The Super Bowl, the Tebow Ad, and the Unvarnished Truth

While most of us were interested in either the game or the halftime performance of what’s left of The Who, the presence of a Focus On The Family-sponsored advertisement against abortion featuring Heisman Trophy-winner Tim Tebow didn’t escape my attention.

As with much from the Religious Right, the ad was full of half-truths and a whole lot of dogma.  What matters isn’t what was said – but what they didn’t say.

The moral statement of the Tebow ad was “Tim Tebow exists because his mother had the courage not to take a physician’s recommendation, and instead relied on prayer and the ‘power of God’, and said ‘yes’ to life and ‘no’ to abortion.” (They don't address a nagging bit of fact - that abortion is illegal in the Philippines; as such, it's doutful a local physician would have recommended the procedure).

Pam Tebow and her husband Bob were missionaries in the Philippines (where they run a religious compound and orphanage in a largely Muslim part of the country) when she contracted amoebic dysentery and was prescribed some serious medication.   In the process, her fetus was damaged; the doctors diagnosed something called ‘placental abruption’ – where the placenta is actually detached.   When this happens, the fetus dies.  They recommended abortion as the best course – because continuing the pregnancy would, in most similar cases, have ended with Pam’s death as well.

Now, placental abruption is a rarity – in fact, it happens in only 1% of all pregnancies, and almost always results in stillbirth.   If left untreated by abortion, it almost always results in the death of the mother.

In the Tebow’s case, the diagnosing physician was wrong.
   

Of course, the Tebow’s gave all the credit to ‘god’, stating that prayer ‘healed’ the condition.  

The truth of the matter is that the Tebow’s situation was blind dumb luck – and nothing more than that.   Placental abruption is rare – and misdiagnosis of same is even more rare, placing Pam Tebow in a position, some 23 years later, to make an advertisement sponsored by one of the wealthiest religious organizations on the planet, telling everyone that if they ignore their physicians and call on ‘god’, everything will work out fine.

There are no statistics on the number of women who’ve done just that in similar circumstances and wound up stone-cold-dead – but the death statistics regarding women who’ve endured placental abruption with no medical care indicate that most of them don’t have the ‘miracle’ which Pam Tebow experienced.

Spending nearly $3 million dollars to tell the world that ignoring a physician’s diagnosis is a ‘miracle’ is charlatanism on a grand scale, and the entire Tebow clan (Bob included) are accomplices grande.   

Bob Tebow's wife and son view life the same way. It's not surprising they did the ad. After all - every preacher needs an audience, and a look at Bob Tebow’s website will convince you that he’s a Fundie on a serious mission.

The ad?

It was an end – and a means – and a cautionary tale, at least for those of us who paid attention.

The Puppet Masters

Extremist Christianity and Republicanism Are Now The Same

This week, the online political magazine DailyKos released the results of an independent poll of some 2,000 self-identified Republicans. The results were shocking in the extreme to everyone but me.

In prior articles here, I've pointed out the dangers of the both the Republican party and its bedfellow, extremist Christianity - not the party I remember from the days when my parents were both members, and the concepts of Eisenhower conservatism still held sway - not even the party of Richard Nixon, which, while Nixon himself was corrupt, also gave us the EPA and the first glimmers of the concept of national health care.

I'm speaking of the Republican party which has been co-opted by the extreme religious right - a party which is controlled not by reasonable people, but by religious puppet-masters, accountable only to their notion of 'god'.  (Below, there's some additional reading if you'd like to do your own research on the matter).

The Kos poll underscores this issue well. Some of the results are here:

What should leap out at you from these partial results is the overt racism and homophobia of the respondents - plus the 23% who believe their state should secede from the Federal union outright.

It gets worse.

Fully 67% believe that the 'only way to "heaven" is through Jesus'. 77% believe that the Christian/creationist view of the beginning of the universe as explained in the book of Genesis is the only view which should be taught in public schools. 

Brought up this way in homeschools and church-run Christian schools, then educated in Fundamentalist 'universities', the Tea Party Republicans believe in a very different America - one that was founded by the Christian 'god', by 'godly' people, and which should, by right, lead (read: 'rule') the world. This worldview is reinforced at every turn, and has lead to an insular society - one which the member need only leave in order to combat the Other America (the one which believes the earth is older than 6,000 years, that there are many explanations for the universe, and that the Ten Commandments, while influential, are not the basis of American law).

Put another way - while it's possible to be a conservative Christian without being a Republican, it's impossible now to be a Republican without being a conservative Christian - and being an extremist Fundamentalist/Dominionist is even better.

Not Your Backyard Tea Party

This week, the Tea Party Convention (a creation of Republican party lobbyist organizations and right-wing media) is meeting in Nashville to blueprint the future of their movement. While Sarah Palin, the keynote, will be taking center-stage in the minds of the media and the nation, a little research will provide some chilling insight into the nature of this movement and its advocacy.

Among the supporting organizations is Eagle Forum (Phyllis Schlafly's organization, which has advocated "family friendly" actions such as rolling back Roe v. Wade; making the Ten Commandments an integral part of American law, and establishing 'border security' to prevent 'third world diseases' from entering the United States), and VisionAmerica (which seeks to politicize religion across the country through the efforts of extremist pastors nationwide).

The Tea Party movement is now viral.   With nearly 80% of Americans self-identifying as 'Christian', this is a huge power base from which to draw - and with their philosophy being based on 'god' and money, they are drawing support from some of America's wealthiest conservatives. 

Combining a religious core - with arguments impossible to counter by reason and logic - and a wealthy power base which is all too willing to contribute because that religious core is literally preaching a gospel of 'prosperity' to those who serve "god" (read:  'take the country back for Jesus and the conservatives and "god" will bless you, financially') - and you have the makings for a genuine theocracy. 

It would be easy to dismiss them as insane - they take orders from an Imaginary Friend who tells them to take over a political party, then a country, all in 'His' name - then begin disenfranchising large numbers of its citizens from their basic human and civil rights in a religious orgy of 'purification'.

We dismiss them, however, at our peril.

Reading:

"Republican Gomorrah - Inside The Movement That Shattered The Party" - (Max Blumenthal; Nation Books - 2009)

"The Family - The Secret Fundamentalism At The Heart of American Power" - (Jeff Sharlet; Harper Perennial - 2009)

"Kingdom Coming - The Rise of Christian Nationalism" - (Michelle Goldberg; W.W. Norton & Co.; 2007)