Questions for Focus on the Family
by David Atkins
The odious Focus on the Family people have taken an interest of late in the careers two people: Denver Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow, and presidential candidate Rick Santorum. Tebow was a subject of the organization’s Super Bowl ad last year, while organizational leader James Dobson and fellow Godbothers just met to back Santorum’s futile bid for the presidency.
During last night’s Broncos-Patriots playoff game in which Tebow’s Broncos got crushed 45-10 by the heathen Northeasterners, Focus on the Family aired this bit of creepiness:
A normal person might just see a football game and a presidential election where the hyper-religious stars just happened to lose. But given the tendency of Focus on the Family to see the hand of the Lord in everything, one might ask the following questions concerning the failures of the organization’s standard-bearers:
1) Did God already know Tebow and Santorum would fail? If so, why not help them?
2) Did God make Tebow and Santorum fail, presumably as a cruel test of faith?
3) Did God give Tebow and Santorum the free will to perform better, but they failed Him?
4) If they had the potential to do better but failed Him, did God know they would fail Him in advance? If so, why the interest, and why create the conditions for their failure?
5) If God knew they would fail and made them fail, and Tebow’s and Santorum’s victories were important enough to involve Himself, how could God find testing the faith of their followers more valuable than showing the righteous glory of their ideals through victory?
So many questions, so little time.
The alternative, of course, is that if there is some Divine Power that guides the universe and meddles in mortal affairs, Her grace and interest are about as far from the likes of Tim Tebow, Rick Santorum and James Dobson as can possibly be imagined.
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