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Tebow and other pro-life football giants
By David Waters
Quarterback Tim Tebow, who will star in a controversial pro-life TV commercial during the Super Bowl, isn't the first football hero to carry the pro-life banner in public. Former pro stars such as Darrell Green of the Washington Redskins to Chad Hennings of the Dallas Cowboys have widely and willingly shared their pro-life views.
The year before Tebow was born, New York Giants owner Wellington Mara formed Athletes for Life, which led to production of a bold pro-life video featuring six members of the 1986 Super Bowl champion Giants, including quarterback Phil Simms. Before he died in 2005, Mara became an outspoken board member of the anti-abortion American Life League. "I would like to urge the leaders of our business and professional communities to commit their time, their talents and their treasures to further the cause of the American Life League," Mara said in 1990.
Mara did just that, helping produce the nine-minute "Champions for Life" video distributed to church and pro-life groups across the country. The video never aired on national television, and this was long before YouTube, so it never generated as much controversy as the reportedly much tamer Tebow ad. But the two football-hero, pro-life videos, two decades apart, show how the pro-life movement is adapting the today's hyper-partisan, 24/7 culture wars.
Imagine the eruptions in the blogosphere and cablenewsworld if Tebow said something like what Pro-Bowl tight end Mark Bavaro said in the 1989 video: "At the end of the game, all the Giants left the field as champions. Now, with abortion death squads allowed to run rampant throughout the country, I wonder how many future champions will be killed before they see the light of day."
By all accounts, the Tebow ad, which will also feature Tebow's mother Pam, won't be nearly as bold or belligerent. "There's nothing political about the ad. Nothing shocking or divisive. Nothing "anti" anything," wrote Jim Daly, president of Focus on the Family, which produced the ad. "It's just an inspiring story from the Tebows - as much as can be fit into 30 seconds, anyway - about celebrating family and celebrating life."
The Tebows have told their story countless times, even on ESPN. When Tebow's mother was pregnant with Tim, her fifth child, she contracted an amoeba, which severely dehydrated her and landed her comatose in the hospital. Mrs. Tebow's physician recommended that she have an abortion, but she and her husband, both Christian missionaries in the Philippines, decided against the procedure. Her husband pleaded with God to let their son live. "I just prayed, I said, 'God if you want another preacher in this world, give him to me and I'll raise him,'" said Bob Tebow to ESPN. "He's a miracle baby."
Focus on the Family's focus on the "miracle baby" story reflects Daly's new kinder, gentler leadership of an organization led for so long by the old culture warrior James Dobson. The 1989 "Champions for Life" video reflected the deep convictions of Mara, a devout Roman Catholic, as well as the more zealous approach by the American Life League -- whose "The Deadly Dozen" ads call on bishops to refuse Holy Communion to pro-choice politicians such as Vice President Joe Biden and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
The two approaches two decades apart also show how the pro-life movement has shifted its emphasis from "abortion death squads" to "celebrating family," as Frances Kissling of Catholics for Choice and Kate Michelman of NARAL Pro-Choice America pointed out in Sunday's Washington Post. "Conservative groups, such as Focus on the Family, have gotten that message. They know to save the fire and brimstone for their hardcore base; for Super Bowl Sunday, you appeal to people's hearts with a smiling baby -- or Tim Tebow and his mom."
Or Sarah and Bristol Palin and the choices both of them made to have children in difficult circumstances -- Bristol became pregnant when she was in high school and Sarah's baby was diagnosed in utero with Down syndrome. "God has richly blessed us with things that perhaps look less than ideal," Sarah Palin said in a recent magazine article entitled "We're Glad We Chose Life."
Are you more likely to listen to and be persuaded by a pro-life celebrity's personal story, as opposed to that celebrity's personal opinion? Do you think this "appeal to people's hearts" and to religious arguments will have a greater and perhaps lasting impact on the pro-life movement's efforts to reverse Roe V. Wade?
David Waters
| February 1, 2010; 12:25 PM ET | Category: Today's Topic Save & Share:
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Posted by: lepidopteryx | February 1, 2010 3:22 PM
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First, Tebow is not a football giant of any sort. Darrell Green is a pro-life football giant. While I might not agree with Green's positions on abortion, I will respect him as a man with significant life experience, both on and off the football field, and mature judgment.
Second, apropos "Are you more likely to listen to and be persuaded by a pro-life celebrity's personal story, as opposed to that celebrity's personal opinion", I'm not particularly concerned with any "celebrity"'s opinion on matters of faith and morals. If I were to pick a "celebrity", I might think of, say, Madonna, who has actually spent some time on comparative religion -- I have no idea about her position on reproductive medicine.
As far as "culture wars", don't assume CBS is making more than a business decision, and is any arbiter of morals. Indeed, if they allowed Focus on the Family but refused a gay dating service ad, and a case could be made that this did not optimize revenue, they would be vulnerable to a shareholder suit for violating their fiduciary obligations.
Now, in shooting wars, as Sun Tzu observed, the best general wins without fighting. If one must fight, shooting one's opponent in the back is militarily sound, if it is decisive and minimizes one's own casualties.
I'm not sure, however, if the coldblooded calculus of combat applies to culture wars. Without at least the appearance that CBS is not being fair for anyone wanting to run an issue ad, dare one suggest war crime in the culture wars?
Nevertheless, once they threw open the door to issue ads, they are a seller of airtime. Tell me, if the United Churches of Christ -- not the gay dating service -- again offered to pay for an ad welcoming LGBT people to their faith, would CBS still refuse that as inappropriate? If they can make a rational business defense about advertising loss, perhaps. Otherwise, they are on very, very thin ice for a public corporation.
Posted by: HCBerkowitz | February 2, 2010 4:36 PM
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In other words, he was okay with his wife losing her life as long as the baby was born.
Posted by: lepidopteryx | February 1, 2010 3:22 PM
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That's a pretty uncharitable comment, Butterfly.
Might want to consider why you would assume such a negative thing about someone you've never met.
Posted by: ZZim | February 3, 2010 11:38 AM
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ZZIM,
He didn't ask God to let his wife AND the baby live, just the baby. He didn't say, "Let THEM live and WE'LL raise him." He said, "Let HIM live and I'LL raise him."
Posted by: lepidopteryx | February 5, 2010 5:52 PM
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Tom Landry's daughter Lisa had the same thing happen. She chose instead to have the baby and forfeited her own life.
Why is it the pro choice people have already been born? They don't choose when they get born or when they will die. That is in the Lord's hands and I would suggest that one be ready to meet Him.
Posted by: me110g | February 9, 2010 8:55 AM
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Her husband pleaded with God to let their son live. "I just prayed, I said, 'God if you want another preacher in this world, give him to me and I'll raise him,'" said Bob Tebow to ESPN. "
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In other words, he was okay with his wife losing her life as long as the baby was born.