New Stanek WND column, “Wednesday-morning quarterbacking the Tebow ad”
It all turned out so well, I have a hard time making much of the fact that Focus on the Family’s Tebow ad, billed as pertaining to the pro-life issue, didn’t have anything to do with abortion.
But looking back, Focus never said it would.
In fact, Focus said it wouldn’t. CEO Jim Daly told USA Today on Feb. 5 the ad was “an open discussion on the sanctity of human life – not just the issue of abortion… [with] a bit of humor in it – in fitting with the Super Bowl theme.”
Focus gave exactly what it promised.
People like Jeff Emmanuel at RedState.com commended Focus for PR genius:
The job done by Focus and the Tebows with their much-
publicized Super Bowl advertisement was nothing short of masterful. In fact, I’m not sure that word describes the level of mastery Focus showed with their domination of the pro-abortion left through last night’s ad and the public relations battles leading up to it….
Brilliant….
Continue reading my column today, “Wednesday morning quarterbacking the Tebow ad,” at WorldNetDaily.com.
Jill Stanek is a nurse turned speaker, columnist and blogger, a national figure in the effort to protect both preborn and postborn innocent human life.
Jill, loved your observations re: the Tebow ad, Focus on the Family, and the pro-abort frenzy both pre and post the Super Bowl game.
Thanks for your application of those great Scriptural texts. Once again God’s truth came through, “Be sure your sins will find you out.”
Because of their practices and motivations, the anti-life/choice forces revealed their primary agenda by overreacting early (while not knowing) and then later (the “against women violence” stance).
God had orchestrated even THAT since 88-year-old Betty White had been tackled as well. Hearing the post game sanctimonious criticism, most people right away thought of the Betty White tackle… and “HYPOCRISY” clearly was exposed.
More laughter from God? =) … and a few chuckles from us as well!
Nell, thanks, and you’re right. God’s plan was perfect – down to the Betty White ad! Thanks for that insight!
Amen, Jill, Amen. I concur wholeheartedly. It was indeed a brilliant achievement on Focus’ part and it was indeed a major coup for God.
We honor our soldiers today for fighting for our freedom, but we fail to acknowledge people like you who fight for the God given right to life for our unborn children.
If it was not for you, my stance against abortion would not be as firm and resolute. I am unapologetic about killing our children and I pray that, because of efforts like yours and Focus on the Family, more become aware of the extreme tragedy of abortion. How God must feel to see us killing his most precious Creations.
They truly were left with egg on their face but wait you will be skewered for applying scripture to your column. How could she call us “evil”? they will report you to the PC police. Tell them it is your column and you did not call them evil but if the shoe fits……
I’m still surprised a lawyer the caliber of Gloria Allred stuck her foot in it. She hadn’t seen the ad, she wasn’t certain about Filipino law and abortion but there she was on TV, shrill as ever.
She only needed to order a few low level flunkies to do some research and find this information.
There have been times that I have admired Allred and the stands she took. At least she was informed before opening her mouth.
Nell R and Jill,
The feminazis were sorely embarassed. They had to find something, anything to squawk about and did. When we are wrong we can do one of two things:
1. Act like a mature adult, acknowledge we were wrong and apologize.
2. Act like an egomaniac who can never be wrong and if possible somehow blame the person we wronged or find something else to whine about.
Feminazis, let me give you some advise. This is a life lesson I learned the hard way.
The fastest and most sure-fire way to make a fool of yourself:
1. Shoot off your mouth
2. Get your facts
I’ve never seen it fail.
Jill, I thought your use of this verse was excellent!
The one enthroned in heaven laughs.
The Lord makes fun of them.
~ Psalm 2:4
Two seconds of speechlessness. Then, we laughed after the commercial, still not quite able to put the words to our reaction. Finally, we could put our reaction into words: “That was it?! That is what all the pro-abortion commotion was about?! Wow, the pro-abortion people really have egg on their face this time, on a national stage.”
But no thought of violence-against-women crossed our minds, so the Betty-White-tackle coincidence was not apparent to us. It was apparent to God, who set all of this up. The OT is filled with these types of humorous turns-of-phrase, etc.
