice to hear that FOF is finally rejecting certain weapons of the culture war. Notice they didn't offer a peace treaty, just want to change the rules of the war.

As a liberal, I wish there were no abortions, but the problem is not abortion for medical reasons, it's unintended pregnancy. If Tebow had done an ad urging his college buddies to remain celibate until marriage, I would have been more impressed.

While I think Jim Daly sincere, I also think he is naive. Those pushing a Culture of Death want no restrictions on what they do, even if it destroys other human life, which is exactly what abortion does.

In the early 1990's the DeMoss Foundation commissioned the "Life. What a Beautiful Choice" advertising campaign. This campaign involved the use of images that focused on life - not a single violent image was shown. And even then those claiming to be "pro-choice" criticized and protested the ads. Why?

It's not the ad that's offensive, it's Focus on the Family, and their anti-gay vitriol. If CBS sold time to a white supremacy group wanting to air an ad promoting blueberries, or to Al Queda for a commercial touting the virtues of puppies, that would be offensive, too.

That's the motivation behind our commercial - to get the country talking about the choices we have to make when faced with all variety of life challenges, not just unplanned pregnancies.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

That's why feminist groups have been trying so hard to get this commercial pulled- it's all about controlling the content of the discussion.

I'm am a liberal, though I would not call myself pro-choice or pro-life. My opinion, like that of most Americans lies somewhere in-between. I disagree with, "my body my right" because like it or not, there is another body inside of you. It is not your possession. At the same time there are many circumstances where the "choice" to have an abortion is by far the best one, and sometimes the only one.

On-top of this, the same people screaming so loudly to "protect" the unborn fetuses are attempting to slash public education, healthcare for the poor, and any other social program that might actually take care of these children AFTER they're born.

If you are so interested in the welfare of the fetus, then you have a responsibility to that child until it turns 18. Congratulations, you're now the provider of approximately 1.7 million babies a year.

In any case, this message is a load of bull. The author attempts that to say that he is not attempting to have a political message, and that it is not anti anything... and then proceeds to spout his political views and preach AGAINST abortion. He even states it is one of his two missions for the year, and the only one he is currently taking seriously. He explicitly says this is the motivation for the commercial!

Congratulations!!! You just wasted 3 million dollars! The issue is too divisive for a 30 second commercial featuring a 22 year old kid to change our minds. Not only that, but you blatantly lie about your commercial in your advertisement for it. GREAT JOB! Keep up the good work!

Jim "Hypocrite" Daily. Your "faith" is about hate.

*Profmoriarity* I am so hoping that the *Prof* part of your screen name is just a fantasy and that you aren't actually loose and spouting your brand of "tolerance" to people who are paying for an education. Because you are ignorant. Granted exposure to you and your opinions would be a "type" of education, but obviously you don't think much so perhaps exposing people to your ignorance is a kind of education.

Mrs. Tebow didn't actually have a choice. She *decided* not to have an illegal operation. So what choice is that really? And that's what you are championing here: illegality. No choice.

Just a guess, but I bet you are you are a male: guess what!! It isn't your body and it isn't your choice. Besides, the last thing you probably impregnated was a Kleenex.

FAIL!

I would think the "pro-choice" groups would be supportive of Mrs. Tebow. She made her choice, to give birth to her child. Perhaps they should change their description to what they really are, pro-abortion; they don't seem to be interested in choice at all, only their very narrow and restrictive views.

Mrs. Tebow made her "decision" in the Philippines at a time when abortion was illegal there just as it is illegal now. That she decided not to abort is less about current US law and more about that fact that that option was not legally available to her.

Mr.Dobson and Mr.Tebow could care less if coat hangers were brought back. So does CBS apparently.

All life is indeed precious, whether a baby or an adult. You don't need a book to know that.

Focus on the Family, pro-life and pro-dead penalty. Their motto is: "Bring into the World, so we can Kill Them". These people don't care about human life, if they did they wouldn't be against helping the poor and most of all they wouldn't be so in step with the NRA.

They are anti-gay and one of the most Racist groups in America.

"unabashedly, unapologetically, unwaveringly pro-life"

Interesting...so has Focus on the Family now taken a position on capital punishment? Dr. Dobson, as far as I know, won't be pinned down on the subject. It's also a little vague about the continuum of end-of-life care.

Your idea of "cultural change" seems to be to change the culture to your belief system. For example, after considerable reflection and medical experience, I regard human life to begin at birth. I accept that is a matter of axiom and faith, not provable -- but you do not respect my choice.

Alex,

I'm sorry that we Christians have hurt you with some of our words and actions in the past. There are going to be some fundamental things that we disagree on, but we need to remain civil and decent human beings during the discourse.

