TIM TEBOW: My Most Valuable Player

Although Tim Tebow is not expected to be named among MVP candidates in the 2011 National Football League, he is my MVP (Most Valuable Player). As a quarterback for the Denver Broncos, he could not compare statistically with other quarterbacks in the league. However during the season, Tebow was named America’s favorite active pro athlete in an ESPN fan-based poll. Interestingly, that poll included the likes of Michael Jordan, LeBron James and Tiger Woods.  

In analyzing Tebow’s contribution to football, one should not limit one’s analysis to his two seasons with the Broncos. In his final year at Nease High School in Florida, he was ranked among the top quarterback prospects in the nation as a high school senior. He attended the University of Florida and was responsible for helping the football team to national championships. During the 2007 season, Tebow became the first college sophomore to win the prized Heisman Trophy. At the end of his college career, he was rated as one of the most accomplished players in college football history.

Despite his achievements on the field, many disliked Tim Tebow. Some claim his style of play and throwing accuracy would not get him anywhere in professional football. His first season with the Broncos was not impressive. Out of five games in the second season, his team had won one, when he was invited to play as a starting quarterback. His presence was responsible for a remarkable turn around for the team. A survey of more than 1,000 persons by Atlanta-based Poll Position, found that 43% of those who said they were aware of Tebow’s success, believe it was at least partly the result of divine intervention.

Tebow’s habit of kneeling in prayer on the sideline of the field, during games, allowed his faith to become a public display. In post-game meetings with the media, Tebow unashamedly expressed his thanks to God for affording him the opportunity to be an ambassador for Christ on the field. Although a novelty to many in professional football, Tebow was known for public displays of his faith in high school and throughout his college career.

His public kneeling, now known globally as ‘Tebowing’, along with other displays of faith on and off the field have impressed and disturbed many. Some commentators have used some of the most vitriolic and venomous language to describe him. The viciousness in the media has led many to believe that the problem is more about Tebow’s lifestyle choices than about football.

Tebow has just begun his career as a professional footballer. Other beginners have been given time to develop and excel as professionals, why can’t similar treatment be extended to Tebow?

Some dislike Tebow because of envy. In his short stint as a professional, his marketability has soared. For a while his jerseys were the number one seller in the National Football League. The Davie-Brown Index, an independent marketing research tool, found Tebow to be more appealing and more of a trendsetter than some 2011 NFL-MVP candidates. 

His philanthropy combined with his national awards make him an easy choice for companies. At an event in Nashville (2010), Tebow confirmed that multiple companies told him before his pro-life Super Bowl advertisement for Focus on the Family, that they could not let him represent their products. According to Tebow, “losing such sponsors was a small price to pay for the ability to spread the message about family and faith.” He told his Nashville audience, “be willing to stand alone and to stand for something; to live life with passion; and to finish strong.”

Just before each football game, when most pro-athletes are tense and ignore team-mates and family members, Tebow makes it a point to visit with some who are less fortunate. At his own expense, he pays airfares for some less fortunate fans and their families to meet with him. He pays for their hotel and meals, gets them pre-game passes and visits with them before and after games.

Raised by Christian missionary parents, Tebow has for years said that football is simply “a platform” for bigger things. One of those bigger things is the Tim Tebow Foundation. According to the Foundation’s president, Erik Dellenback, “before the Broncos’ first playoff game against the Pittsburgh Steelers, the Foundation had 100 members, within two days after Tebow’s team won, the membership grew to 4,000 members.” Dellenback further disclosed to The Huffington Post, that “Tebow pays all of the foundation staff and administrative costs, so that all donations go to the outreach efforts.”

According to The Christian Science Monitor, “charity appears to be central to Tebow’s character and his life, not an extra or an activity incidental to his football career.” It is for these and other reasons (like the hospital he is building in the Philippines); Tim Tebow is My Most Valuable Player.

AN ANNIVERSARY OF Ethnic Slaughter

The abortion industry has had a greater impact on African-Americans than any other ethnic group in America. According to Dr. Clenard Childress, “Blacks represent the only ethnic group in the country whose numbers are declining.” 

According to the current issue of Christianity Today, the disproportionate number of abortions among African Americans has spurred prolifers to charge that abortion providers are systematically targeting blacks and other minority groups for abortion. “Presently, for every two African-American women who get pregnant, one will choose to abort” (Rev. Dr. Clenard Childress Jr., the founder of (www.blackgenocide.org).

