A playoff loss has ended the season for Denver’s professional football team but the national conversation on religion sparked by its most famous player quarterback Tim Tebow is far from over and it holds relevance for us too. A college phenom adjudged unlikely to succeed in the big leagues his dazzling 11th-hour plays led his team to a string of stunning victories over much stronger teams.
What has made this young man one of the most talked-about athletes in decades is his devout religiosity and open pride in his Christian faith. After winning plays he points heavenward and prays on-field and his post-game interviews invariably begin and end with thanks to G-d. His celebrity has given rise to endless discussion in the pundit class about things like the propriety of mixing religion and sports.
But some of the punditry has been laced with subtle derision and although there’s no lack of bias against religion in the media it seems to me that something else is at play here. Tebow represents a powerful threat to secular society for the simple reason that he unwittingly calls its bluff. His personal example rebuts the lip service that society offers to the pursuit of a life well lived.
Ask members of the secular elites what life is all about and the answer will undoubtedly be to live lives of meaning and become the best human beings possible. But talk is cheap as they say and in reality we find precious little serious conversation in society about character refinement about living for the sake of the other about ultimate meaning.
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