And as far as “coincidence”? Consider the story from First Kings, the death of Ahab: first a prophet declares that God has told him that Ahab will not return from a certain battle if Ahab decides to go into battle against the prophet’s/God’s advice; then, in this battle, a “random” arrow (ch22 v 34) kills the king, fulfilling prophesy. “Random”? 1. the king was incognito, and someone else was dressed to appear as king; 2. an arrow was apparently flown into the crowd, verus bein aimed at one soldier, with the shooter hoping to hit a mark – and enemy – and did versus did not; 3. the arrow hit a eprson AND happened to fly through a gap in armor; 4. the wound happened to be fatal. So, God shows us to not believe so much in the randomness of events: this one predicted event defied four layers of seeming randomness. And Betty White gets tackled in an unrelated commercial. Random? No. Funny? Yes. Instructional? You bet.
Amen, Jill, Amen. I concur wholeheartedly. It was indeed a brilliant achievement on Focus’ part and it was indeed a major coup for God.”
Commercial was fine. You may have noticed, I had no complaints about it airing before, during or after. However, I’m wondering why you see God’s hand in the Super Bowl commercial line-up. There would be much easier ways for a god to stop abortion, wouldn’t there?
With government funding vanishing for programs that prevent abortions and value a pro-life perspective, how are ministries and other non-profits to fund their efforts?
Many of the Christian Ministries I work with are dismayed to find that few foundations, even Christian Foundations with conservative values, are interested in truly saving babies.
I am hopeful that as 2010 progresses foundations will recognize this need and bgin to respond to the changes in government funds to address the issue.
My company, Here-4-You Christian Grant Consulting is working with crisis pregnancy centers, single parent programs, adoption resource centers, residential services for pregnant teens, and other programs that are in desperate need of funding to continue the work they have started.
I am sure that many, many prayers were offered up for the success of this ad. Let’s be careful to give God all the glory. Praise God for this victory.
Psalm 24:7-10 (New American Standard Bible)
7Lift up your heads, O gates,
And be lifted up, O [a]ancient doors,
That the King of glory may come in!
8Who is the King of glory?
The LORD strong and mighty,
The LORD mighty in battle.
9Lift up your heads, O gates,
And lift them up, O ancient doors,
That the King of glory may come in!
10Who is this King of glory?
The LORD of hosts,
He is the King of glory. Selah.
Posted by: Hal at February 10, 2010 10:45 AM
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Actually Hal – For God to do it through free will, others have to come to believe abortion is morally wrong without real violence to others.
That’s the same exact basis all those who follow Jesus humble themselves and rely upon him for His saving grace.
There is no glory in forcing others, however, say you changed your mind on abortion and became pro-life – then that realization and change would be true, just, right and ultimately very beautiful.
We tend to interpret events with certain expectations, and yet if we set aside those expectations and simply see what has transpired, we might be moved in ways we don’t expect.
Chris, did God interfere with the free will of those who were creating the Betty White ad? If not, how can He get the credit?
“God had orchestrated even THAT since 88-year-old Betty White had been tackled as well.”
Is God “orchestrating” or is God letting us act through free will?
Probably too much of a hijack of this thread, I’ll back out now and get to work. Have a great day
We need to make sure we don’t drop the ball on this. And we need to tackle their main claim — that they fear that women will be inspired by Pam Tebow to question their doctors and end up dying from lack of “medically necessary” abortions. Let’s tackle these “medically necessary” abortions head on.
As far back as 1960, Planned Parenthood Medical Director Mary Calderone wrote “[M]edically speaking, that is, from the point of view of diseases of the various systems, cardiac, genitourinary, and so on, it is hardly ever necessary today to consider the life of a mother as threatened by a pregnancy.” Dr. Alan Guttmacher, another former leader of Planned Parenthood, said in 1967, “Today it is possible for almost any patient to be brought through pregnancy alive, unless she suffers from a fatal illness such as cancer or leukemia, and if so, abortion would be unlikely to prolong, much less save life.”
With the advances that have been made in medicine since then, how much more true are Calderone’s and Guttmacher’s observations?
And Planned Parenthood KNOWS all this. Everything their own Alan Guttmacher and Mary Calderone said.
the successful treatment of high-risk pregnancy is measured in terms of length of gestation and fetal survival; maternal survival is expected. You start seeing maternal mortality when you look at studies of women who suffer catastrophic injuries during pregnancy. The medical literature on these cases mentions “abortion” (miscarriage) as an undesired effect of these injuries, not as a treatment.
