Tim Tebow is an excellent college football player in the United States. He has won the Heisman trophy as the top college player and set a bunch of records. He is open about his Christian faith to the point where he wears bible verses on his face during games. If you are curious the reference above from Ephesians is "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do."
Today, Superbowl Sunday, Tebow will be in the spotlight again, not as a player but as a controversial spokesperson for the anti-abortion movement in the States. Tebow is the son of Christian missionaries and years ago, while living in the Philippines, his very ill mother, Pam, was advised to have an abortion. She chose to go ahead with the pregnancy and birth and --you guessed it -- son Tim is the child.
There will be an expensive commercial during the Superbowl with Tebow and Pam at the centre. Critics are asking how the conservative religious group, Focus on the Family, got approval to air this ad when a commercial for the United Methodist denomination was refused a few years ago because it showed a church welcoming a gay couple.
What do you think of this commercial? Should the group he represents be allowed freedom of expression, if they have the money to pay for the ad (about 2.5 million dollars for 30 seconds)?
NO the commercial should not be shown!
ReplyDeleteHard, if not impossible to say! What a tough call.
ReplyDeleteAre there no US equivalents to CRTC regulations? Wonder how this issue would look through the prism of said regulations ...
I don't have a problem with the specifics of this years ad because freedom of speech is important. Hearing though that another more liberal church was declined previously has me wondering.
ReplyDeleteI suppose my answer depends on who is okaying and barring the ads., the networks or a government watchdog?
And now..."the Saints go marching in" and I am happy for New Orleans
In the end the ad was low-key and even light-hearted. It made it's point without slamming it home. Just type Tebow Superbowl ad into a search engine and you can watch it.
ReplyDeleteI tend toward freedom of speech, as long as it is extended to everyone. I find it disturbing that over $2 million was spent on this. Surely the money could have been better spent supporting adoption, or some other cause.