But, then Sunday night came.  Super Bowl Sunday.  And the Tim and Pam Tebow “Celebrate Family. Celebrate Life.” ad debuted…

… and fizzled!

But, before I get into the critique, let me offer a few words of appreciation. This ad was a positive ad, amongst a crowd of ads that celebrated things in not-so-positive way. “Celebrate Family. Celebrate Life.” is a good, positive message. It is a pro-life and pro-family message.

It just wasn’t the anti-abortion message that was being promoted …

The ad could have been so much better.  It could have generated more curiosity.  It could have prompted people to want to know “the rest of the story”.

But it didn’t …

… even though the story was — and is — a compelling testimony about life, and the potential that exists in every human life from the moment of conception. It simply failed to pull me in — as I’m sure it failed with most others too (were it not for those who had heard of the controversy).

So, what about the ad?

At first, I didn’t even know that it was the Tebow ad. Luckily, I had the ability to rewind with my DVR. Other people I talked to didn’t … and they missed most of it. I suspect there were many like that.

I suspect that most missed Pam’s brief mention that “he almost didn’t make it into the world.”

Looking at the ad objectively … the message was of a Mom concerned for her son; just like most Mom’s out there. Nothing particularly special about that; especially for a son playing the rough-and-tumble game of football.

I wasn’t drawn in. I didn’t feel compelled to find out more. I didn’t feel like I’d missed something. To be honest the ad didn’t really make me care about the rest of the story.

That’s my impression, had I not heard any of the rest of the story through other channels.

So, how would I have changed the ad?

A quick thought off the top of my head:
Start with a 3-second intro by Pam Tebow. Next, cut to Tim’s Highlight-Reel. A few seconds in, Pam voice-over … (something like this) “Had I not chosen life for Tim, these highlights might not exist.” [Fade to black for a few seconds]. Move to a shot of Tim and Pam. Tim: “Thanks, Mom.”

Then point them to the web to get the rest of the story. Other marketing geniuses can add in something funny or catchy … to fit the “Super Bowl Ad” mold, and to make it a little less “heavy” … but that’s the basics that I think would have made a bigger impact.

Add your own thoughts on what could be added or how the ad could have been improved in the comment boxes.

But, then again, maybe I’ll just Twitter.  :-)

You can follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/catholicsphere

I’ve typically kept this blog separate, having started Squiggly Line to let me blog about more mainstream, non-religious topics.

However, lately, I’ve been thinking about merging the two, since both of them together really represent who I am … a Catholic in the world.  And, the Squiggly Line of Thought really encompasses the whole of who I am and what is of interest to me — including Catholicism.

So, I hope you will follow me over to The Squiggly Line of Thought for a broader range of topics, with still a regular dose of Catholicism.

I also find it sad because it typically demonstrates that a person has neither studied the Bible enough — and is often just regurgitating what they read or were told by someone else who hasn’t studied enough — nor have they really educated themselves on what the Catholic Church teaches on the matter.

Such was the case today, when I received the following email:

Dear Sirs: St. Michael The Archangel in Memphis, TN is promoting 1 million prayers to Mary. Why? Nowhere in the Bible are we to pray to Mary and/or is there any indication that she can intercede for us. This is blatantly not biblical. Even the deepest computer search will yield “NO RESULTS” for anything pertaining prayer to Mary or that she can intercede for us. 1Ti 2:5 tells us there is ONE mediator; and that ONE is Jesus. It is blasphemy to go around Him or through Mary to try and get our prayers answered. Jesus never hinted, suggested, or told us to pray to Mary. Furthermore, Mary cannot intercede or answer our prayers, and that is a Biblical fact. Please tell me why are they doing this. At best this fruitless attempt is man made.

Sincerely:

NVO

Now, I’m not going to go into a complete defense of “prayers to Mary” or intercessory prayer.  There are plenty of resources out there that explain it in detail, and I don’t think time is best spent copying those again here.

What I want to say is that those who attack what they don’t understand — and especially haven’t taken the time to understand — are bearing false witness, and lacking in that which the Scriptures call the greatest of gifts, charity. (cf 1 Cor 13:13)

I don’t know “NVO”, and never heard from him before.  But, for some reason he thought that today was a good day to reach out and try to smack at the faith of others.  It seems that NVO’s time would be better spent educating himself, rather than send out emails that boast of his ignorance.

Don’t worry, NVO.  I will pray for you…

You can read my previous review here.

To date, Fireproof (which was made on only a budget of $500,000) has $33.5 million.  While some films gross that or more on their opening weekend, I think it is quite an accomplishment for a film that is unapologetically supportive (and defending) the Christian understanding of marriage.

But, also the film has action and drama that is found in many bigger films.

If you want to order it online, here’s a link to the Google shopping … and CBD (Christian Book Distributors) has the Special Collector’s Edition listed.

Since then, more than 50,000,000 (fifty million) human lives haven been taken through medical procedures (even more through chemically induced abortificients).

