Tim Tebow and the not-so-secular city
The trade of Tim Tebow to the New York Jets brought a burst of publicity for the city’s iniquities. It seems that pretty much all the media – including the city’s tabloid dailies and publications ranging from the National Enquirer to the New York Times – picked up that theme, so it’s too late to undo it now. The Times put it this way: “Tebow is also a somewhat incongruous fit: an outspoken Christian playing in a city known for its extensive night life and a member of a franchise made famous by the bachelor stylings of Joe Namath and currently known for the profane speeches of its coach, Rex Ryan.”
And this, from the National Enquirer: “It is unclear how the pie-eyed pundit of the pigskin will respond to the multitude of temptations New York has to offer.”
Not to step on the pride of my home town, but the fact is that New York is hardly a godless den of iniquity – it’s a city where most people pray every day, and large majorities believe in heaven, hell and life after death.
That was the result of a poll Gallup did for my newspaper, New York Newsday, when I was its religion reporter 21 years ago. I don’t think the situation has changed, especially with the addition of so many immigrants since then. As Gallup found, New York City residents were as likely as other Americans to say religion was very important in their lives.
If New York has a reputation for non-belief, it’s because the city is so often identified with the smallest of its five boroughs, Manhattan. In Manhattan, 17 percent of those surveyed said they didn’t believe in God, life after death, or miracles. In the Bronx, the figure was 1 percent. The poll found that 53 percent of New Yorkers surveyed said they prayed at least once a day, three points above the national average at the time.
New York has many evangelical Christians, with a particularly strong presence in the poorer neighborhoods of Brooklyn and the Bronx. They don’t get quoted in the newspapers very often, but, as I learned on the religion beat, they’re happy to speak out if you ask them to.
To say that it’s “incongruous” for a Christian athlete to play in the Big Apple because it has a night life is, well, incongruous.
In college, Tebow was a star quarterback in a top-tier Division I football program in college. When it comes to the temptations of sin and vice for a college jock of Tebow’s stature, places like Gainesville, FL, Norman, OK and Tuscaloosa, AL may be the equal of the Big Apple.
I wonder how much of NYC’s reputation as den of iniquity goes back to the Evangelical-fueled campaign for the 18th amendment and Prohibition?
The NYC-based media are not famous for positively accentuating God and religion. But Tebow is famous for positively accentuating God and religion. So what did you expect from the NYC-based media by way of responding to having Tebow join the Jets? It’s not like the NYC-based media are welcoming one of their own kind of guys to NYC.
Totally off the subject but relative to the context, this is a nice reminder that far from putting slavery behind us – pace MLK – we enthusiastically perpetuate it in what it pleases us to call “employment”. Work slaves. Human beings who are “traded” from one organization to another. When most of us – and all of the professional athletes – spend most of our waking hours bound in obedience to our employers, it can hardly be said that we’re “free”, except in a conveniently relative sense. Rationalization is fun to watch.
David, you are full-on mental.
I kind of like the idea of Timmy getting corrupted. I imagine him ditching the practice field for one of the clubs Stefon (of SNL fame) is always promoting.
Also, just to wrap up, whenever I hear Tebow mentioned, I always am reminded of quarterback Stan “the Boy” Taylor.
Paul: Are you saying that the stats posted below the Daily News picture are those from 21 years ago – or more recent? If from 21 years ago, their current applicability would be questionable.
Manhattan is way too chic and properous to be religious as well!