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If you live east of the Atlantic, you may not have heard of Tim Tebow. He was last season's quarterback for the Denver Broncos (American football, if this sentence is losing you), leading them to the NFL play-offs. He has more than a million Twitter followers and landed an endorsement deal with Nike. Last week, he was traded (transferred, in UK English) to the New York Jets.
Oh, and he's a Christian, who prays before games and uses media interviews to share the gospel.
But you'd hardly have known that from the UK coverage. See if you can (eventually) spot the word "religious" in this article, which focuses on Tebow-the-celebrity. You get a tiny bit on his pre-match praying from the Guardian, but they happily follow that up with this sneery, snide Tebow-the-idiot-Christian piece.On the other hand, in the US Tebow's faith is more than just cannon-fodder for journalists who want to look clever. And his beliefs are mentioned, and commented on, in a pretty respectful way—see here in the New York Times, not exactly a bastion of Biblical viewpoints.
I don't want to make too much of it. But it does point up a difference between the UK and US media. In the US, Christian faith is more mainstream, more respected, more understood. If a Christian pastor writes a book, he's far more likely to have it picked up and discussed in the secular media. Talkshows are far more likely to give a hearing to a proper, biblical Christian voice.
In the UK, the secular media doesn't really understand Christianity; doesn't bother to get to grips with it and discuss it in the same way as the Budget is, or the Champions League is. Public displays of faith are usually quickly watered down (my favourite was at the 2003 World Cup, when the commentator said of the South African and Samoan teams praying together after they'd played one another: "Ah, the unifying power of sport").
This isn't to say "it's better in the US" (though in many ways their church scene has much to teach us). It is to say "it's different in the US". The great things that are happening in UK churches—the gospel transforming deprived areas one person at a time, the Bible being gently brought to bear on people facing agonising, life-changing decisions, and so on—go unreported, or are only spoken of to be undermined. The pastors who preach with conviction, faithfulness and passion go unnoticed. The growing churches remain unmentioned.
That doesn't mean they're not happening. It just means that we'll have to look harder. And that we won't hear about them in our secular media.
Carl is Editorial Director at The Good Book Company and is a member of Grace Church Worcester Park, London. He is the best-selling author of The Garden, the Curtain and the Cross and God's Big Promises Bible Storybook, and also serves as series editor of the God's Word for You series. Before joining TGBC, he worked as a journalist and then as a teacher, and pastored a congregation in Hull. Carl is married to Lizzie, and they have two children. He studied history at Oxford University.