As the nation celebrates another anniversary of that 1973 landmark decision by the Supreme Court (Roe v. Wade), the African-American community should be in tears. Since that time the community has lost more than 18 million lives, some one third of the present African-American population. In other words, the community is losing more than 1,300 babies a day.

Statistics from The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirm that abortion is the leading cause of death in African-American communities. As a matter of fact, since 1973, more African-Americans have lost their lives to abortion than to heart disease, cancer, accidents, violent crimes or AIDS combined. This means that although African-Americans represent only 13% of the population of the United States, they account for some 36% of the abortions performed in the country (Guttmacher Institute, Planned Parenthood’s research arm).

The city-by-city statistics are staggering. For instance, about 60% of abortions done in New York City are done on black women. The Pennsylvania Department of Health reports that about 50% of black babies are aborted each year since 1973.

To whom do we turn to avert this genocide? We cannot depend on the politicians in Washington to respond to this phenomenon. Currently in Congress, every member of the Black Caucus can be identified as pro-choice. The result of this ideological position means that there are almost no African American voices raised in defense of the unborn in the nation’s legislative branch.

Within the church, some are afraid to touch the subject – they believe “this world is not my home…I’m just a-passing through.” The attitude, leave it alone, we are pilgrims.

Thankfully, that has not always been the attitude of the church. The late Dr. James Kennedy, in his book, What if Jesus Had Never Been Born, contends that “it was a dangerous thing for a baby to be conceived in classical Rome or Greece. In those days, abortion was rampant. It was common for infirmed babies or unwanted little ones to be taken out into the forest or the mountainside, to be consumed by wild animals or to starve or to be picked up by rather strange people. Parents abandoned virtually all deformed babies.”

In ancient Rome, Christians saved many of these babies and brought them up in the faith. Abortion disappeared in the early Church. Infanticide and abandonment disappeared. The cry went out to bring the children to church. This was the environ-ment in which orphanages and nursery-homes were started to care for the children. These new practices, based on a higher view of life, helped to create a foundation in Western civilization for an ethic of human life.

It was that higher view of life, often referred to as the sanctity of life, to which many Christians were committed throughout history. As a result, women were treated with dignity. The most recent issue of Christian History reminds us of the role of the church in establishing hospitals and health care centers in the first century.

It was that Christian understanding of the sanctity of life that challenged slavery, cannibalism, animal rights and sati, as was practiced for centuries in India.

I share the view, that if you remove the teachings of Jesus from the history of the world, life would be devalued. Janine Simpson illustrates this in her story, published in the current issue of Christianity Today. Janine and her girl friends didn’t think twice about having abortions. In her all-black Detroit neighborhood, teen abortions were the norm…the local abortion clinic was a fixture.

After Simpson’s own abortion in her freshman year of college, things changed. She became a Christian and after graduation developed a passion to help other women with unplanned pregnancies. Today she is an ordained minister assisting hundreds of teenagers to value healthy sexuality and the sanctity of human life.  

Honestly, I still believe Jesus makes a difference! We have almost 2,000 years of history with stories like Janine Simpson to prove the point.

MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.: His Letter from Prison

I just finished reading two letters. Both letters were written in April, 1963. The first entitled, “A Call for Unity”, was written by eight Alabama clergymen to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The second letter was Dr. King’s reply, entitled, “Letter from a Birmingham Jail”.

Allow me to provide the background that warranted the writing of the letters. African Americans were living under some of the most horrendous conditions. Their churches and homes were being firebombed. Jim Crow laws prevented them from sharing with whites in various public settings - their sense of worth was denied.

Civil rights leaders peacefully protested the injustices of segregation. In order to protest, even peacefully, it was necessary to break Alabama’s segregation laws. In responding to this situation, the eight clergymen wrote to Dr. King. Their letter was “an appeal for law and order and common sense.”

They asked for the discontinuation of the protests. They cautioned that the demonstrations were providing opportunities for others to become violent. Hence, in order to avoid possible violence, discontinue the demonstrations; obey the law and resort to dialog with the authorities.

