Tim Tebow: oh no he didn’t!

The other day, I blogged about A.C Green showing that virginity is very possible in the NBA.

Now we’ve got Tim Tebow.

Matt Kaufman at Boundless blogged a few days ago on a recent press conference in which a reporter, umm, asked about Tim Tebow’s sex life:

Responding to a question from radio reporters at SEC Media Days Thursday about whether he is saving himself for marriage, Tebow laughed initially and then said seriously, “Yes, I am.”

When another reporter stumbled through and couldn’t finish a follow-up question, the 21-year-old University of Florida quarterback laughed and said, “I think you’re stunned right now. You can’t even ask a question…. I was ready for that question, but I don’t think y’all were.”

(For those that don’t know, Tebow was a University of Florida quarterback, Heisman Trophy winner, and he led his team to two NCAA football championships.)

You can listen to the tape here.

Bold…definitely. Not the place…probably. But it turned out good. The reporter wrote about it later, and you know what? He actually brought some good perspective. Tebow’s answer didn’t surprise him:

…Tebow lives his faith. And I believe that living his faith is not artificial, he’s not pretending to be something he’s not. Further, I don’t believe that saving yourself for marriage is something to hide from. Not in the evangelical Christian faith that Tim Tebow practices in a Southern church and not in the evangelistic Southern church where I was raised.

At my Southern Baptist church, proclaiming that you were saving yourself for marriage was considered an asset, something to be proud of. Mothers bragged about their daughters or their sons public proclamation of chastity until marriage. Saving yourself for marriage wasn’t something that people hid. They talked about it openly. In fact, people even wore tangible objects to reflect their purity, bracelets or rings that served as vivid evidence of their chastity pledges.

…

I guarantee you come Sunday across the South ministers will approach their pulpits and use Tebow’s virginity as an example to the flock. After all, if Tebow can resist countless girls throwing themselves at him on a regular basis, is it really valid for you or I or countless others to argue that preserving our virginity was just too difficult? Maybe. But I think it’s much tougher. Like many things in life, it all comes down to a choice. And Tebow controls his own choices better than most.

That’s the real story here: Tebow’s willingness to be an individual in a time when it’s easy to get lost in the crowd by making the popular decision. Good for him for standing up for his faith publicly, as he’s done countless times before.

I’m glad he acknowledged that saving oneself for marriage is something you shouldn’t feel you have to hide.  There’s no reason whatsoever to be embarrassed about it or feel out of place because of that choice.  Also, I’m pleasantly surprised that the reporter said that Tebow’s lifestyle is more than just a personal choice, and that he calls the “it’s too difficult” justification the poor excuse it is.

Well, he doesn’t exactly put it that strongly, but he hints at it, so I give him kudos.  Let’s hope that youth look up to this man for more than his football skills.