Bill Maher Sitting in a Tree -- Tebowing

COMMENTARY | Bill Maher, a so-called comedian who infests HBO most Friday nights in his show of political rant and offensive dialogue, "Real Time," has a new obsession now that Sarah Palin has declined to run for president.

Maher is apparently obsessed with Tim Tebow, the religious quarterback for the Denver Broncos whose habit of publicly praying after every play has been celebrated and condemned across the nation. Tebow's praying has even invested a verb "to Tebow" which means to go down on one knee and place one's knuckles on one's forehead. It has become a craze, albeit stripped of its spiritual significance, in American public schools, much to the consternation of teachers and administrators.

Maher first made his feelings about Tebow known when he offered an obscenity laden rant via Twitter that suggested that the Devil was having carnal knowledge of the football star because of a recent Broncos lost.

Now Maher has allowed himself to be photographed in a T-shirt and running shorts -- alone an atrocity -- "tebowing" while in a tree, according to CBS News.

Mind, it is not hard to understand why Maher has developed an obsession with Tebow. People who are openly religious are like a red flag to the militantly atheist Maher. Unlike the recently deceased Christopher Hitchens, who could debate amicably with people of faith, Maher takes the idea of belief in God as a personal affront.

While Hitchens published a witty and thought provoking tome, "God is not Great," that religious people found entertaining to read, Maher produced a film, called "Religulous," which ridiculed religious faith in his typical offensive manner. When Hitchens announced his terminal cancer, he found himself to be the object of prayers of many of the same people of faith with whom he had sparred over the years. One suspects that when Maher goes to meet the maker he does not believe in, any prayers he gets will be out of duty and not out of true love and friendship.

Maher is playing with fire with his campaign against Tebow. Besides religion, football is something that the majority of Americans find to be sacred. Say what one will about Tebow and his public demonstrations of religious fervor. One can be pretty sure, his faith being real, that his name will not be associated with the kind of sex and/or drug scandals that other NFL players have been entangled in. That is a very good thing indeed.

Sources: Bill Maher vs. Tim Tebow: the tweet that roared, Cindy Boren, Washington Post, Dec 29, 2011

Bill Maher "Tebows" in new set of tweets, Lauren Moraski, CBS News, Jan 2, 2012