Confessions of a Recovering Pharisee

[Pew Research]

Asked if young people today have as strong a sense of right and wrong as they did, say, 50 years ago, only 18% say yes, while 79% say no according to a 2005 Pew Research poll. This is about the same margin recorded in surveys since 1998, but a substantially more negative reading than was recorded in surveys decades ago. In a June 1952 survey, for example, nearly six-in-ten respondents judged that youth of that era were as sharply attuned to right and wrong as their forebears.

Read more here.

[From me]

If you look at the media today, bad is good. In movies and TV you don’t have many heros–you have the anti-hero. None of these findings are surprising to me.

What do you think?

This week has been the SEC Media Days for the upcoming football season. It is held just 5 miles from where I live. I didn’t get to go by there because I was working. But I listened to a lot of the talk on Sport Talk Radio.

One lawyer turned journalist (if you can call him that) named Clay Travis who writes a blog called Fanhouse.com decided he was going to ask Tim Tebow the QB of The University of Florida if he was a virgin in front of all of the reporters. Clay came on several of the local radio programs here in Birmingham and was laughing about the question he was going to ask.

Tim Tebow is a beast of a football player.(I’m not a Gator fan at all–I Roll with the Tide) He is arguably the greatest college football player ever. But he is also a devout follower of Jesus Christ. He puts scripture verses below his eyes when he plays QB. When other college students are going to the beach and getting in trouble he goes and speaks at prisons, goes overseas, and talks to children about his relationship with Jesus Christ. He is the kind of guy you would want your daughter to date.

But because he is such a great football player and such a Godly guy people like Clay Travis want to find the chink in his armor. Instead of praising Tebow some are trying to bring him down.

Clay Travis, who writes a column for AOL’s FanHouse.com, asked Tebow on Thursday if he was still a virgin and “saving himself for marriage.”

After composing himself, Tebow answered, “Yes, I am,” and then good-naturedly gigged the media present in the TV and Internet room for being stunned by the question.

As another reported stumbled through trying to ask an unrelated question, Tebow laughed wildly and said. “Ya’ll can’t even ask a question. I was ready for the question, but I don’t think ya’ll were.”

Travis tried his best to stick it to Tim Tebow but Tebow threw it back at him! He didn’t get offended. He didn’t dodge the question. He said he expected it and yes he is going to wait until he gets married. What a great example to all believers of how we should always be ready to talk about our faith.

1 Peter 3:15 NIV says:

But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect,

What do you think?

I’m a huge college football fan and love the University of Alabama.  So I’m not a fan of the University of Florida or any other team for that matter.  But I have been impressed with the football player Tim Tebow. Not only is he one of the best college football players that I’ve ever seen but he is one of the finest young men I’ve ever seen.  He is a devout follower of Jesus Christ and an intense competitor. I’m saying this when the guy almost single handily tore my Crimson Tide heart in the 4th quarter of the SEC Championship game last month.  

There have been many stories about Tim’s faith, his mission work and his outspoken beliefs in the media. But all of a sudden these have become targets for those who don’t like what Tim Tebow stands for. There are people in the media looking for some “smoking gun.”  They are looking for some slip up and can’t believe that he is for real.  

I’ve said before that I enjoy listening to Sports Talk Radio.  Birmingham has some good shows on JOX. Much better than larger cities like Atlanta and Charlotte. One talk show host who gets a lot of attention is Paul Finebaum. Paul has been an institution in the Birmingham market since I was in high school.  Paul makes every fan mad occasionally but for the most part he is an equal opportunity ripper.  When Bama was struggling during the Shula years he ripped Bama.  This past year he has been all over Auburn and LSU. (BTW, he is a Tennessee graduate.) He is like a shark that sees blood. But “usually” he is fair.

Last week he had lawyer that is on the show fairly regularly. This lawyer said he thought Tim Tebow was a great player but he was sick of him. Not as a player but as a Christian.   That topic became so hot that it carried over to all of the shows on JOX this week. The conversation got out of hand in my opinion.  In a world of Pac-Man Jones, Roger Clemmons, Pete Rose, OJ Simpson, TO, etc….. you would think the media would love a young man who practiced what he preached.

