College football star and Heisman trophy winner Tim Tebow gained national attention recently by wearing Scripture passages on his face during high profile football games.
Now it looks like he has another project in the works—this time starring in a Super Bowl ad with his mother, where the message might just be a pro-life one:
“The Colorado Springs-based media ministry shot the ad with the Tebows Tuesday in Orlando, Focus spokesman Gary Schneeberger said this morning. It is set to air before and then again during the CBS broadcast of the game from Dolphin Stadium near Miami, he said. Tebow and his mother will share one of their many personal family-affirming stories, Schneeberger said, but he wouldn’t reveal which one. One such story could be her decision to carry him to term despite a life-threatening pregnancy in the Philippines where she and her husband Bob were serving as Christian missionaries.”
(Read more about the story of his mother’s difficult pregnancy with him—where she defied doctors’ advice to have an abortion.)
The Evangelical Christian organization Focus on the Family is funding the 2.5 million dollar ad. President and CEO Jim Daly says of Tim and his mother:
“Tim and Pam share our respect for life and our passion for helping families thrive. Focus on the Family is about ... strengthening families by empowering them with the tools they need to live lives rooted in morals and values.”
The Tebows have a powerful pro-life story, and I hope they will be given the opportunity to share it with a national audience. There still is the possibility that CBS will decline to run the ad, as NBC did with last year’s effort by Catholic Vote.
I am pleased to see a young athlete using his fame and talent to promote the cause of life, but there are some who predict that an alliance with Focus on the Family will lead to negative publicity for Tebow.
“So far Tim Tebow’s own personal charisma has served to mask some of the intolerance associated with his own religious beliefs,” writes college football analyst Clay Travis. “By taking an avowed stand against abortion on the same day America celebrates the greatest sporting day on the calendar, Tim Tebow is taking a huge risk and stepping into a new arena.”
Whether or not it’s a significant risk remains to be seen. Either way, Tebow appears to believe it’s one worth taking. I admire him for that.