The longer I wait to finally publish this post, the more goodies I find to put in it – like this excellent cartoon from Jake Fuller via the good folks at Tebow’s Eyeblack. Dead on:

I’m sure by now most of you are aware that the National Organization for Women and other women’s groups urged CBS last week to scrap its plan to run a Focus on the Family produced Super Bowl ad featuring former FL Gators quarterback Tim Tebow and his mother. Among their complaints: the ad “uses sports to divide rather than to unite” and would “damage (CBS’s) reputation, alienate viewers, and discourage consumers from supporting its shows and advertisers.”

Give me a break, people. Maybe I’ll be proven wrong here, but I’m fairly positive there is no way CBS would have approved the ad if it had any kind of in-your-face anti-abortion message. By all accounts the ad will be nothing more than the two Tebows “sharing their story” of choosing life and how well that turned out for them.

As if the initial retraction call by NOW and others wasn’t bad enough, now some pro-abortion women/women’s groups are actually accusing Pam Tebow of lying about being offered an abortion in the Philippines as abortion was illegal in the country at the time. Suzanne at Big Blue Wave has the best response to that ridiculous and disgusting claim.

You know, the lengths to which these organizations are going to try to silence the message of two good, Christian missionaries really makes you wonder what they’re so afraid of. Why are these champions of “choice” so threatened by the story of one woman “choosing” to give life to her unborn child? Personally, I think it has more to do with the organization behind the ad rather than the message of the ad itself, especially considering the fact that they haven’t even seen the ad and don’t even know exactly what it’s going to say. Whatever it is, these people just look ridiculous, betraying everything they claim to stand for (freedom, choice, etc…). And I’m not the only one who thinks so, take a look at this op-ed from the former presidents of Catholics for Choice and NARAL!

And, hey, speaking of the National Organization for Women: have they seen some of the other ads that run during the Super Bowl!? If you ask me, the true story of a good, strong, Christian missionary woman who overcame the odds in order to give life to her son should be the least of their worries. That is, if they were really interested in defending and promoting the dignity of women.

What I love most about all of this is that it’s the abortion supporters, who don’t want the ad seen, who are responsible for giving the ad WAY more publicity that it ever would have had otherwise, thereby garnering more interest among people who likely might have missed this one spot amid the many that will air during the 3-4 hour broadcast. Sure, there was some talk before they started complaining – but nothing like what we’ve been seeing in the past week. It’s being debated on cable news, discussed on “The View” (assuming someone watches that show) and has been all over the mainstream press (like the New Yorker, People Magazine, Entertainment Weekly, Wall Street Journal, E! Online and The Guardian: here, here and here, just to name a few).

Not only that, but they have caused pro-lifers to band together supporting the Tebows and CBS’s decision to air the ad. And through blogs, facebook and twitter, the support has spread like wild-fire. In less than a week the “Support Tebow’s Super Bowl Ad” Facebook group started by Life News and American’s United for Life managed to rack up over 100,000 fans. Catholic Vote (the same group that had their pro-life ad rejected by NBC last year) and Life Site News have been encouraging pro-lifers to sign petitions thanking CBS. And the Susan B. Anthony List has a site allowing fans to write a message of support to the Tebows. According to a tweet from the SBA List today over 30,000 messages of support have already been sent! (** Update: SBA List now says they’re at 50,000 and Counting). And, let me just tell you, all this love and appreciation for Tebow just warms this lifelong Florida Gator’s heart! –,==,< Many pro-life leaders have issued statements and written columns in Tebow's defense in the last week, but I think it's best to hear from Tim himself:

He also told reporters

“It’s just me and my mom showing our love for each other, and that’s pretty much what it’s about…

I don’t think it’s anything that’s negative or anything like that. I think it’s a good time and place when there’s a lot of people watching, and I think it’s a great opportunity to show something very happy and a special story and my mom fighting for me. I think there are a lot of great things in that.”

Amen! For many, watching the Super Bowl is a family affair and, as I indicated earlier, the commercial breaks will be filled with a LOT of trash and crass humor. How nice it will be to have a break from the silliness and de-moralization for a tasteful, uplifting message about love, life, faith and family!

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P.S. if you want a glimpse of what the ad might possibly be like, take a look at Tim’s 2007 Heisman video or listen to this interview with Pam Tebow at a 40 Days for Life event in Jacksonville, FL.