Monday, December 19, 2011

Charlie Pierce Attacks Tim Tebow's Faith to Make Charlie Feel Good About Himself

Charlie Pierce has an attack piece on Tim Tebow up at Grantland. The piece has almost nothing to do with sports. The piece has everything with Charlie Pierce's need to portray himself as some sort of morally superior person.

I must say that a certain amount of cowardice is involved here in waiting till Tim Tebow lost to go after his religious beliefs. Charlie Pierce comes off like the Edward G. Robinson character Dathan in The Ten Commandments shouting, "where is your God now?" It was also most unseemly to invoke Christopher Hitchens in this piece because of that. Hitch would never have waited till a loss to say what he thought had to be said - but Charlie Pierce waited. Yet still the cool kids will call him brave for doing it.

Pierce criticizes Tebow's brand of Christianity. He says that this "particular splinter has a long record in America of fostering anti-Enlightenment thought." If I was to go after Enlightenment thought the way Charlie Pierce goes after Tebow's faith then you would read a screed about Guillotine's and the French Revolution which with all its bloodletting was the most tangible outcome of the Enlightenment. The most tangible outcome of Tebow's ministries in the Philippines will probably be a new hospital.

I happen to agree with Teddy Roosevelt who was not keen on those who worked to convert others to their religions. He didn't like it because first the proselytizer would have to destroy the person's existing beliefs to get them to accept the new beliefs. Pierce makes the argument that's what Tebow and his family are doing in the Philippines which - as Pierce points out - is already 95% Catholic. I wonder if the Jesuit educated Pierce would like to extol the methods used by the Catholic Church in gaining such a plurality. Of course Pierce won't do that but at the same time he won't ruin his straw man argument either.

When you get right down to it this is article by Pierce is just another case of a person trying to drag down - nay smear - another just to try to feel better about themselves.