{"id":3861,"date":"2010-02-05T01:15:46","date_gmt":"2010-02-05T06:15:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/?p=3861"},"modified":"2010-02-05T01:19:34","modified_gmt":"2010-02-05T06:19:34","slug":"focus-on-the-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/2010\/02\/05\/focus-on-the-game\/","title":{"rendered":"focus on the game…"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Tebow commercial: Why the heated protest?<\/a>
by Richard Land
President, Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission<\/strong>
Washington Post
02\/05\/2010<\/div>\n

Named one of “The 25 Most Influential Evangelicals in America” by Time, Land has worked as a Southern Baptist pastor, theologian, and public policymaker.<\/em><\/p>\n

Q:<\/strong> The conservative Christian group Focus on the Family is sponsoring a pro-life ad, featuring football star Tim Tebow, during Sunday’s Super Bowl. Should CBS show the ad? Should CBS allow other faith-based groups to buy Super Bowl ads promoting their beliefs on social issues? Is a major sporting event, or a TV ad campaign, an appropriate venue for discussing such vital and divisive culture-war issues like abortion?<\/em><\/p>\n

Why are groups such as the National Organization for Women (NOW), the Feminist Majority Foundation, the Women’s Media Center, and numerous "pro-choice" groups apoplectic over a Super Bowl commercial sponsored by Focus on the Family?…<\/p>\n

In 1987, Tim’s future parents, Bob and Pam Tebow, were in the Philippines on a mission trip. During the trip, Pam fell into a coma from amoebic dysentery and was administered several strong medications to treat her potentially life threatening illness. Later, doctors, worried about consequent severe damage to the baby she was carrying, strongly urged Pam to abort her fifth child. She declined their medical advice and gave birth to a perfectly healthy baby boy, Tim Tebow, on Aug. 14, 1987. Pam cited her strong pro-life Christian beliefs for her decision to have her baby over the doctor’s objections. <\/p>\n

Why should such a story so threaten the "pro-choice" forces in America that they do not want the vast audiences watching the Super Bowl to see it? Why not just pay for a commercial of their own advocating the "pro-choice" position? Isn’t the free-speech answer to speech you don’t like, more free speech, advocating a different view?…<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Well, for starters, it might be a made up story<\/font><\/strong>:<\/div>\n
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Legal basis for Philippine abortion ban<\/a><\/strong><\/div>\n

The act is criminalized by the Revised Penal Code of the Philippines, which was enacted in 1930<\/u> and remains in effect today.<\/font><\/strong> Articles 256, 258 and 259 of the Code mandate imprisonment for the woman who undergoes the abortion, as well as for any person who assists in the procedure, even if they be the woman’s parents, a physician or midwife. Article 258 further imposes a higher prison term on the woman or her parents if the abortion is undertaken "in order to conceal [the woman’s] dishonor". There is no law in the Philippines that expressly authorizes abortions in order to save the woman’s life; and the general provisions which do penalize abortion make no qualifications if the woman’s life is endangered…<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

So maybe that suggestion was made later, back in the States. Tebow’s Mom chose<\/u> not to have an abortion. That’s her right. Tim Tebow was obviously a "wanted" child. I’m glad it came out well for her. But the implication that the people who choose to have abortions are missing their chance to have a star quarterback son isn’t  a very sensible argument. The fate of "unwanted children" isn’t actually very rosy. Save the stories like this for people who choose to hear them on Sunday Morning, rather than football fans who want to watch the Superbowl Sunday Night…<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Tebow commercial: Why the heated protest? by Richard Land President, Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission Washington Post 02\/05\/2010 Named one of “The 25 Most Influential Evangelicals in America” by Time, Land has worked as a Southern Baptist pastor, theologian, and public policymaker. Q: The conservative Christian group Focus on the Family is sponsoring a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3861","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3861","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3861"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3861\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3861"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3861"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3861"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}