While we talk Calvin, Tebow, and Jefferson...

Christians in America are disputing and discussing such weighty matters as Thomas Jefferson's Christian attitude and devotion or lack thereof.

We are debating whether or not it is proper for an orthodox follower of Christ to cast their presidential vote for a Mormon, Mitt Romney, rather than for a declared Christian, Barack Obama.

We will certainly take time this fall to praise or criticize celebrity Christian athletes and entertainers.

Which elite athletes in London are real believers?

And will Tim Tebow continue to do his Christian celebratory antics after success in entertaining millions by moving an oblate spheroid down a nicely grassed field and across an arbitrary line? How about the shirtless footballer in GQ?

Christians in America find pride in spending a lot of money, for Jesus of course - a gazillion for a spiffy fountain that points people to Jesus.

Our occupation with all of the above is in stark contrast to what concerns Christians elsewhere, as the headline of a Wall Street Journal story of last Saturday illustrates:

Can Syria's Christians survive?

Sort of provides a bit of perspective.

We're building fountains while Christians in one of the places most central to Christian history may be eliminated altogether.

There is a spot on the Damascus road where Christianity's most important conversion  occurred. Christians may become extinct in that area.

Sure, there's not a lot we can do about it...except pray.

But then, that's no small thing itself. Let's do it.

I'm finished lionizing athlete Christians

This isn’t personal.

I like Tim Tebow et al and am glad for their being followers of Christ. But one has to admit that in the minds of spectators these people are athletes first and Christians second, a point not even worth arguing, since we wouldn’t have heard the name Tebow if not for his athletic prowess.

I lionized my last athlete Christian a long time ago. I didn't mark the day but maybe it was about the time the of the last case of the ath-celeb-Christian hero acting a bit too human, stumbling and falling. Imperfection is, after all, highly unbecoming for a Christian icon, which makes for some difficulty for those who have been so elevated or who have so desired the position.

Has it been a generation, two maybe, that finger-pointing to God in heaven replaced ball-spiking in the end zone and normal home run trots? And, I’m up to the gills with orchestrated on-field prayers and mindless God-talk clichés that have become de rigueur for the athletic contests.

OK, so these are young, mostly immature young men for whom we must make allowances. Sorry, my allowance money is spent.

Would I rather do without evangelical athletic exhibitionism? Well...yes...and forgive me, but I’m a bit soured on the whole brand of muscular Christianity in an age of mind-numbing wealth, stratospheric celebrity status, and fame masquerading as authentic faith.

I recommend a great book about a bad man, Elmer Gantry. Pay close attention to how Sinclair Lewis writes about old Elmer's conversion, and that bit of realistic fiction was over 80 years ago. Deja vu?

But I would offer here one athletic-based exhibition of Christian faith and testimony that I was surprised to find and that I genuinely appreciated.

I attended a top tier college football game a few years ago where the coach was scheduled to speak to a big crowd of church kids, and that after the game. It was a patsy game for the coach but his team was upset. It was ugly. He was already on the hotseat and that loss increased the criticism of the coach.

Whatever else was swirling around in that coach's mind (think job loss, career ended, family turmoil, returning home to 'for sale' signs in his yard) took a back seat to his fulfilling his speaking engagement to those kids, sitting right there in the stadium, after a crushing loss. No one read about that. No one talked about that. Now that is a Christian exhibition. He got fired, by the way.

I make no judgment about our current Christian gladiatorial champions, the "tebowing" and all that. From all accounts he is a super guy, fine Christian, and sincere about who he is and what he does. I wish him, and them, all well.

I just soured on the whole genre of heroic athlete Christian. What most Americans need is to be able to look in the yard next door, in the next office cubicle, or in the grocery store and find a humble, sincere, kind, and normal, authentic follower of Christ.

Catholics flummoxed, Tebow touted, but why so much sadness in Louisville?

Roman Catholics are Confused by Mass Changes, as in changes to their Mass rather than a great number of changes. Seems that the prescribed english wording has added the term "consubstantial" to the litany. I recommend that my Catholic friends do what we SBCers have done when mass changes have been made in our churches, namely moving from hymns with real meanings and substantial words to chorus ditties with endless repetition of simple words. For the latter you just repeat as in a mantra without thinking about it.

Al Mohler comes down hard with the Southern Seminary family in ordering that credible accusations of sexual abuse be immediately reported to authorities, secular authorities. ""...just dial 911..." he wrote. Seems that a SBTS trustee had different advice for his church as reported in this ABP (where else?) story. Al is a clever fellow. Let's see how he reconciles these two items.

Speaking of Southern Seminary, Louisville is rated as the country's fifth saddest city. Perhaps all the joyless calvinists have made an impact.

Georgia plays LSU for the SEC championship tomorrow the tigers being heavy, heavy favorites. Should the dawgs pull a big upset talk on the sports shows is that LSU would still go to the national championship game and play Alabama. While I would like to see another SEC national champion, that scenario is the height of absurdity.

Tebow is touted, but sometimes criticized, for his on-field and after game Christian expressions. Celebrity athlete Christians as a group haven't added much to the Kingdom of God in my estimation. Your everyday, workaday hacker and plodder is what really counts.

Unless I get an invitation to preach for this coming Sunday, an unlikely possibility, this is be the longest stretch of Sundays (three in a row) in three decades where I have not filled a pulpit. I'll take a pew and listen to someone else and do my dead level best to learn, though, perhaps assisted by the sharp elbows of my wife. Plodder feels up to the task.

Have a nice weekend.