I'm intrigued by the wondering out there this week as to whether it’s kosher for athletes to praise God when they’re interviewed after a victory. Kosher may not be the right word, for literally that would mean it is acceptable to religious people—or at least a specific portion of them. And the question at hand seems to be whether it is acceptable to the non-religious people who have to hear all this “glory-to-Godding.”

So let’s think about this for a few minutes.

One of the key criticisms of athletes who thank or praise God for a victory goes like this: “Well, of course they’re praising God. They won.” It’s not a criticism that’s too verifiable because, well, normally postgame reporters only interview the winners.

Phew! Glad we all survived that Tim and Mom Tebow commercial.

In what promised to be—if you let yourself get carried away with all the pregame hype of the political kind—the most controversial moment of the game, a lot of folks who spent a lot of bluster over the whole deal must have melted in their chairs under the sheer weight of the nothingness that the ad contained.

Of course, if you have any sense of what Focus on the Family is all about, you know that that all is a whole lot more than abortion. Not that those who were so foresightedly upset about this deal wanted to admit this. They took their stance: what good could anyone who actually includes the choice of life in the pro-choice world have to say about marriage or parenting or overcoming depression or household management or—no way!—sex?

So I’m scrolling through my newsfeed on Facebook the other day and see a link to a story on ABC about Focus on the Family running an anti-abortion ad during Super Bowl XLIV starring Tim Tebow. I may have been the last person on the 'Interwebs' (that’s what my 65 year old dad calls it) to see this, but it sparked a few thoughts.

In the article, Gary Schneeberger, a Focus on the Family spokesman, is quoted as saying, “There is nothing political or controversial about the spot.” Are you kidding me? Nothing political or controversial… right. Focus on the Family has become synonymous with both politics and controversy due to its strong alignment with crazy right-wing ideologies.