BreakPoint

Tim Tebow: Why So Controversial? (Tim Tebow plays for a professional football team in the USA.)

Chuck Colson

Dec. 19, 2011 -

A few weeks ago, the college basketball game between Cincinnati and Xavier ended in a bench-clearing brawl. The fight got so bad that the referees decided not to play the last nine seconds. The media and fans were rightly appalled and demanded harsh measures.

This debacle came only a week after the NFL announced that 11 players had failed drug tests. Two of the players, from the Washington Redskins, were suspended for the rest of the season because this was their third offense. The media and Redskins fans were appalled and wondered how anyone could be so foolish and irresponsible.

These stories represent the tiniest tip of a huge iceberg. It seems that no news cycle is complete without a story about some athlete getting into trouble both on and off the field.

Yet, by many accounts, the most controversial athlete in America is a God-fearing man who grew up serving the poor overseas and whose teammates would walk through fire for.

I'm speaking, of course, of Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow. A recent piece in the Atlantic Monthly named him as one of the "15 Most Divisive Athletes in Recent History." Others on the list included Michael Vick, Barry Bonds, Dennis Rodman, Pete Rose and O.J. Simpson.

So, let's see ... that's one man convicted of animal cruelty, another of obstruction of justice, yet another of tax evasion and banned from baseball for betting on games, someone who probably killed his ex-wife, and a guy who appeared at a book signing wearing a dress.

What did Tebow do to make this august list? Essentially, he is up-front about his Christian faith and he made an ad saying that he was glad that his mother didn't abort him.

Even with this, the controversy over Tebow is hard to understand. After all, he's hardly the only Christian football player or even quarterback. Players kneeling on the sidelines in prayer is almost as much of the NFL as cheerleaders.

Neither is he the first player to publicly take a pro-life stand: In 1989, members of the New York Giants and owner Wellington Mara made a pro-life video which was far more direct in its condemnation of abortion than anything that Tebow has done.

When you add the appalling, often criminal behavior of many athletes, calling Tebow "divisive" brings to mind the words of Jesus denunciation of the Pharisees for their hypocrisy. It also brings to mind the story He told about "We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not mourn."

There is nothing that Tebow can do, it seems, that will really please people. And that's ironic because there's never been a time when people wanted more good role models for their children.

I guess they want the role models--especially religious ones--to be silent, however, about what motivates them.

Ultimately, what makes Tebow "divisive" and "controversial" has little, if anything, to do with what he does on the field. It's all about our increasing intolerance of faith in public life. Tebow isn't trying to "impose" anything on anyone besides himself.

Yet, even that is too much for some people. I can't help but suspect that our generation is getting the kind of athletes it deserves. So, maybe, Tebow should just wear a wedding dress...

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CNN

Report: Girl thought to be swept away during tsunami found alive

An aerial photo from January 2005 shows destroyed houses in Meluaboh, in West Aceh, Indonesia.

December 22nd, 2011

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An 8-year-old girl who was swept away from her mother's arms during the 2004 tsunami that hit Indonesia has been found alive and reunited with her parents, according to the Indonesian state news agency Antara.

The girl, who was identified by state news only as Wati, now 15, was reportedly discovered nearly seven years after the tsunami devastated the coastlines of Asia.

An earthquake with an estimated magnitude of between 9.1 to 9.3 strikes the coast of Sumatra, Indonesia, and triggered a deadly tsunami that killed more than 200,000 people according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

Wati was in the village of Ujong Baroh when flood waters came crashing in.

"Her mother, Yusniar, was trying to take her and her two siblings to a safe place, but somehow she lost her grip on her mother's arm and was carried away by the rushing waters, leaving her mother powerless to help her," the state news agency said. "Yusniar was able to save her two other children, but she and the rest of the family eventually had to resign themselves to the notion that Wati was lost as she never returned nor had anybody in the neighborhood seen her again dead or alive."

The now teenage Wati was spotted in a coffee shop near her home in West Aceh, Indonesia.

She said that "she had come [there] by bus from Banda Aceh and was trying to find her way back home but did not know how. She also could not remember any of her parents' or relatives' names except Ibrahim," according to Antara.

She was sitting in silence in the coffee shop, assumed to be a beggar, the news agency reported.

Later that day, Wati and someone she met showed up at a man's house.

His name? Ibrahim.

"After listening to the acquaintances account, Ibrahim immediately sensed the girl could be his long-lost grandchild and, after a closer look at the dark-skinned girl, was indeed convinced she was Wati who went missing in the tsunami seven years ago," the news agency reported.

Ibrahim called her parents to immediately come meet her, according to the agency, and the parents confirmed it was their daughter because of a small mole and scar that she had as a child.

Antara said they were told no other details about what happened to the girl when she was swept away other than she had been in several areas throughout Indonesia's Aceh province after the tsunami.

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