Tim Tebow may be the most popular Christian in sports. He is a cross-cultural phenomenon, a preacher in a football player’s body.
He has more followers than most preachers, and evokes more passion than most politicians. But, unlike so many of them, Tebow shows little interest in using his pulpit to take controversial stances.
“Tebow is part of a movement of ‘cosmopolitan Christians,’ ” said D. Michael Lindsay, the president of Gordon College and the author of “Faith in the Halls of Power,” a book about American evangelicals. “They’re more media savvy than their forebears and they understand the importance of building bridges. They speak more about what they’re for than what they’re against. It speaks for that segment of the evangelical community that wants to spend energy on things for the common good rather than be a lightning rod.”...