PERSONAL JESUS

Should Tim Tebow And Others Keep Their Religious Practices Behind Closed Doors?

We’ve all heard bigots say variations of, “I’m okay with homosexuals as long as they don’t flaunt it in front of our faces.” Well, Outsports’s Cyd Zeigler Jr. feels the same way… about Christianity.

Here’s part of his rant on why he hates Tim Tebow, the Denver Broncos quarterback who appeared in the anti-abortion Super Bowl ad for the rabidly anti-gay group Focus on the Family:

We hear people say they don’t have a problem with gays as long as they’re not flaunting it. Well guess what: I’m OK with (football player) Tim Tebow as long as he’s not flaunting his religion. But he can’t help it. He appears in national TV commercials to promote his religion. He makes a spectacle of prayer before, during and after the games. He thanks Jesus Christ after a win, as though a guy who died 2,000 years ago is magically deciding whether the Broncos or Jets win, or that god would take time out of his busy day (see: poverty, war, natural disasters) to even care.

I think generally Christians get a really bad rap from the gay community. Christianity is not bad. While I’m not Christian, I think it’s (when not bastardized like it is so often) a beautiful religion. But many gay people are totally close-minded when it comes to Christianity. You can understand why. After decades of persecution in the name of Jesus Christ, the gay community would collectively rather see Christianity sink into the deepest corners of our society. It’s not how I feel, but I can understand why so many who have suffered at the hands of Christians feel that way.

Christianity isn’t bad. Tim Tebow is.

So when he gets on national television and thanks his lord and savior Jesus Christ…I hate him. He’s giving a big, fat middle finger to everyone who isn’t religious; To the people who have been kicked out of their church for being gay; To the kids who have been evicted by their families in the name of Christ; And to the kids who’ve killed themselves because they couldn’t reconcile their feelings with the teachings of close-minded religious zealots.

Zeigler also hates the Jets, but Tebow’s win over the New York Jets on Thursday makes Zeigler hate Tebow all the more. However hating Tebow for his on-field religious displays seems a bit like glitter bombing Dan Savage for his transphobia. Yeah, they’re both high profile targets who have continued their behavior despite offending others, but considering all the less famous religious and transphobic bigots actually fighting against LGBT rights with their public displays of hate, neither man makes the worthiest target.

Now here’s a video of Tebow with a five-second shot of Tebow in his boxer-briefs, just because he refused to do it on television.

Image via Jeffrey Beall

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