Dr. King’s response from the Birmingham City Jail should be read by everyone interested in civil discourse. The spirit and tone of the letter is a lesson in civility and Christian grace. As he came to the end of the ten page document (single-space), he said, “If I have said anything in this letter that overstates the truth and indicates an unreasonable impatience, I beg you to forgive me. If I have said anything that understates the truth and indicates my having a patience that allows me to settle for anything less that brotherhood, I beg God to forgive me.”

Other than the tone of the letter, Dr. King’s response was well-reasoned, biblical and sensitive to needs of hurting people. Although he never challenged the good intentions of the clergymen, he clearly challenged their devotion to “order” at the expense of “justice”. In essence, the clergymen were asking that their peace be maintained, as peace was delayed and denied for others.

The clergymen believed Dr. King’s peaceful demonstrations were tantamount to extremism. To this charge, he reminded them that Jesus was an extremist for love. He called for a radical reaction to opposition – “Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you” (Matthew 5:43-44).
As though that were not radical enough, Dr. King went on to site the Old Testament prophet Amos. He was an extremist for justice when he said, “Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever flowing stream” (Amos 5:24).

For Dr. King, the issue was not merely being branded as extremist, “but rather, what kind of extremists we will be.” He went on to ask, “Will we be extremists for the preservation of injustice or for the extension of justice?”

Quoting St. Thomas Aquinas, Dr. King contended, “any law that uplifts human personality is just. Any law that degrades human personality is unjust.” As such, all segregation laws were unjust – they damaged human personality. “Segregation gives the segregator a false sense of superiority and the segregated a false sense of inferiority.”

Here we are, almost forty years since those letters were written and no one knows the names of the clergymen. However, Dr. King’s name and con-tribution are known around the world – as a matter of fact, to be able to honor his birthday with a national holiday speaks volumes.

A fitting tribute to Dr. King would be to revisit his legacy. As mentioned earlier, I would recommend reading both letters, available online. In addition, apply his civility to the issues of our day:
-Abortion within minority groups;

- Unemployment, especially among minorities;

- Increasing legalization of gambling;
- Disdain for the institution of traditional marriage; - Immigration and deportation; and

- The demonization of the Christian worldview.

Some of these issues I intend addressing in up-coming commentaries.

In my last commentary, I referred to Mahatma Gandhi as a Muslim – I was wrong. Gandhi is a Hindu – I’m sorry.

HOLY WAR IN Peaceful Bethlehem

At a time when thousands of Christian visitors were hoping for peace in Bethlehem during the Christmas season, they were greeted to a fight among some priests. The fight had nothing to do with terrorism, which often plagues the area; it was a scuffle among Christian orthodox priests.
Bemused visitors looked on as 100 priests fought with brooms while cleaning Bethlehem’s Church of the Nativity. Greek Orthodox priests set up ladders to clean the walls and ceilings of their part of the church. However, the ladders encroached on space controlled by Armenian priests. For about fifteen minutes bearded and robed priests laid into each other with fists, brooms and iron rods. A Bethlehem police officer saw it as a trivial problem, in that fights among priests occur every year. Thankfully, no one was seriously injured and no one was arrested "because all those involved were men of God," said the police.

The Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem is one of the oldest continuously operating churches in the world. The 1,700 year-old-church was built over the cave that tradition marks as the birthplace of Jesus. The church is administered jointly by Roman Catholic, Greek Orthodox and Armenian Apostolic authorities. Clashes among Orthodox priests which share the administration, have often been sparked by perceived territorial encroachments.

In reporting the story, AlJazeera News reminded readers that Christmas is traditionally a time for putting disagreements aside. "But peace and harmony were put aside at the Bethlehem Church." Honestly, if these fights are mild, according to the police, then why should the story generate such interest in the media around the world?

Firstly, the behavior is so inconsistent with what the Church of the Nativity represents. If the location is correct, this is where the angel announced the birth of Jesus to the shepherds. In reporting the story, Luke quoted the angel: "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom His favor rests" (Luke 2:14).

In addition, the behavior of the priests was not consistent with the teachings of Jesus. In His Sermon on the Mount, Jesus gave clear guidelines as to how we should relate to those with whom we differ (Matthew 5:43-48).

We cannot avoid meeting people who differ from us and even hate us. Some share differences of opinion in politics, in sports and more so in religion. For the Orthodox Churches, their differences go as far back as the fifth century. In 1852 custody of the Church of the Nativity was granted to the Roman Catholic, Armenian and Greek Orthodox Churches. Unfortunately, the rivalry among these churches extends even to Jerusalem, at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher (Church of the Resurrection). It is believed that this church was built on the spot where Jesus was crucified.

