The following question was asked by DezyVol on one of the VolQuest fan forums:

Please don’t turn this into a religion bashing thread …

I’m a Christian and have always left God out of sports other than praying for player safety and humility.  I’ve never thought the Almighty would have any interest in sports or their outcome.

That said, it almost hard to not at least somewhere in the back of your mind think Tebow might occasionally receive Divine assistance with sports.  I know determination, motivation, preservation and all that has a lot to do with it, but does anyone think its possible that God rewards/answers Tebow’s prayers concerning sports?

I think its great that he sticks to his beliefs unflinchingly at a time when it is politically incorrect and unpopular to do so.  Could the Almighty being throwing Tim a bone during games so as to better utilize him as a tool to spread the Good Word?

Just curious on your thoughts.

10sevol answered:

Throughout the Bible, God used murderers, harlots, and despots to carry His great message.  Using a Gator would seem like the next logical choice.

This year, I feel just like this little girl in the video below.  My whole October was like this.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUGq8hIBuhQ

Have you seen this story (ESPN version)?  Please watch the video below.

Here’s another account:

A Game of Hope

In the fall of 2008, there was an unusual high school football game played in Grapevine, Texas. The game was between Grapevine Faith Academy and the Gainesville State School. Faith is a Christian school and Gainesville State School is located within a maximum security correction facility.

Gainesville State School has 14 players. They play every game on the road. Their record was 0-8. They’ve only scored twice. Their 14 players are teenagers who have been convicted of crimes ranging from drugs to assault to robbery. Most had families who had disowned them. They wore outdated, used shoulder pads and helmets. Faith Academy was 7-2. They had 70 players, 11 coaches, and the latest equipment.

Chris Hogan, the head coach at Faith Academy , knew the Gainesville team would have no fans and it would be no contest, so he thought, “What if half of our fans and half of our cheerleaders, for one night only, cheered for the other team?” He sent out an email to the faithful asking them to do just that. “Here’s the message I want you to send,” Hogan wrote. “You’re just as valuable as any other person on the planet.”

Some folks were confused and thought he was nuts. One player said, “Coach, why are we doing this?” Hogan said, “Imagine you don’t have a home life, no one to love you, no one pulling for you. Imagine that everyone pretty much had given up on you. Now, imagine what it would feel like and mean to you for hundreds of people to suddenly believe in you.”

The idea took root. On the night of the game, imagine the surprise of those 14 players when they took the field and there was a banner the cheerleaders had made for them to crash through. The visitors’ stands were full. The cheerleaders were leading cheers for them. The fans were calling them by their names. Isaiah, the quarterback-middle linebacker said, “I never in my life thought I would hear parents cheering to tackle and hit their kid. Most of the time, when we come out, people are afraid of us. You can see it in their eyes, but these people are yelling for us. They knew our names.”

Faith won the game, and after the game the teams gathered at the 50-yard line to pray. That’s when Isaiah, the teenage convict-quarterback surprised everybody and asked if he could pray and he prayed, “Lord, I don’t know what just happened so I don’t know how or who to say thank you to, but I never knew there were so many people in the world who cared about us.” On the way back to the bus, under guard, each one of the players was handed a burger, fries, a coke, candy, a Bible, and an encouraging letter from the players from Faith Academy .

What an incredible act of Christian witness and kindness and goodness that was. Proverbs 11:17 says, “Your own soul is nourished when you are kind.” Proverbs 3:27 says, “Do not withhold good when it is in your power to act.”

Be kind to someone this week. Be kind to every person you meet. You might be amazed at what God will do with a simple act of kindness.

