Tebow in the lion's den

From Oct 27, 2011:  Tim Tebow -- a Fool?   "To be sure, Tim is not the first professional athlete to publicly and robustly express his or her Christian faith. There is a long and storied history of stars who turned a portion of their platform into a pulpit of sorts, from the baseball-player-turned-evangelist Billy Sunday in 1887 to basketball great David Robinson, and, more recently, two of this week's World Series participants, the Cardinals' slugger Albert Pujols and the Rangers' Josh Hamilton.

"I, along with millions of others, admire these athletes not merely because of how they perform -- but because of how they conduct themselves while doing so." 

The above Rich Terrell cartoon  seems to depict New York fans, but mainly -I think- the New York press and  media including  Vanity Fair, which calls Tebow "ostentatiously pious".  Paul the Apostle, in chapter 15 of his letter to the church in Rome warned that those who followed Christ would be considered foolish:

...And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is futile and your faith is empty. 15:15 Also, we are found to be false witnesses about God,because we have testified against God that he raised Christ from the dead, when in reality he did not raise him, if indeed the dead are not raised. 15:16 For if the dead are not raised, then not even Christ has been raised. 15:17 And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is useless;you are still in your sins. 15:18 Furthermore, those who have fallen asleep ¹⁰  in Christ havealso perished. 15:19 For if only in this life we have hope in Christ, we should be pitied more than anyone. Bible.org

Kerby Anderson at Point of View had this to say last Christmas: 

 And Tim Tebow has been a full recipient of the negative reaction against all things Christian. Who can forget how he was blasted in the run-up to Focus on the Family’s 2010 Superbowl ad?  Pro-lifers are more than familiar with the story of Tim’s mom, Pam, a missionary, with her husband in the Phillippines… counseled to abort her baby to save her life following a placental abruption.  She refused.  That commercial was another platform in which Pam, appearing with Tim, told that story, sending a strong pro-life message without ever using the word “pro-life” or “abortion.”  

Jennifer Marshall of Heritage writes: Why Tim Tebow Keeps Smiling

When Pam Tebow was counseled to abort her baby to save her own life, the doctor referred to him as a “mass of fetal tissue.”   (Emphasis added)

“(M)aybe she just called me that to toughen us up for the names I would be called the first time I played at LSU,” ... It’s true. He’s kept smiling while showing remarkable magnanimity toward critics. One, former Broncos QB Jake Plummer, suggested toning down the religious rhetoric. 

Tebow responded that if it’s a good idea for a husband to tell his wife he loves her as often as he can, then wouldn’t it be appropriate to do the same when it comes to the most important relationship in his own life? “If people want to bash me for that, that’s OK. It really won’t bother me. At least they know what I believe.”