The Crucifixion of Tim Tebow

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His name is Tim Tebow, whose battle is the cultural war that so many conservatives claimed to have fought during the 1980s, 90s, and even to this day.

{snip} In 1992, Vice President Dan Quayle could voice opposition to the eponymous character of Murphy Brown for having a child out of wedlock.

In 2011, the show Glee — with scant opposition — broadcast an episode with a gay sex scene. Few examples illustrate the left’s victory better than watching 10 minutes of a random Glee episode.

Only twice during the cultural wars has the left really slipped up. Once was during 2004’s disastrous attack on Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ, when the fury coming from the punditry class mobilized a remnant of what Sam Francis dubbed Middle American Radicals (MARs) to rally behind the film and help make Mad Max a mega-millionaire.

The other leftist slip-up has been Tim Tebow. {snip} Quarterbacking the Denver Broncos from the AFC West cellar to a playoff bid, Tebow has been a catalyst for the same type of vitriolic attacks that Gibson’s depiction of the crucifixion endured.

By being a public face for the side that so thoroughly lost the cultural wars, the son of Christian missionaries — whose mother was told by a doctor he should be aborted because of complications during her pregnancy — has been attacked with extreme prejudice by the victorious side.

Bill Maher recently tweeted this after Tebow tossed four interceptions in the Broncos’ second consecutive loss:

“Wow, Jesus just f**ked #TimTebow bad! And on Xmas Eve! Somewhere … Satan is tebowing, saying to Hitler “Hey, Buffalo’s killing them.”

“Tebowing” is a derogatory term for when Tim gets on one knee and prays after a big play or victory during a game. Would the NFL allow players to mock Tebow if he was a Muslim? Would the media mock him?

But because Christianity — especially public displays of it — is viewed as an anachronism in the world the left controls, Tebow is fair game.

Maher understands that occasionally poking and prodding the cultural war’s losers is good for business, but he doesn’t realize how much Tebow has connected with your typical MARs who don’t follow football but bought ten tickets to see The Passion of the Christ.

As with Gibson, companies that invested in Tebow are seeing a huge return on investment.

Borrowing a page out of the primarily Jewish attacks on Gibson for producing a reputedly anti-Semitic film, Rabbi Joshua Hammerman wrote in The Jewish Week:

If Tebow wins the Super Bowl, against all odds, it will buoy his faithful, and emboldened faithful can do insane things, like burning mosques, bashing gays and indiscriminately banishing immigrants. While America has become more inclusive since Jerry Falwell’s first political forays, a Tebow triumph could set those efforts back considerably.

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One should ask Rabbi Hammerman what type of worldview he envisions without pesky types such as Tebow. Is it one where white, heterosexual Christians are bashed without fear of reprisal?

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{snip} By his mere existence, and seeing the huge reaction he receives (and the merchandise he is moving all across the country), Tim Tebow’s polarizing popularity shows that the cultural wars are perhaps not over after all.

Some football purists scoff at the idea of a quarterback with Tebow’s skill set (Tim runs the ball more than your normal drop-back passing QB) succeeding in the NFL, but since he replaced Kyle Orton the Broncos are 7-4 with their Bible-thumping Puritan at the helm.

Tebow’s magical run has been chronicled each Sunday on The Drudge Report, with Matt Drudge realizing that his conservative readership is becoming vested in the Broncos signal-caller’s story.

In a league where the 2010 Comeback Player of the Year was a sociopathic canine-killer, Tebow’s character on and off the field seems better suited for some Norman Rockwell painting.

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