This week, President Barack Obama, was sworn in as the 44th President of the United States, at a time when there are bills in both the House and Senate that would seek to nullify state regulations on abortion.  The Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA) would codify rights to abortion in federal law, if it is enacted.

President Obama is on record with Planned Parenthood as saying he would sign this bill as one of his first presidential acts.

I encourage everyone to get the facts on abortion — to see that, no matter what the attempts to argue them away, science confirms that a human life exists at the moment of conception; this is not “religion”; and that our laws intend to protect human life — and contact your senators, representatives, and President Obama, to oppose FOCA.

With a pledge of hope, peace and restoration from President Obama, we should not leave out the most vulnerable in our world — the unborn.  We must stop the violence against them.

Fight FOCA!

But, there has been something that has concerned me about his intentions, and that is the possibility that he may exclude at least one segment of the population — namely, faith-filled Christians, despite him being a professing Christian.

In his book, The Audacity of Hope, Obama speaks about elements of faith being included in discussion and debate in the public square, and even codified in our law:

Progressives might recognize the values that both religious & secular people share when it comes to the moral & material direction of our country. We might recognize that the call to sacrifice on behalf of the next generation, the need to think in terms of “thou” and not just “I”, resonates in religious congregations across the country.

Secularists are wrong when they ask believers to leave their religion at the door before entering the public square. To say that men and women should not inject their personal morality into public policy debates is a practical absurdity; our law is by definition a codification of morality, mush of it grounded in the Judeo-Christian tradition.

What our pluralistic democracy does demand is that the religiously motivated translate their concerns into universal, rather than religion-specific, values. Those opposed to abortion cannot simply invoke God’s will–they have to explain why abortion violates some principle that is accessible to people of all faiths. [pp 216-219]

I agree with this, but not without some concern or reservation that it will be used as a license to ignore the points on matters which are deemed “religious” or “moral”.

If President Obama does exercise such license, then it will be that we will have simply exchanged one extreme for another — one who embraced religion and religious values with little thought, and the other who rejected it in the same way.

My hope is that, in addition to taking action on the economy, the war and other social issues facing the nation, President Barack Obama will show that the religious and moral issues do not demand either full embrace or full rejection. Instead, I hope and pray that he will listen fully to the arguments on both sides of the issue and at least find a point of intersection that can bring us all closer together on issues that have divided us for way too long.

My prayers and best wishes to President Obama — his family, and this nation — as he (and all of us) embark on a historical journey to recapture the ideals of the American way of life.

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about the future of CatholicSphere, and toying with the idea of letting it fade away (and disappear around mid-2009).

I need to take some more time to think about that, and decide what I really want to do — what God really wants me to do.  I’ve heard from so many people that I do a good job of explaining matters of Catholic theology and doctrine, but I sometimes feel like I’ve lost touch with some of that — especially in light of the events that happened last year with the tragic death of my mother and step-father.

I want to keep CatholicSource up and running, and have always had plans to revamp it (in fact, I’ve got a design together, but have stalled in getting all the pages converted over to it).  I am thinking of simply dropping to a lower-cost level of service provider (without some of the techno-geek options that I currently have).  And then I would switch CatholicSphere over to be hosted at Wordpress.com, instead of my own private installation.  I want to keep a blogging option available for CatholicSource and/or CatholicSphere because there are times that commentary is needed without having to go through the matter of adding a new article to a static website.

I’d love to hear anyone’s thoughts on what they would like to see … or if they’d like to be involved in CatholicSource or CatholicSphere, to expand it.

Hope that 2009 is a great one for you and yours …

And, during the holidays (or “high times”) things usually move at a hectic pace. Advent and Christmas always seems the busiest.

Despite our best intentions to slow down and allow ourselves some rest and reflection on the meaning of the Season, it never seems to happen. We usually find ourselves sitting down on Christmas night and saying “Well, another Christmas come and gone”. It just flies right on by; a Season filled more with “chores”, than with traditions, giving and blessings. (And all this despite the fact that we have gift shopping all but done by Thanksgiving.)

This year has really been no different so far. It seems that every day has been filled with some task or another, and we find ourselves exasperatedly saying “Ugh!”

But, we’re trying to plan this year in a different way from year’s past. We have a goal to finish up all “work” of the Season by Saturday the 20th. From that point on, we intend it to be “family only” for the week leading up to Christmas Day.

It may sound opposite of what the Season is about, but we simply intend to say “no” to requests and invitations; to push aside the “chores”, to make time to enjoy the Peace and Joy of Christmas.

A Blessed and Merry Christmas to you and your loved ones!

This is just senseless.  The savings were not that great, and Walmart only had about 10 items in their Black Friday doorbuster sale.

If I were the manager of that Walmart, I would have shut the store down immediately, and no one would have been allowed to purchase anything from the store. It seems the police shut down the store shortly after the incident happened.

It’s pretty sad when you put a $40 savings on Guitar Hero or a $50 savings on a Blu-ray player over the life and safety of others.

I hope those of you who were at that store today and pushed your way in are proud of yourself for being responsible for the death of two other people.

Have a great Christmas knowing that you destroyed the lives of these other families