When confronted with a history of rivalry, what is the best course of action to break the curse? At such times we need to establish boundaries to determine what actions we would take from what we would not take. In addition, our actions must always be consistent with who we are and for what we stand. We must never forget that people will remember us more for what we do than for what we say.

Sometimes it is so easy to judge the priests in Bethlehem but overlook the ongoing bitterness we cause in family and church encounters. Like the priests, we maintain generational hurts by transferring bitterness to our children, and ultimately to the next generation.

History is replete with stories of pain that could have been avoided. One such story comes from the eleventh century, when Pope Urban II launched the first crusade against the Muslims. Agreed, the Seljuk Turks were wrong when they took control of Jerusalem and prevented Christian pilgrimages. Here we are, 1,000 years later, and some historians still throw the excessive reactions of eleventh century Christians in our faces.

Interestingly, Pope Urban II had access to the non-violent words of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount. So did the Hindu, Mahatma Gandhi, when he studied law in London. Gandhi practiced the words of Jesus and became known as the father of non-violence. The Christian leader, Pope Urban II did otherwise.

GREAT COMMISSION: Evangelism or Proselytism?

Christianity is a missionary religion. It needs converts to survive. Whereas membership in some religions is dependent on birth, Christianity depends on belief. Believers are called converts.

Traditionally, the process of seeking converts is called evangelism. For Christians, evangelism is not an optional novelty, it is a biblical mandate. Very early in His ministry, Jesus sent out His disciples in groups of twos (Mark 6:7). In what has come to be known as The Great Commission, Jesus literally commanded His disciples to “make disciples” as they were going into the world (Matthew 28:19).

The disciples of Jesus understood this mandate and evangelized their world. Actually, within forty days of His resurrection, more than 500 converts assembled to hear their Master teach (1 Corinthians 15:6). We can only assume that smaller groups of converts gathered to hear Him. One such group of 120 persons met shortly after His ascension (Acts 1:15).

Fifty days following the resurrection of Jesus, the rate of converts to Christianity was phenomenal. Luke tells the story in the book of Acts. Here he records the first 35 years of church history and clearly identifies patterns of growth among converts, as a result of evangelism:

ACTS 2:41

“…about 3,000 were added to their number that day.”

ACTS 4:3-5

“But many who heard the message believed, and the number of men grew to about 5,000”

ACTS 5:14

“Nevertheless, more and more men and women believed in the Lord and were added.”

In response to this rapid growth of converts, the High Priest in the Jewish Sanhedrin declared, “Yet you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching…”

(Acts 5:28).

The pattern of growth increased following the conversion of Paul, some three years after the resurrection of Jesus (Acts 9). Actually, within the first 30 years of Jesus’ commission, all the main cities of the Mediterranean had converts.

Today, some 2,000 years later, the conversion rate continues to increase around the world. About 33% of the world’s seven billion people claim to be converts to Christianity.

The response to this phenomenal growth has always made opponents to Christianity uncomfortable. The history of objection has resulted in torture, various forms of persecution and death. Within recent years, more developed countries have resorted to more sophisticated methods to dissuade conversions to Christianity.

In today’s post-modern world, it is not unusual to hear Christian evangelism being referred to as proselytism. The connotations of proselytism are often negative and used to describe attempts to force people to convert from one tradition to another. Historically, Jews used the term to describe a non-Jew who converted to Judaism.   

Whereas proselytism implies, an obligation to convert, evangelism is different. Etymologically, evangelism comes from two Greek words, meaning good and message/news. The focus is on the content of the message and not the response of the hearer. Hence, evangelism is sometimes defined as the practice of relaying information about a particular set of beliefs to others who do not hold to those beliefs.  

Evangelism anticipates one of three responses to the message – delay, rejection or acceptance. Jesus got these responses and told His disciples to expect similar responses. Paul experienced each of those responses following his address in Athens – “some of them sneered…others, we’ll hear you again… and a few became followers…” (Acts 17:32-34).

Are Christians then guilty of proselytism? In the process of doing evangelism, some are guilty of proselytism. We are called to evangelize - in the process, God will do the converting. Thankfully, we will be rewarded for faithfulness as witnesses or evangelists. Hearers are responsible for their response to the Good News.