Free Expression with No Reservation

Thank you for your articulate expression of tolerance. It's especially timely in the holiday season. I would like to add one point, which is that atheists are among the most despised and least trusted people on earth. Please see http://www.alternet.org/story/153194/... for an interesting article on the subject.

Thanks for the holiday wishes, but the rest of the column is nonsense.

No one is trying to take away Tim Tebow's freedom, nor is his having been turned into a figure of amusement based on his having made some people uncomfortable or their feeling that his faith is being imposed upon them. It is based, as Andrew Sullivan wrote, on the belief that "Prayer is not supposed to be a public event, designed to display your holiness in front of the maximum number of people." Sullivan cites the words of Jesus: "When you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men.... But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you."

As for the extrapolations to auto users and Wal-Mart, one could make equally irrelevant and absurd claims relating freedom of expression to every single aspect of public policy, from prohibitions on heroin use to restrictions on industrial pollution.

Ms Uribe is creating a "straw man" in suggesting that people are trying to stop Tebow from his very public prayers. The point is that his oh so public displays are weird in that their implication is that he is thanking god or Jesus for his football victories. With thousands of children dying from war and starvation the notion that either of those two have time or inclination to get involved in deciding who wins a football game is actually rather demeaning to true spirituality. I don't really care if he prays 24 seven publicly or privately but I think people of true faith can manage to keep it private. Why he feels the need to so publicly and frequently proclaim and demonstrate his religiosity raises the question of all those super gay bashing congressman who turn out to be closet queens themselves. What does he have to prove?

"Believers have no problem accepting that others may be agnostic, or atheist."

Believers in WHAT? Christian believers VERY often react as though it had never occurred to them that someone might exist who does not subscribe to their belief system. And then the Torquemada in them squirms to the surface, although the hardware comes out only behind their victim's back. (In the Inquisition, the accused was ASKED whether the charges were true, a nicety that hasn't been repeated since the 1700s.) Surely a few of them are chuckling to read this. What delicate soap bubble do some believers inhabit, that the prickles of non-belief arouse them to antagonism?

Spare me the apologetics. Lo, I barf.

Maybe baby Jesus had a message for Tebow this afternoon. He (Tebow, that is) had two passes intercepted and returned for touchdowns 18 seconds apart in a 40-14 loss. I guess Jesus had a preference for the Buffalo Bills today. Surely, he's an inscrutable fellow (Jesus, that is).

At first I thought I was just a grouch but I'm glad that other readers appear to have had the same reaction. While the spirit of this piece might be positive, the words themselves are mostly hogwash.

Love how it's "believers" who are covered in a blanket of tolerance and everyone else is just a hater.
BTW I'm Christian and I find articles like this embarassing to say the least. I'm gonna have to settle down to a screening of Scorsese's "Last Temptation of Christ" just to feel good about Christianity again.

"When you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men.... But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you." (Matthew 6:5-6) -pk-

I was going to say that, but pk beat me to it.

And then: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;" -The First Amendment-

Lebow has the legal right to pray in this manner, but it is in conflict with how the Bible directs Christians to pray. As such, Lebow will draw criticism from people who who don't like Christians, from people who don't care one way or the other about Christians who think he's silly, and from Christians who understand the proper way to pray. Meanwhile, I see nobody taking away his right to express himself in the manner in which he does.

In conclusion: It ain't no big deal.

"Believers have no problem accepting that others may be agnostic, or atheist. Why should agnostics or atheists have a problem accepting the fact that others have a faith?"
Neither side is tolerant of the other.
Personally delivered public displays of faith are profoundly weird and anti Christian, i.e. athletes constantly thanking their Lord and Saviour...whatever.
Atheists think it's fair game to belittle people of faith and any joke about a religious person is acceptable.
How about we keep all of our "personal beliefs" personal and to ourselves and not publicly extort anything that is a personal belief statement?

I don't believe in tolerance, per se, just minding your own business...
Merry Christmas(faith statement AND seasonal/cultural acknowledgement)!

Amenhotep to that, italiansurg!

Personally, I return "Merry Christmas" to store clerks who say it with evident good will. But persons not oozing charisma should forgo that greeting with those not known to be Christians. After all, how would Christians like to be greeted with "God is the Tooth Fairy (or Bigfoot)," apropos of nothing?

Some people are just too analytical for religion. Jesus allegedly said "Ye must become as little children... or no heaven for you!" So keep your comments to yourself, junior. Your polarized "logic" filter is showing, anyway. Magical thinking ain't for everyone. Guess what, believer: just as some annoying people can whip your sorry behind at hoops, others can whip your sorry neocortex at deduction and induction. Yup. Denial is transparent. ("Blah, blah, blah.")

Tim Tebow is an overrated quarterback of a second rate team - and the only reason he's receiving so much attention is because he's politicized his religious affiliation with the Focus on the Family (talk about your oppressive Christian organizations) Superbowl commercial.

If he hadn't successfully used his religious faith as a marketing tool, he'd be just another quarterback entirely unknown to the general, non-NFL watching audience. It has nothing to do with his public displays of faith (he's NOT the only one who does it), but the fact that he's accomplished almost nothing in professional sports to warrant the attention he's receiving that earns him his well-deserved ire.

It is somewhat ironic that a spammer has snuck into this thread.

Spammer?..who would that be? These people are all "regulars".

We Christians have the right--and duty--to share our faith, but as PK pointed out, they do not have the right to act as the hypocrites do with their vain repetitions.

@ Bill
They deleted the post! You can be disappeared here.

Good observations all. I'm reminded that Tebow had Biblical citations written on his face when he was a college quarterback in Florida; see e.g., http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Tebow and scroll down to the "The Tebow Rule." Imagine the outrage if his name was something like Ahmed Mohammed and he had Koranic citations written on his face.

That said, when I suffered a number of quarterback injuries on my fantasy football league team earlier this season, I picked him up right after he became a starter. My team, by the way, is named "Golden Boys," and I'm on the verge of rising from seventh to fifth place.

When it comes to spiritually devout athletes, no one can hold a candle to the King: Muhammed Ali!

Ken: I'd say George Foreman and John Wooden are outstanding examples of spiritual athletes. (Lest we forget, Wooden was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame both as a coach, and a player)

Cassius Clay? Lew Alcindor? I remember them well.

Remember the picture of the two of them in the Guiness Book of World Records posing together with their jabs out and the caption was something like "boxer can't outreach basketball player"?

No, I don't remember the pic; will have to find my 1967 ±two years edition of the Guinness Book, if I still have it, or maybe it's online.