Butch Femme Planet - View Single Post - Anti abortion ad to air during Super Bowl

Soon · 01-26-2010, 08:54 PM

Thank God for Tim Tebow--Right After These Messages

--Jodi Kasten

Tim Tebow is the second coming of the Christ child according to most Florida fans. If you ask them, he single-handedly delivered two BCS championships, won the 2007 Heisman Trophy and just one touch from Tebow can heal leprosy or rickets. There’s no doubt that Tebow is a magnificent ball player. He’s a great role model, a leader and a very public proponent of abstinence until marriage. I have to applaud the dude’s tenacity in that arena. I can only imagine the legions of women who have thrown themselves at Tim Tebow’s cleats.

Like any admirable young man, he loves his mother. He loves his mother so much that he’s going to appear with her in an ad during the Super Bowl on CBS. Evidently, while on a Christian mission trip to the Philippines in 1987, Pam Tebow got sick while pregnant with her fifth child. Doctors counseled her to have an abortion. She refused and Tim Tebow was born.

All abortion debate aside, that is a heartwarming story. Tebow is a fine young man with amazing prospects. His leadership and squeaky clean image are a welcome change in a world of sports stars who work games into their schedules between weapons arrests and affairs. We do need more Tim Tebows in the world.

But, in spite of the message, many believe that this anti-abortion ad has no place in the commercial line-up on Super Bowl Sunday. My first yellow flag was thrown when I saw who sponsored the ad. This isn’t Nike saying, “Just Do It.” This is Focus on the Family – a conservative Christian group. The funds for the ad, according to Focus on the Family spokesman Gary Schneeberger, came from “very generous friends” rather than the group’s general fund. One thirty second commercial during the Super Bowl is selling for $2.5 - $2.8 million.

Schneeberger was “a little surprised” that the proposed ad has caused a furor. The Women’s Media Center’s Jemhu Greene says, “An ad that uses sports to divide rather than to unite has no place in the biggest national sports event of the year – an event designed to bring Americans together.” She went on to say, “By offering one of the most coveted advertising spots of the year to an anti-equality, anti-choice, homophobic organization, CBS is aligning itself with a political stance that will damage its reputation, alienate viewers and discourage consumers from supporting its shows and advertisers.”

As election seasons stretch out to cover 90% of the year, it’s conceivable that instead of seeing flatulent horses selling Budweiser, we could soon be seeing many more ads bought by political action committees at the Super Bowl. Furthermore, with the recent Supreme Court ruling about corporate political funding, we could soon be seeing “Proposition 8 – Brought to you by Sarah Palin for President and Pepsi. Palin & Pepsi – two great tastes that taste great together!”

I’m sure that Focus on the Family believes that this is not an anti-abortion message on the surface. Instead, they are reminding every woman who is in the heartbreaking position of terminating a pregnancy for any reason that they could be “killing” a Heisman trophy winner. The worst of this for me is that Tebow’s mother is sending the message that women should ignore the advice of their doctors and continue any and all pregnancies, no matter what the peril may be to their own lives.

If Tebow and his mother were telling a different story, perhaps one where she thought she didn’t have the money for another child or she was pregnant out of wedlock, I’d shake my head and say, “There’s another anti-choice ad riding on the backs of someone’s fame and money.” But, this ad actually endangers the lives of women. How many women, just like me, who are told that they might die if they continue a pregnancy, will refuse abortions because they are reminded that the baby they have could be a star?

Football fame is powerful stuff in the south, as is religion and the Focus on the Family group. There is a distinct possibility that women will die because of this ad. It has no place in the Super Bowl or anywhere else. Considering Focus on the Family’s deep association with Rev. Ted Haggard's prostitution and drug scandal, it appears that they would do best to focus on their own families for once.

01-26-2010, 08:54 PM	#34
Soon Infamous Member How Do You Identify?: femme Relationship Status: attached Join Date: Dec 2009 Location: . Posts: 6,896 My Photo Gallery Thanks: 29,046 Thanked 13,094 Times in 3,386 Posts Rep Power: 21474858	From OpenSalon: Thank God for Tim Tebow--Right After These Messages --Jodi Kasten Tim Tebow is the second coming of the Christ child according to most Florida fans. If you ask them, he single-handedly delivered two BCS championships, won the 2007 Heisman Trophy and just one touch from Tebow can heal leprosy or rickets. There’s no doubt that Tebow is a magnificent ball player. He’s a great role model, a leader and a very public proponent of abstinence until marriage. I have to applaud the dude’s tenacity in that arena. I can only imagine the legions of women who have thrown themselves at Tim Tebow’s cleats. Like any admirable young man, he loves his mother. He loves his mother so much that he’s going to appear with her in an ad during the Super Bowl on CBS. Evidently, while on a Christian mission trip to the Philippines in 1987, Pam Tebow got sick while pregnant with her fifth child. Doctors counseled her to have an abortion. She refused and Tim Tebow was born. All abortion debate aside, that is a heartwarming story. Tebow is a fine young man with amazing prospects. His leadership and squeaky clean image are a welcome change in a world of sports stars who work games into their schedules between weapons arrests and affairs. We do need more Tim Tebows in the world. But, in spite of the message, many believe that this anti-abortion ad has no place in the commercial line-up on Super Bowl Sunday. My first yellow flag was thrown when I saw who sponsored the ad. This isn’t Nike saying, “Just Do It.” This is Focus on the Family – a conservative Christian group. The funds for the ad, according to Focus on the Family spokesman Gary Schneeberger, came from “very generous friends” rather than the group’s general fund. One thirty second commercial during the Super Bowl is selling for $2.5 - $2.8 million. Schneeberger was “a little surprised” that the proposed ad has caused a furor. The Women’s Media Center’s Jemhu Greene says, “An ad that uses sports to divide rather than to unite has no place in the biggest national sports event of the year – an event designed to bring Americans together.” She went on to say, “By offering one of the most coveted advertising spots of the year to an anti-equality, anti-choice, homophobic organization, CBS is aligning itself with a political stance that will damage its reputation, alienate viewers and discourage consumers from supporting its shows and advertisers.” As election seasons stretch out to cover 90% of the year, it’s conceivable that instead of seeing flatulent horses selling Budweiser, we could soon be seeing many more ads bought by political action committees at the Super Bowl. Furthermore, with the recent Supreme Court ruling about corporate political funding, we could soon be seeing “Proposition 8 – Brought to you by Sarah Palin for President and Pepsi. Palin & Pepsi – two great tastes that taste great together!” I’m sure that Focus on the Family believes that this is not an anti-abortion message on the surface. Instead, they are reminding every woman who is in the heartbreaking position of terminating a pregnancy for any reason that they could be “killing” a Heisman trophy winner. The worst of this for me is that Tebow’s mother is sending the message that women should ignore the advice of their doctors and continue any and all pregnancies, no matter what the peril may be to their own lives. If Tebow and his mother were telling a different story, perhaps one where she thought she didn’t have the money for another child or she was pregnant out of wedlock, I’d shake my head and say, “There’s another anti-choice ad riding on the backs of someone’s fame and money.” But, this ad actually endangers the lives of women. How many women, just like me, who are told that they might die if they continue a pregnancy, will refuse abortions because they are reminded that the baby they have could be a star? Football fame is powerful stuff in the south, as is religion and the Focus on the Family group. There is a distinct possibility that women will die because of this ad. It has no place in the Super Bowl or anywhere else. Considering Focus on the Family’s deep association with Rev. Ted Haggard's prostitution and drug scandal, it appears that they would do best to focus on their own families for once.