Tim Tebow and the Upcoming Super Bowl Ad

Unless you completely wrote off the football world the moment time ran out on the past season, you’ve surely heard of former

Florida

quarterback

Tim Tebow’s

upcoming appearance in a commercial sponsored by Focus on the Family that will be broadcast during this year’s Super Bowl. If you haven’t, here’s the quick breakdown: the ad is expected to focus on Christianity and a pro-life stance.

Now that you know what the ad will most likely be about, you’ve formed your opinion. Some of you took time to think about it objectively and came up with your stance. Others knew exactly what they thought within seconds. There are those who support Tebow’s views and those who don’t. And there are those who support his right to preach what he wants and, again, those who don’t. Some are upset because they don’t believe in the message. Some are upset because they believe Tebow should be a football player and not have a message. Let’s go with another stance entirely: indifference.

Seems like the easy way out doesn’t it? Don’t want to voice your opinion for fear it’ll be shot down? Well then, feign indifference. It goes back to the days when as a kid you were grounded and your Nintendo was taken away. Your response was simple: “I didn’t want to play Nintendo anyway, so there!” You did. Of course you did. But you didn’t want your parents to know that. You wanted them to think they weren’t hurting you. It was the easy way out.

But in this case, it’s not pretend. It’s not a lie. It’s the truth. Indifference. If you ask why, you’ll find the response is simplistic and sensible: because Tebow’s beliefs are his beliefs and whether or not we agree with them doesn’t matter. As any one of us, he is free to voice his opinion. That’s part of what’s great about the country we live in. Yes he has the advantage of having a much larger platform than you may have, but welcome to the world. People use their fame, or fortune, for different things. Tebow has chosen this.

So why doesn’t this matter? Because it’s his right to say what he feels. If you don’t believe in it, don’t listen. No one is forcing you to watch the ad.  No one is forcing you to take the message to heart. No one is forcing you to care for one minute who Tim Tebow even is. As it’s his right to support a cause, it’s your right to ignore it.

Unfortunately we live in a society where everyone is too quick to react. Too quick to argue. Too quick to start a fight. People want to hate Tebow because he doesn’t believe in what they believe in. People want him to shut up and play football. Sadly, people for the most part don’t get it. How much stress could you push from your life if you were able to tolerate those who had different beliefs than you? Do you even know how your neighbor/best friend/family member feels about certain things? Are they pro-life? Are they pro-choice? Think of all the people you get along with perfectly well despite the fact that you have no idea how they stand about a number of things.

The argument to that is “those people aren’t pushing their agenda on me, Tebow is.” If you feel that way, then don’t listen. The simple response is “no thank you” and move on. Why the need to argue? You believe one way and someone else believes the other. There is no terrorist agenda here. It’s a belief. Of course, you have just as much of a right to argue as Tebow has to appear in the commercial. The difference is he’s probably happy about his choice whereas you may just be getting yourself worked up over a whole lot of nothing.

You may have noticed that not once throughout this entire piece did I mention whether or not I agree with Focus on the Family and Tebow. And I won’t say, because it doesn’t matter. Just as I don’t care which way you may lean or which religion you practice, you shouldn’t care about me. You have a choice. If you ever don’t like something on this site, you can never come back if you wish. Just like if you don’t like what Tebow is saying or supporting, you can turn away from the TV.