Pro-life physicians note that doctors often recommend abortions for ailing patients because they fear that treatment for the mother might harm the fetus. Aborting the baby to prevent his possible injury or death makes sense from a legal standpoint, for the doctor to avoid a lawsuit, but these abortions are to protect the doctor’s malpractice rates, or to avoid the possible birth of a child with a disability, not to preserve the mother’s life.
If women are inspired by Pam Tebow to question their doctors, this reality will be exposed. And another lynchpin in their structure of deceit is gone.
Hal:
Why do you fight God?
The One who loves you unconditionally.
The free gift of salvation is there Hal for the receiving, however, it will not always be there.
Hebrews 3:15
while it is said,” TODAY IF YOU HEAR HIS VOICE,DO NOT HARDEN YOUR HEARTS, AS WHEN THEY PROVOKED ME.”
Phil, I haven’t yet begun to fight. Takes two to tango, and so far, God has not even provoked a skirmish.
Posted by: hal at February 10, 2010 2:25 PM
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Still struggling with God Hal?
Just a little bit of wrestling…
Need to be blessed?
Hal, lately you’ve seem to be leaving more and more spiritual openings.
Hal:
Whether you know it or not you ARE already in a huge fight with God. In fact He says you are His enemy.
He doesn’t want it that way and He wants you to be reconciled to Him.
The offer is forgiveness through the shed blood of His Son Jesus Christ.
There’s no other way my friend.
“In fact He says you are His enemy.”
I doubt He ever said such a thing. I’m too likable.
Posted by: hal at February 10, 2010 5:49 PM
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Yup – you’re likable. But that doesn’t mean you’re perfect. ;-)
Jill,
Very insightful, you nailed it.
God totally demonstrated His omniscience.
Thank you for so clearly explaining it and supporting it with His Word.
Hal, I’m sorry you don’t have eyes to see, or ears to hear.
In order to know God, you must use the measure of faith that He gave to you:
But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. Heb 11:6
God is awesome Hal. He is so, so good. He blesses me so much sometimes I can hardly stand it, because I don’t deserve it. He’s just a way cool, loving, merciful God.
If you would start to draw near to Him, He would draw near to you, it’s that simple.
It’s up to you.
Posted by: Hal at February 10, 2010 10:45 AM
“There would be much easier ways for a god to stop abortion, wouldn’t there?”
—————————————————–
HAL,
Scott Roeder comes to mind.
Seriously, though, my experience has been that God generally doesn’t do ‘easy’.
HE seems to like what would appear to be a ‘challenge’ to us stupid mortal humans.
HE specializes in what seems to be impossible to us.
The other thing to be considered is all that happens that is beyond, or escapes, our ability to comprehend.
To us ‘death’ is the end. No sequels, no next chapter, or other verses. When death occurrs it literally and figuratively all over but the wailing and moaning and gnashing of teeth.
Even death is not an obstacle for God. GOD can even fix death, which a few pegs above fixing stupid.
I can understand how people would question how GOD could allow such bad stuff to happen when HE has the power to prevent.
I have come to this one conclusion and I am not saying it is correct or even beyond challenge.
God is so confident in HIS abililty to redeem and restore that HE is willing to allow the ‘bent one’ to take his best shot at us, knowing the result will be worse for the destroyer than if he had not allowed the destroyer to do anything and better for us than if GOD had not allowed the ‘proud one’ to touch us in the first place.
We know from on going experience that no matter how bad things are, or seem to be, in the end it will result in our good.
yor bro ken
Jill – Excellent analysis. I was all over the map trying to analyze everything about this ad before it ran, when I saw it, and the results of it. I was mostly wrong. Great strategy by Focus (whether intended or not) to expose the difference between evil and good in our society. The whole idea before it ran was on it being a pro-life ad, but it really was a Focus on the Family ad which sold their organization. That’s what ads are supposed to do. Brilliant idea to have a teaser in the ad and direct people to the Focus site for more of the story.
Well, the pro-aborts acted like pro-aborts and really made themselves look silly. Of course we see examples of this all of the time, only it is not plastered all over national TV. The MSM seldom reports the harassment dished out to pro-lifers on a daily basis across the country.
This ad could be a turning point on how the public views the two sides. In the days running up to the Super Bowl the pro-aborts were foaming at the mouth, saying things like the ad was hateful and what a great dis-service it was to women. And when the ad finally aired the public saw first hand the methodology the opponents employed in their criticism of the ad and how extreme and vicious it was.