Why did an innocent statement about protecting unborn life unleash a national uproar? Today's feminist groups need a reality check.
I'm not sure what the folks at Planned Parenthood expected football star Tim Tebow to do in his long-awaited Super Bowl ad on Sunday night. Condemn women to hell if they've had abortions? Show photos of aborted fetuses? Wave a gun at abortionists?
Tebow is a big guy, but both of his ads were polite and harmless—maybe even too safe. And the 22-year-old Heisman Trophy winner appeared in the 30-second ads with his mother, for crying out loud. She was even holding his baby picture!
Why did this ad cause so much hyperventilation?
| "It would be more helpful if pro-choice feminists would redirect their anger at a legitimate concern, such as the blatant exploitation of women portrayed in Sunday night's Super Bowl ad from GoDaddy.com—the Web domain company." |
Tebow never quoted the Bible in the ads, and he didn't mention the word abortion once. Nor did he sport a Bible reference on his eye black like he always does on the field. (He could have painted "John 10:10" on his face, or some other reference to life, but he chose a more subtle approach.)
The whole ad campaign was, like the clean-cut Tebow, a study in innocence. It was designed to remind the estimated 100 million viewers of Super Bowl XLIV that an unborn child is a life. Is that really so dangerous?
In the first ad, which ran during the pre-game show, Pam Tebow called Tim her "miracle baby" and said, "He almost didn't make it into this world." In the second ad, Tebow playfully tackled his mom. Both ads invited people to go to the Focus on the Family Web site to learn more about Tebow's story.
That's it. But judging by all the hand-wringing around the country, you would have thought that Mrs. Tebow had set women's rights back 100 years and inaugurated a new era of back-alley, coat-hanger abortions.
The frantic overreaction from pro-choice advocates proves they simply don't want the truth told. Nancy Keenan, president of the National Abortion Rights Action League, told her audience: "Anti-choice politics have no place in the Super Bowl, so when the ad runs, focus on something else—anything else—besides Focus on the Family."
Atheist and political activist Sunsara Taylor, who led a campaign last year called the "Away With All Gods" tour, called the Tebow ad "fascist lunacy." After seeing the materials about Pam Tebow's decision not to abort Tim, Taylor said Focus on the Family was spreading a dangerous message. Taylor wrote: "Women are not breeders and there is nothing inherently praise-worthy about choosing to carry a pregnancy to term, unless you are living in the biblical Dark Ages."
So what these people are saying is that the only way we can have true "freedom of choice" in this country is to eliminate freedom of speech. That sounds like fascism to me!
It would be more helpful if pro-choice feminists would redirect their anger at a legitimate concern, such as the blatant exploitation of women portrayed in Sunday night's Super Bowl ad from GoDaddy.com—the Web domain company. Their ads featured curvy models who stripped down to their T-shirts and then asked men to visit their Web site for a better view of the cleavage.
Those ads were crass, degrading and shameless. But in our dysfunctional culture, sexual exploitation of women is fine—just as long as we can kill unborn babies without being reminded of who they might have grown up to be.
J. Lee Grady was editor of Charisma for 11 years and is now serving as contributing editor. His favorite Super Bowl ad was the Denny's Grand Slam Breakfast promo with the screaming chickens. You can find him on Twitter at leegrady.
