Goodbye, Tim Tebow

My Twitter feed was full of rejoicing over Denver’s loss to the Patriots yesterday. That’s how much people despise Tim Tebow and his sanctimonious “uber-Christian” public prayers. That strikes me as pretty sad: if your display of religious faith is so over the top that it actually turns people off, you’re doing it wrong. But hey, Tebow won’t be tebowing anymore, at least not on our TeeVees, not until next season. Maybe we can all get over our damn selves in the meantime.

I saw this in yesterday’s New York Times and struck me as just wrong:

Decent people who are proud of their faith, do good things and succeed in life tend to irritate some of us; they remind us of our private failures, so, naturally, we hope they stumble. Spectacularly. Face-first into the mud.

Er, no. That’s tantamount to Mitt Romney’s “they’re just jealous” argument. Tim Tebow’s public faith displays don’t annoy me because they remind me he’s perfect and I’m not. They annoy me because they strike me as overwrought and self-important. I’m sure Tim Tebow loves his god and is being sincere, but publicly taking a knee every time something good happens at a game doesn’t put the spotlight on god, it puts the spotlight on Tim Tebow. Again: you’re doing it wrong.

This is the thing I really don’t get about evangelical Christianity: it’s so “me” centered. You see it in the modern worship songs that fill every mega church on Sundays:

Over the Mountains and the Seas,
Your river runs with Love for me,
And I will open up my heart
And let the healer set me free.

I’m happy to be in the truth
And I will daily lift my hands,
For I will always sing of when your love came down.

This isn’t a song about God, it’s a song about the singer. The words “I,” “me” and “my” appear more often than references to the Divine. (By the way for those who don’t know, these are the lyrics to “I Could Sing Of Your Love Forever,”probably the most performed modern worship song ever.) This is evangelical Christianity in a nutshell: But enough about God! Here’s what I think of God!

Also, I’m just curious but does Tebow tebow after losing a game or a missed pass, too? Shouldn’t he? Wouldn’t that be a true sign of humility and faith? A demonstration of “not my will but thine”? (Maybe he does do this, I honestly don’t know.)

C’mon, evangelicals. It’s really not supposed to be all about you. It’s supposed to be about God. And yet, you make it about you all the time. Everything is always about you. Your view of morality, your interpretation of the Bible, your faith. Or lack of faith: because if you folks had a shred of faith at all you wouldn’t be so damn worried about everything all the time, trying to control everything everyone else does and passing laws to make sure we all live the way you think we should. If you had faith you’d let God be in control. You’d trust in God — you know, like the money says we do? But no. Instead you try to control everyone and everything else, like you’re so special.

Like you’re God.

I really don’t care whether Tim Tebow or any athlete is religious or not. I do think there’s a big helping of hypocrisy in the public attention he’s received. If he were a Muslim and bowed to Mecca after every touchdown, would everyone think that’s so great? I’m thinking we’d hear people shrieking about Sharia football.

Anyway, this clip from Jimmy Fallon struck me as rather on point.