Bernstein: Does Tim Tebow Know That Evangelicals Despise Donald Trump?
By Dan Bernstein--
CBSChicago.com senior columnist
(CBS) The list of speakers for next week's Republican National Convention is out, and it looks as expected, with most of the party's authoritative leaders taking a pass on celebrating Donald Trump, leaving the stage to an odd menagerie of friends and B-listers.
One notable speaker is Tim Tebow, the former football player now known primarily for public displays of religiosity. He's a darling of retail-level evangelicals, having found a way to make a nice living as a paid speaker to adoring crowds of football faithful eager to hear his personal story and easily digestible messages of spiritual belief.
Trump is smart enough to know he needs Tebow's brand, because actual evangelical leaders with any real influence hate Trump with a passion.
Politico.com has detailed within the modern religious right "an unprecedented lack of enthusiasm for -- and, in some cases, outright opposition to -- the presumptive GOP nominee." Trump's recent creation of a religious advisory board was mocked by others on the right, with Christian blogger Fred Clark deriding the group as "second-tier religious right figures along with a handful of peaked-long-ago relics," per Politico.
Russell Moore, policy head of the Southern Baptist Convention, used Twitter to bash the association after Trump's pandering speech to them, calling them, "Heretical prosperity gospel hucksters hailed as spiritual leaders."
The religious right is horrified by Trump, whose very essence is antithetical to their true, core beliefs. He once called himself "very pro-choice," has praised Planned Parenthood, bragged about his infidelity, mocked the disabled, is a cheerleader for the use of torture and dabbled in open anti-Semitism despite the right's strong alliance with Israel.
Tebow's foundation is dedicated in large part to helping children with special needs, not making fun of them.
But Trump is successfully glomming onto Tebow's celebrity, because he knows he needs to market himself. He's trying to close a sale in the only way that he understands, finding something shiny and bright that can distract those who are easily persuaded.
"A January poll of Republican pastors found just 5 percent planned to vote for Trump in the primaries, and there's no evidence that he has won the rest of them over as he moves toward the general election. (In a smaller poll of evangelical insiders in May, half of them said they would never vote for Trump "no matter what.") Some evangelicals who remain repulsed by his crude persona and ugly rhetoric have proposed abstaining from voting in the general election."
This is all a way of saying that many Christians are working to remind others that their beliefs stand against aligning themselves with someone as odious as Trump and whose positions on key issues have directly controverted theirs.
Yet Tebow will take the stage in Cleveland to support him, despite the damage it could do to his the consistency of his personal mission. It can come off as bad Christianity, from someone who has worked to build an image as an almost saintly figure among us.
Tebow needs to understand this, soon. He's being used.
It's something Tebow has rarely done well, but this is one time where he really has to pass.
Dan Bernstein is a co-host of 670 The Score's "Boers and Bernstein Show" in afternoon drive. You can follow him on Twitter @dan_bernstein and read more of his columns here.
