Travelers Today | By Antranig Dereyan
Updated: Feb 21, 2013 03:05 PM EST
With all of the negative publicity it was generating for him, it was no shocker that New York Jets' quarterback canceled his schedule appearance at the First Baptist Dallas church in April.
On Thursday, he tweeted that he would no longer honor the commitment. He didn't specifically say why he was canceling, but alluded to the controversy surrounding his appearance:
"While I was looking forward to sharing a message of hope and Christ's unconditional love with the faithful members of the historic First Baptist Church of Dallas in April, due to new information that has been brought to my attention, I have decided to cancel my upcoming appearance. I will continue to use the platform God has blessed me with to bring Faith, Hope and Love to all those needing a brighter day. Thank you for all of your love and support. God Bless!"
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First Baptist Church responded to Tebow's cancellation in a statement.
"Mr. Tebow called Dr. Jeffress Wednesday evening saying that for personal and professional reasons he needed to avoid controversy at this time, but would like to come to First Baptist Dallas to speak at a future date," the statement read, as reported by USA Today.
The adverse reaction towards Tebow speaking at the church had little to do with Tebow or his religious views, it had everything to do with Jeffress and his expressed beliefs.
Jeffress has made news for his critiques of other religions and lifestyles. The pastor said Muslims practice a religion that came from the depths of hell and "promote pedophilia." In his eyes, Mormonism is a cult that should have disqualified Mitt Romney from the 2012 election, stated USA Today
The pastor's also very much against homosexuality. "[It] is perverse, it represents a degradation of a person's mind," Jeffress has said, reported USA Today.
"As a Christian pastor, Dr. Jeffress takes a biblical approach to moral and social issues, closely following his duty to preach 'the whole counsel of God,' and not just address issues that are politically correct," First Baptist's statement said, according to USA Today.
Some of those pundits in the sports world who lashed out at Tebow for planning to do this was WFAN's Craig Carton (a man of jewish decent), on the "Boomer and Carton" show.
When speaking to one of his guests about what the guest would ask Tebow in a interview, the controversial and out-spoken Carton intervened and said.
"Why don't you ask him why do you hate the jews?"?
Though the comments were taken as a joke, what Carton said could have triggered a warning sign in Tebow's mind about what type of criticism would come or what people would perceive about him and his inner feelings, if he decided to go through with the appearance.?
Once news of his cancelation was spread throughout the sporting and non-sporting world, the main issue people had:?
Why didn't he go further and issued a strong statement against the pastor's convictions?
Only answer--it is not the Tebow way.?
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Source: http://www.travelerstoday.com/articles/4931/20130221/tim-tebow-cancels-new-york-jets-quarterback.htm
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