Rabbi: If Tebow Wins Super Bowl, Look for Christian Riots

The success of Tim Tebow this year has been phenomenal to watch. He supposedly lacks the skills of an NFL quarterback and isn't that good... but he just keeps winning games. It's not just that his Denver Broncos win; it's how they do it in dramatic come-from-behind fashion late in games that only adds to the intrigue.

Of course, the left doesn't like the fact that Tebow is a professing Christian who is unabashedly pro-life. Christians themselves like that about him and the unlikely success of Tebow is inspiring in that regard. To the left, it's the perfect reason to come unhinged.

This is the quintessential case-in-point from Rabbi Joshua Hammerman at The Jewish Week:

A poster boy of the Christian right, Tebow steadfastly thanks Jesus after every game and, while in college, often inscribed biblical messages on his eye paint. Homeschooled in Florida, this child of missionaries turned down his selection as a Playboy All American because it was, well, Playboy. His trademark prayerful touchdown celebration (imagine Rodin’s “Thinker” on bended knee, or your grandfather davening Tachanun with a football) has become a verb. Google “tebowing” and you’ll find 84 million hits, including lots of YouTube parodies. Tebow’s mother, a Baptist missionary, became comatose during her pregnancy and was saved by drugs that nearly killed the fetus. Doctors anticipated a stillbirth and recommended termination to protect her life, but Tim’s mother refused to abort. Trumpeting that decision, mother and son appeared in commercials for “Focus on the Family” during this past season’s Super Bowl.

Then Hammerman allows himself to imagine a future possibility momentarily, only so he can see the tragic consequences if such a thing were to come to fruition:

If Tebow wins the Super Bowl, against all odds, it will buoy his faithful, and emboldened faithful can do insane things, like burning mosques, bashing gays and indiscriminately banishing immigrants. While America has become more inclusive since Jerry Falwell’s first political forays, a Tebow triumph could set those efforts back considerably. 

Little of this insanity, mind you, has to do with Tebow himself. I admire much of what he stands for. His mom’s decision to risk her own life rather than abort her fetus flies against my own – and Judaism’s – values, but neither am I pro-choice in all cases. His story is so improbable that if he were to win it all, a part of me would be wondering whether there is a Purpose behind it, just as I saw a divine hand in the equally unbelievable Red Sox victory of 2004. And it makes me wonder whether other Jews, the ones who don’t happen to have advanced degrees in religion and a few decades of rabbinic experience, might be even more seduced by this unfolding drama. Will legions of Southern Baptist missionaries hit the college campuses the very next day, spreading this new gospel of Tim? Already there is a “Jews for Tebow” Facebook page.

Despite having no evidence to back up his claims, Hammerman puts forth a bigoted narrative that attempts to smear all faithful Christians.

I would love to know what this guy thinks of the Tea Party vs. OWS.

h/t JMF