Tebow, Palin, and the Pain of Remorse

Originally posted at American Thinker.

Tim Tebow is really annoying to certain people in a Sarah Palin sort of way.  Whenever Tim or Sarah shows up, an uncomfortable feeling accompanies him or her, and it’s called conviction.  One definition for “convict” is “to impress with a sense of guilt.”  That is precisely what Tim Tebow and Sarah Palin are guilty of: impressing shame and remorse upon America that it would prefer to avoid.

The Palin family has been mocked and derided for many reasons, including baby boy Trig, born with Down Syndrome.  This past spring, after former Gov. Palin posted a birthday tribute to her son, former Wonkette writer Jack Stuef called Trig a “magic intellectually disabled baby prop.”  Stuef questioned “Trig’s parentage, implying he was conceived in incest, and used the R word.”  Stuef has since apologized and said he regretted using the word “retarded,” but he stands by his criticism of Palin.

By approving of and promoting policies that destroy innocent human life, the left is hateful enough.  However, when a conservative public figure “chooses” life, what emanates from hate-spewing liberals amounts to a new level of vitriol.

That rage is evidenced by liberal reactions to Sarah Palin, who celebrates the life of a child whom some liberals would deem a disposable burden on society.  Palin said it so well in a 2011 Thanksgiving tribute to Trig when she shared:

Through Trig, I see firsthand that there is man’s standard of perfection, and then there is God’s.  Man’s standard is flawed, temporary, and shallow.  God’s standard lasts an eternity.  At the end of the day, His is what matters.

And what about that pesky Tim Tebow?  In 1987, Tim’s mother Pam chose to grant her son the gift of life.  Pregnant and suffering from a life-threatening infection, Pam Tebow, a missionary with her husband Robert to the Philippines, was told that her and Robert’s child would be stillborn.  Rather than take the advice of her doctor and abort, Pam Tebow chose to trust God.

Both mother and baby survived, and today, much like Sarah and Trig Palin, Pam and Tim Tebow both pose a problematic contradiction to one of the strongest arguments abortion advocates use when arguing to justify disposing of the unborn.

To this day, 24 years after proving the doctor wrong, starting quarterback for the Denver Broncos Tim Tebow remains downright annoying.  Every time he makes an appearance on the football field, without opening his mouth, the abortion survivor takes all the fun out of the sport.  Why?  Because pro-choice America is forced to look into the face of a strapping miracle child whose mother put his life ahead of her own.

To make matters worse, not only did the Tebow family allow the child to be born, but they then did the unthinkable and raised him to be a devout Christian.

Now, as a football star, Tebow is open about that faith and his relationship to Christ, and that bold testimony has become a center of controversy.  Mike McCarthy of USA Today says that when he “tunes in to watch sports[,] he deserves to just get sports,” and sort of resents Tim thanking and praising God.

Former Denver Bronco quarterback Jake Plummer agrees.  Plummer extended kudos to Tebow’s accomplishments as a football player but tempered his enthusiasm by saying:

Tebow, regardless of whether I wish he’d just shut up after a game and go hug his teammates, I think he’s a winner and I respect that about him. I think that when he accepts the fact that we know that he loves Jesus Christ then I think I’ll like him a little better. I don’t hate him because of that, I just would rather not have to hear that every single time he takes a good snap or makes a good handoff.

Unbowed, Tim graciously responded to the criticism by attesting that his relationship with Jesus Christ is the most important thing in his life.  Tebow said, “So any time I get an opportunity to tell Him that I love Him or given an opportunity to shout Him out on national TV, I’m gonna take that opportunity.”

What Jake Plummer doesn’t realize is that even if Tim Tebow never says another word about Jesus, forgoes writing John 3:16 in his eye black, decides to relinquish his virginity before marriage, and never again teams up with Focus on the Family to sponsor pro-life ads during the Super Bowl, his mere presence on the planet speaks volumes to a secular society driven by heartless liberal policies.

Not only does abortion survivor Tim Tebow live, but as a staunch follower of Jesus Christ, he is a source of double-conviction in a godless world where devotion to sports often supersedes commitment to God.

Based on the left’s reaction, seems Trig Palin and Tim Tebow are huge thorns in the side of pro-choice America.  So are their mothers, who, if they’d only exercised the right to choose, would have made life a lot more comfortable for those who would rather avoid dredging up past mistakes.

Instead, every time Trig or Tim shows up, those who would rather look away are forced to stare into a looking glass that reflects dedication to heroes who are no heroes at all, images associated with the sorrow of abortion, and the senseless self-interest of a nation’s ungodly attachment to a level of futility that, in the end, delivers nothing but a lifetime of regret.