Regarding that, what bothers me Alex is the fact you're resorting to mockery and name-calling regarding this situation. It's fascinating to me that so many of the negative responses I've read regarding the Tebow ad are filled with intolerance and hate towards Focus on the Family, the Tebows, CBS, etc. You folks are the ones who extol tolerance and acceptance as virtues above and beyond all other virtues: why can you not extend that grace to people who may have opposing viewpoints?

#######################################

I don't see Focus on Family extending the same grace to people who disagree with them on social issues, such as being gay.

They even have a nice set of "talking points" on the issue:

http://www.focusonthefamily.com/socialissues/sexual-identity/progay-revisionist-theology/talking-points.aspx

I'm looking forward to seeing the commercial. It's too bad there's so many angry people in this world. The anger is obviously keeping you from seeing your tolerant self for what you really are: More intolerant than the people that you are fingering for being so.

Of course, Tim Tebow's mother should have exercised her choice to abort him. After all, he was nothing but a collection of cells, not a human being.

And, of course, her telling the story of how she made a decision to let him be born is somehow anti-woman.

I want Mrs. Tebow to say that she made her choice and women in America have the right to make theirs. She doesn't have to say, if choosing to terminate a pregnancy is your choice, then so be it. But, please....FOTF wants women to not have any choice except to keep a fetus to term. They're frauds, anti-woman, and Mr. Daly is completely wrong to think that people are stupid enough to think otherwise.

Wow, what is going to happen to the religious right wing fascist nutters when Tebow finally admits his homosexual orientation that has nothing to do with his vow of virginity. His supporters may have prevented his out-of-the-closet declarations, and his faith may have prevented his acting on his orientation, but we all know, don't we?

Carstonio,

I'm not Israeli. I was born in Iran, am Iranian-American.

ccnl1 is psychotically obsessed with his accusation that you are really our resident Israeli poser Farnaz...Is this true or the paranoid ramblings of a senile old man/woman?

I won't make any judgments about CCNL's age or mental state, but yes, I have nothing to do with Farnaz. I can't claim to be Israeli since I've never been outside the Western Hemisphere. Although I am not religious, I was baptized in a Presbyterian church as an infant, and briefly attended Lutheran Sunday school as a child.

Focus on the Family pro-life?

What is pro-life about these Huckabees being in lock-step with Republican Leader Limbaugh and his lemmings' agenda of pre-emptive war, torture, Chrisian Oil Crusades, capital punishment, war profiteering and gun running?

Daily and his ilk apparently think their small and shallow god hired K Street lawyers to write a disclaimer to their Sixth Commandment with an *:

*Except for capital punishment, pre-emptive war and for any other reason civil and/or religious authorities deem justified.

Killing is killing whether it be abortion or the punitive, vengeful actions of a theocracy.

Carstonio,

ccnl1 is psychotically obsessed with his accusation that you are really our resident Israeli poser Farnaz.

Is this true or the paranoid ramblings of a senile old man/woman?

Meanwhile,

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Super Bowl network CBS rejected an ad Friday from ManCrunch.com, a gay dating Web site.

"After reviewing the ad, which is entirely commercial in nature, our standards and practices department decided not to accept this particular spot," said CBS spokeswoman Shannon Jacobs. "We are always open to working with a client on alternative submissions."

Free speech for Christian "Huckabees" like Daily but not for others. Theocratic fascism has arrived in America "With the Cross of Jesus going on before."

Focus on your own family, Daily. You pretend to be a "kinder, gentler" Dobson but you really are no different.

Carstonio , I too have troubles with the Focus on the Family's feelings regarding women. As a married woman, I love my husband, but I don't regard him as my superior in any way except for automotive knowledge and physical strength. (And it took a getting sprained wrist trying to move rocks before I would own up to the strength part!)

We see our relationship as a partnership of equals, and split up tasks and responsibilities based on abilities and interests, not according to anyone's dogma. He is a fine man, but the idea that he is somehow "closer to God" because of his gender, and that I can't be trusted to think for myself, that I need his "guidance" and "leadership" to make good choices frankly gives me the creeps.

If the good folks at Focus would, as suggested, focus on their own families, and not try to get their beliefs enshrined in law, to be imposed on the rest of us, I, personally would be much happier with them.

" There are going to be some fundamental things that we disagree on, but we need to remain civil and decent human beings during the discourse."
Posted by matt56

Matt56
You are absolutely right, we need to be more civil with each other. I personally am sort of fighting an one-woman front for net civility.

Alex would present his case much better if he were able to make it a little more calmly, however, he does have a point in the incident he cites. For me, the conservative Christian case falls apart with their problems with homosexuality in general, and gay marriage in particular.

