Stephy lets it rip

Still feeling somewhat weary but can at least make a gesture at a post, here offering a shout-out to a blogger named Stephy who offers something surprisingly antinatalist in an unlikely place, to wit her blog Stuff Christian Culture Likes.

I can’t quite gauge how interested the readership of Diabasis is in American football, so a word or two of explanation is perhaps in order.  Here in the United States there is a star athlete, a quarterback for the Denver Broncos named Tim Tebow, and boy howdy is he a big ol’ living icon for the Forced Birthers.  See, back when Mother Tebow, then a missionary in the Philippines, was carrying tiny Tim to term she became deathly ill  and suffered a placental abruption and was urged by doctors to have an abortion to save her own life.  She refused, and the result was a future Heisman Trophy-winning athlete.    Wasn’t that wonderful of Mrs. Tebow?  Wouldn’t it have been so terrible to have aborted Tiny Tim and deprived the world of a great quarterback?  (Because of course, American football such a centrally-important component of human well-being.)

The Forced Birthers made a “Celebrate Family, Celebrate Life” ad to run during the Super Bowl, featuring Tebow and his mother, who lives to this day.  Stephy drops back into the pocket, coolly surveys the field, and throws deep, suggesting that maybe the Forced Birthers ought to broaden their horizons to other icons.

…since not every evangelical family can produce a star athlete like the ad shows, it would be an interesting twist for Focus on the Family to create some more “Celebrate Family, Celebrate Life” ads that show more typical evangelical families who chose not to abort their kids. Here are some ideas to pitch to FOTF’s agency. Picture the storyboards! A conservative Eddie Bauer-clad couple in their fifties speak solemnly about how glad they are they chose not to abort their now-grown son who dropped out of junior college but still lives at home and has a gaming addiction. It could show a little candid moment where he promises he’ll go to church with them if they promise not to shut off the internet. How many evangelical families like that are out there? Way more than the Tebow family. Or! A similar couple could talk about how glad they are that they chose not to abort their daughter who grew up to get pregnant at age 18. It could show that she married the baby’s 19 yr old father under pressure from the evangelical parents and then it could depict how quickly the marriage fell apart and how the parents are helping raise the grandbaby who lives with them. How many thousands of evangelical families have this story? Millions? Or! A conservative older couple could tell how they didn’t abort their son from whom they’re now estranged because he is gay, and that they love him so much they are standing up to this sinful lifestyle that Satan has tricked him into. This might be the most common evangelical family of them all.

Touchdown!