NRL News
Page 15
June-July 2011
Volume 38
Issue 6-7

Pro-Life Tim Tebow Has New Book, Through My Eyes

By Dave Andrusko

If I drop the name “Tim Tebow,” virtually every football fan in America will know I’m referring to a young man who quarterbacked the Florida Gators to two national championships, won the Heisman Trophy in 2007, and was drafted in the first round by the Denver Broncos in 2010. I mention Tim Tebow to many, but by no means all, pro-lifers and they might have a vague recollection that Tebow is pro-life. (More about that in a second.)

But if I mention the name Tim Tebow to pro-abortionists, such as the National Organization of Women, the Women’s Media Center, and the Feminist Majority Foundation, they’d probably grind their teeth. Their best efforts to squelch Tebow had been foiled.

You may remember that Focus on the Family purchased a 30-second spot in the 2010 Super Bowl. As much as the trio (and others) huffed and puffed, CBS refused to buckle under to their boycott threats.

Whatever the pro-abortionists had persuaded themselves would be in the ad (the theme was “Celebrate Family, Celebrate Life”), what America witnessed was a half-minute of Tim and his mother Pam in which her sole point was that she’d almost lost him as a baby and, as his mother, was still protective of her football-playing son.

But the ad served its purpose: the Tebows had made their point deftly (and with humor) while pro-abortionists tried to muscle CBS, revealing themselves as a bastion of intolerance yet again .

Tim has a new book out this week, titled Through My Eyes. His is a fascinating story, but it is not his alone: it is the entire Tebow family’s.

I knew from many, many stories that Tim’s parents were missionaries to the Philippines and that when Pam Tebow was carrying Tim, there were serious complications. Just how serious I didn’t realize until I read the first few chapters.

The pregnancy was difficult from the beginning, characterized by pain and bleeding. “A number of times they were certain they had lost me,” he writes. His parents went to the best doctor in their area of the Philippines, who told his mother in a slow monotone that “an abortion is the only way to save your life.”

Tim writes, “According to her, the ‘mass of fetal tissue’ or ‘tumor’–me–had to go.”

A deeply devout couple, they left “shocked and a bit numb, but resolute in what course they would take.” Pam Tebow experienced “an unexpected and indescribable peace. God’s peace ... .”

“Miraculously” the bleeding subsequently subsided, meaning they could fly to Manila. When Tim was delivered he was “followed immediately by a blood clot that was bigger than I was.”

The attending physician told his dad, “Mr. Tebow, your child is a miracle baby. I can’t explain how it happened, but despite all odds, he beat them. Only a small part of the placenta was attached, but it was just enough to keep your baby nourished all these months.”

But they were not out of the woods—neither Pam nor Tim.

“Mom had surgery when I was a week old, and she finally began to recover after the health challenges of many months. The doctor told my parents that if we had not come to Manila, Mom probably would not have survived my birth.”

Tim adds, “My mom, dad, and family were so grateful for my safe arrival and thanked the Lord for His protection of both my mom and me.”

No one is going to confuse Tim and his co-author Nathan Whitaker with Proust. The style is as plainspoken and unadorned as Tim is. And just as enjoyable.

During the Super Bowl hubbub, Tim unobtrusively espoused his pro-life principles. One newspaper account I read at the time is representative: “Tebow said he has deep convictions on the abortion issue because of his mother’s story.”

Tebow then said, “I know some people won’t agree with it, but I think they can at least respect that I stand up for what I believe.”

The entire Tebow family is remarkable, and the way they live out their pro-life convictions is an inspiration. The book is Through My Eyes, which you can purchase at any bookstore or at Amazon.com.