— Dr. Tim Thompson

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HuxejhBOCOo&NR=1

Here’s what Focus on the Family had to say on the outcome of their Super Bowl ad. Several points:

1. The dialogue between mother and son could have been uttered just as easily by a pro-choice mother and son.
2. Anything stronger than that would probably not have been allowed by CBS.
3. The purpose of the campaign was never meant to change people from pro-choice to pro-life. If that were the case, Focus would have included access to abortion imagery somewhere on their website. Or at least, they would have included some prenatal development video.
4. The purpose of the add was two-fold. First, to communicate a wonderful pro-family message to millions of people. Kudos to both Focus and to Google for that. Google’s French Love Story ad was actually my favorite.
5. Second was to get the attention of donors and potential donors. That’s not a criticism of Focus. They are no different from CBR; we need funding to operate. Standing on my head will not convert anybody, but I’d do it if it would help us get more funding for saving babies and moms. The more attention the better. I hope Focus got their $2.5 million back, many times over.
6. The pro-aborts just walked into the Focus trap for several weeks. The attention they brought to Focus was worth way more than the ad itself! Then, after it was over, they compounded their error by stating that the ad promoted violence against women. More attention for Focus

After the ad, talk-show host Barbara Dooley interviewed me for her radio program.  Click here for the interview.

Sally Jenkins, a pro-choice columnist, had this to way on the Tebow ad:

I’m pro-choice, and Tebow clearly is not. But based on what I’ve heard in the past week, I’ll take his side against the group-think, elitism and condescension of the “National Organization of Fewer and Fewer Women All The Time.” For one thing, Tebow seems smarter than they do.

Tebow has a right to express his beliefs publicly. Just as I have the right to reject or accept them after listening — or think a little more deeply about the issues. If the pro-choice stance is so precarious that a story about someone who chose to carry a risky pregnancy to term undermines it, then CBS is not the problem.

You can read the entire column here.

I saw the first Tebow ad last night and watched the second on the Focus on the Family website this morning. Could somebody please tell me the point of these ads? Was it only to get a few curious people to visit the Focus website? Was there something I missed? I just don’t get it. Can I get your input? I saw nothing that pro-choicers should complain about, nothing the that pro-lifers could get excited about, and nothing that anyone else would be curious about. Seemed like a wast of $2.6 million. What do you think? I’ll amend this post with your best comments.

Most pro-life ad? Gotta be Google’s French Love Story.

P.S. This question has created quite a stir over at VolChat. Check it out!

What the world really needs is another blog … mine!  This blog is all about what interests ME!  Which is probably what interests YOU, … otherwise you wouldn’t be here.  Here are some of the topics that we will talk about:

• I’m the Southeast Director of the Center for Bio-Ethical Reform (CBR), so we’ll talk about pro-life stuff.  Go look at www.ProLifeOnCampus.com.
• Government is important to all of us, so we’ll talk about political stuff, particularly as it relates to the pro-life movement.
• I’m a die-hard SEC football fan, but we can’t talk about that here.  Compared to abortion and politics, SEC football is way too controversial.  Perhaps we can talk about the Western Division, because I don’t have many supporters over there yet, so I don’t care if I offend them.  But as soon as people in Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Alabama start writing checks to ProLifeOnCampus.com, we’ll have to cut it out.

Yes, abortion is a very serious issue.  What it does to children, women, men, and families is no joke.  But in a world full of tragedy, we will try to find a bit of humor.  We will joke about life, love, politics, and (most of all) ourselves.  Sarcasm and flippancy are two of my spiritual gifts, and you will find them on display here.

This blog is my own.  The opinions expressed herein do not necessarily represent those of CBR, its management, its principals, its employees, or the boss’s wife.

This blog is also about what interests YOU — why else would you visit? — so I want to do something a bit different for YOU.  Each week, I want to answer one question about the pro-life issue, government, sports, or whatever.  I’ll talk to my web guys about setting that up.  You submit the questions; and each week I’ll pick out one question to answer in a blog post.  I’m hoping you will ask questions about the pro-life movement (apologetics, strategy, current events, etc.), but I’ll take questions on politics, sports, or whatever.  But keep in mind that questions of interest to more people will have a higher chance of getting selected.

There will be a place to comment on each blog post.  Here are the rules for commenting:

• It is my blog so I will put up or take down whatever I want.
• I don’t mind dissenting opinion but keep it clean, respectful and on topic.
• Constructive criticism is welcome, but if all you have is insults or you like to go overboard, save it and put it up on your own blog because it won’t go up here.
• If you go overboard, I won’t add to your comment but I may edit out what is excessively. offensive and put up the rest.  If you can not control yourself I will ban you.
• Constructive criticism is welcome on bills I am talking about.
• If you want your comment to be off the record, just send a message to me from www.ProLifeOnCampus.com.