There simply is no logical reason for anyone to want to control another person's personal relationships, as long as those relationships are freely chosen. In the end, the reason that gay relationships trouble conservative Christians seem to come down to nothing more than their beliefs. Churches are free to regard anything they want as sinful, but they have no right to try to pass their beliefs into law.

Conservative Christians have a rational case to present in your opposition to abortion. I don't, personally, share their view, but I can understand it. However, their attempts to restrict gay people, and their widely-publicized negative statements regarding them undercut their moral authority. It's kind of like trying to understand the "moral" problems Southern Baptists had with mini skirts and rock music, while they were staunchly defending segregation.

If you don't want to be seen in this light, you might need to separate these two messages, or, preferably, rethink your reaction to gay marriage. If you believe you can't do that, you have to accept the baggage you have chosen to carry.

The problem is that Mr. Daly does not in fact want to 'expand the dialogue'.

If he and his organization had as a goal to 'change the culture' so that more individuals independently chose not to receive abortions, that would certainly be a reasonable position. (One may or may not agree with the position, but it is not prima facie inappropriate.)

That, however, is not the goal of his organization or this commercial. His goal is to remove that independent choice from those that he is unable to convince.

There is nothing 'pro' about such a stance - he seeks nothing less than government elimination of independent choice.

As the father of daughters, why shouldn't I be bitter at Focus on the Family? Its founder writes books that claim that women have to be subservient to men because they were created to be inferior to men.

It seems to me what you're really trying to do is put a positive spin on a negative message, namely, "overturn Roe v Wade, ban abortions". Packaging it in a commercial featuring a star football player doesn't hide the purely political purpose behind it.

You have no choice but to acknowledge that your opposition to abortion is based only on faith, for Scripture makes no explicit mention of it.

Reasonable people -- and faithful Christians, for that matter -- can reasonably disagree on that question. It is precisely the human soul (for those of us who believe it exists) that distinguishes us from other forms of life. Yet, neither theologians nor scientists can demonstrate the point at which that soul enters the growing zygote or fetus. Therefore, why should your personal beliefs bind the rest of us?

Your coyness about this commercial is very telling. It's not as if this message hasn't been put forth previously and copiously. You're playing footsie with us here, trying to pique our curiosity merely to entice us to watch it. Why? It won't contain any surprises.

Well, here's the patently obvious answer. As our cable providers "ping" our cable boxes to see what channel we're watching as the ad airs, if we stay tuned out of curiosity your ad's ratings will be boosted and your organization's position will be further validated. I choose not to enable this. The moment your ad comes on, I'll switch to PBS for five minutes or so. I urge readers to do the same.

The true measure of your "pro-life" sentiments is that your organization chose to spend $3 million on a Super Bowl ad instead of giving it as direct aid to Haitians who are trying to survive without clean water, adequate food, and medical care. This is "pro-life"? No, it's rank hypocrisy. For shame.

Focus on your own damn family. Our ancestors came to this country to be free from religious oppression ... or did they? Apparently you feel differently.

Keep your nose, your hands, and your mouth off of everybody else's business. You aren't just asking people to do "the right thing" as you see it, you're gathering together in mobs and blackmailing the politicians to enforce it.

Hilarious, if it weren't so dishonest and despicable. Why not buy time to show a mother living in poverty who gave birth to a vegetable because she'd been brainwashed by Religious Anti-Choicers?

Your own rhetoric is inevitably hateful and obscene. You do not communicate--you screech, sometimes, in the thousands as you did in Washington. At other times you kill, as in the case of Dr. Tiller.

Don't lecture us. You embarrass yourself, Mr. Daly. Just stay away from the Congress. No one elected you to represent him/her. And, if you object to abortion, don't have one. Leave the rest of us alone.

Alex,

I'm sorry that we Christians have hurt you with some of our words and actions in the past. There are going to be some fundamental things that we disagree on, but we need to remain civil and decent human beings during the discourse.

Regarding that, what bothers me Alex is the fact you're resorting to mockery and name-calling regarding this situation. It's fascinating to me that so many of the negative responses I've read regarding the Tebow ad are filled with intolerance and hate towards Focus on the Family, the Tebows, CBS, etc. You folks are the ones who extol tolerance and acceptance as virtues above and beyond all other virtues: why can you not extend that grace to people who may have opposing viewpoints?

fr the article:

>...We at Focus on the Family - unabashedly, unapologetically, unwaveringly pro-life - are more interested in cultural change....

WHAT a load of trash. Mr. Daly, you would be well advised to watch the excellent documentary, "For the Bible Tells Me So", about what YOUR little bff jimmy dobdork did to a family with a gay son who just wanted to give him a letter. jimmy did not even have the courtesy to put his big floppy toe outside of his little fortress, but had them illegally ARRESTED.

Focus is NOT "interested in cultural change", sir. If they were, they would not be so anti-gay.