15 -- Things I Hate About You

As I expected, my football screed from yesterday attracted a few comments. (Though on Facebook, perhaps a few more supporters than I might have originally guessed.) It also attracted a few people who pointed out that Tim Tebow himself is a quite self-depracating individual who does not make his religion half as big a deal as the sportscasters looking to fill time. Granted. And the people who wrote this said it in the nicest way. It was nothing like a fire.

And yet, I'm going to go and probably pour some gasoline on it anyway.

Let me try to explain what I really meant when it comes to Tebow and religion -- and what I'm about to say applies to many people; Tebow is simply a prominent example right now.

I agree, in the handful of interviews I have seen, Tim Tebow tries his best to deflate his own aura of prestige, acknowledging his team's efforts. He doesn't present himself with arrogance; he presents himself with humility (that doesn't seem false). But to pray over the outcome of a football game in the first place is tacit arrogance.

Pray for your continued health, or for the health of an ailing loved one. Pray that you'll reach whatever afterlife you believe in. These prayers, if granted, probably don't come at the expense of anyone else, and a higher power could answer those prayers and still be objectively considered benevolent.

Do not pray for things in a zero-sum equation. Don't pray that you'll get that job you're interviewing for. If you get the job, that means everyone else who interviewed for it didn't.

But at least if you're praying for the job, you're probably praying for something you really need. Praying to win an athletic competition? That's selfish both in "ecology" and in scale. And I do not like it.

Whether Tebow takes the credit himself, gives thanks to his teammates, or gives thanks to his God, the fact is, he sits there and openly prays for God to pick him over others. I don't believe a truly benevolent God would do that, not even to favor someone who prays a lot over someone who doesn't. I believe a worthy God would be above that kind of favoritism and ego stroking.

Even if the person praying is "just praying," not explicitly asking to be given anything, I find the timing of it to be disingenuous and suspect. Why pick that moment to tell God you think he's so great if not to implicitly seek a little quid pro quo?

No, Tebow is not the only person in professional sports who does this. But one way or another, he's become a poster child for it. And for me, that makes him the poster child of the thing I think I hate most about professional sports.

So I stand by my comment that Tim Tebow is an arrogant person. But yes, in a passive, relatively benign way that seems to be widely accepted in our society. A way that I personally reject.

That's more than you probably wanted to know about my thoughts on the matter. But hey, it's one day where you don't have to read "yet another movie review."