But what I’ve found is when people don’t understand something they make fun of them or their beliefs and start rumors.  The calls and commentary about Tim Tebow started making fun of Tebows beliefs and the fact that he is a “VIRGIN.” Many of the Radio Show hosts except for Jay Barker and Al Del Greco (one went to Bama and the other Auburn) were making innuendos that Tim Tebow didn’t like women.  They mocked his faith and called him a fake.

So is this what the world has come to? If a person lives a blameless life they are going to be called fake?  If you remain a virgin until you get married, are you going to be accused of being a homosexual?  I waited until I got married and am happy that there is a young man like Tim Tebow.  I’m appalled that a young man can’t live his faith out without dirty old men who are under conviction for their own sorry lives ripping him apart. If the shock jocks and media don’t like Tebow wearing John 3:16 on his eyes or saying “Praise God” for his efforts what do you want him to do?  Do you want him to say, “I want to give myself all of the credit because I worked hard and I’m the best?”  What is wrong with giving God credit for your talent? What is wrong with living a pure life?

I know what is wrong– seeing someone like Tim Tebow reminds people who are away from God how sinful their lives are.  He doesn’t point fingers at you but his good deeds rub some people wrong because they have no self control on their own.

What do you think?

[Reuters & LA Times]

After 12 years at Fox News Channel and four decades in the news business, Washington managing editor Brit Hume will leave “Special Report” and daily journalism for a quieter life, spending time with his grandchildren and following his Christian faith (the anchor still will contribute to the network as a political analyst).

As he prepares to anchor his last presidential campaign, Hume said he’s eager to immerse himself in a more spiritual life after dwelling for so long in the secular. The anchor described himself as a “nominal Christian” until 10 years ago, when his son Sandy committed suicide at age 28.

“I feel like I was really kind of saved when my son died by faith and by the grace of God, and that’s very much on my consciousness,” said Hume, who plans to get more involved in his wife’s Bible study group.

Read more here and here.

[From me]

I hate that he is leaving for the very reason he is a believer.  Now I realize why I always liked watching him. It is sad that it took the tragedy of his son to shake up his faith but that happens a lot. It is interesting how God invites people to Himself after they have gone through horrible things like what Brit and his wife went through. It is great to hear that his faith caused him to leave. I wish more people took their faith that seriously.  I hate that we are losing an objective voice in the media.

What do you think?

[Yahoo News]

Here is a foolproof way for politicians to score points with evangelical voters: Attack the media, an institution widely seen as lacking conservative Christian voices. Republican presidential hopeful John McCain and his evangelical running mate, Gov. Sarah Palin, have done just that at times during the campaign, with repeated jabs at the “liberal media.”

One way to change this perception, some church leaders, social commentators and journalists say, is for mainstream news organizations to employ — and keep — more evangelicals in their newsrooms.

“Journalism has become more of a white-collar field that draws from elite colleges,” said Terry Mattingly, director of the Washington Journalism Center for the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities and a religion columnist for Scripps Howard News Service. “While there’s been heavy gender and racial diversity … there’s a lack of cultural diversity in journalism,” including religion.

Since the 1980s, when the Christian right emerged as a powerful force in American culture and politics, evangelicals have made significant inroads in law and government by training believers to work inside secular institutions. But while the same universities that helped students launch careers in those fields are offering similar programs in journalism, they haven’t been as successful at changing the nation’s newsrooms.

“The media — journalism — remain one of the hardest fields for them to realize their power,” said D. Michael Lindsay, a sociologist at Rice University and author of “Faith in the Halls of Power.”

Case’s primary concern is that evangelicals are frequently portrayed in the media as a monolithic bloc, when in fact they are diverse politically, intellectually and theologically.

“It bothers me that when mainstream outlets want an evangelical voice, they’ve turned to Jerry Falwell orJames Dobson or Pat Robertson,” he said. “They are men of high regard and standing, but there are others who have a different take on things.”

Read more here.

[From me]

That last quote sums it up for me. I respect those men for what they have done but they don’t speak for all evangelicals.  It would be nice to hear from some different evangelicals. It would be nice to have some evangelicals who were in the mainstream media to give a balanced view.

What do you think?