A while ago the news broke that Tim Tebow was going to shoot a Super Bowl commercial for a group that at best can be described as homophobic, anti choice, anti women, and really…anti the America I want to live in. I took to twitter, facebook, and all the rest, and I decried that, and I have boycotted CBS, called for the boycott of CBS, and I have actually done pretty well with that boycott. I think that we live in a country that cannot anymore allow FAITH or whatever you want to call it, to be the blanket with which we allow bad behavior and ideas to move forward.
All through my life I have held a strong sense of faith. Deeply held faith, based on my limits. My faith has been something I have articulated in conversation through the years, and as a result felt even better about having it. But, during this time one of my heroes retired. Coach Bobby Bowden, longtime coach of the Florida State Football team stepped down after a lifetime of success. During my life I have cheered for no sports team with more passion than I cheer for FSU football. I am a full on fanboy for the teams of the school, having gone so far as to write to the coach (he wrote and called me back), bought tickets to bowl games, and visited the campus (where I got to meet Coach Bowden and Warrick Dunn). To say that FSU football is something I am a fan of, well that is an amazingly plain truth.
During this time of decrying Tim Tebow as a member of a homophobic group, I found a website the had the donations of various Florida celebs listed. It turns out that Coach Bowden was an active supporter of Republican anti choice candidates. He is also active in the group Fellowship of Christian Athletes. I was not at all ready for this. I looked at the donation list, and tried to justify it by saying that they were small donations, and maybe they were just something he and his wife did out of politeness. But, as time went on I realized that I was simply deluding myself. I was just looking to excuse something because I was a fan of the man.
I do not have answers. How do we react when we find that someone who we are a fan of does something we oppose both personally and professionally? Can we be fans of that person? Can I still be a fan of Bobby Bowden even though he gave money to people who limited an effective Family Planning Waiver (Florida has one of the WORST) and as a result harmed women and families, all the while claiming to be pro family?
How deep should fan dom run?
Is it being an apologist to say that I am fan of him as a coach and not as a man? Maybe not.
I do not agree with the anti choice rhetoric of FCA, but do they do good work in other areas?
Is it more complex than I want it to be? Maybe.
Am I still right to decry Tim Tebow for standing with homophobes? Am I still right for decrying CBS for considering ad money from something so terrible as this group?
Is injustice anywhere, injustice everywhere?
I think what I have come away with is this…I disagree with Bobby Bowden for standing with a group like FCA, or giving money to Mel Martinez. Is that different than a young man, with a career just starting, leveraging that career for a group like he is, I think it is. Bowden will fade, while the light on Tebow will grow.
When I met Bowden, we spent a good amount of time talking about commerce, and how money has seeped into college athletics. How FSU had an early role in that, establishing a relationship with Nike every early on. We also talked about God, and I told him that I was uncomfortable with that. Instead, we talked about faith, as I am more comfortable with it.
If I could talk to Bowden now, I would ask him to not give money to anti choice candidated. I would say that his position can create heat for these candidates, and that he should not do that.
I think Bowden is wrong to work with FCA. There are other groups more inclusive, more effective, more positive than FCA. I think he is wrong to give money to these candidates. There are others who have better visions for his state.
If I could talk to Tim Tebow, I would tell him that he needs to see the world as a whole world. That this homophobic group is leading him astray. They are not as innocent as they portray.
But more than that, I do not know the answer to the big question. What if we disagree with someone we are a fan of? I do not know.