In the upcoming issue of TIME, contributing editor Jon Meacham explains why, although the intersection of Christianity and football wasn’t created by Denver Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow, what is new “is the scale and scope of [Tebow’s] witness.” Meacham writes:
With Billy Graham on the cool side of the mountain and George W. Bush living quietly in Dallas, Tebow is perhaps the most significant Evangelical Christian in the country. Depending on your point of view, his rise is a thoroughly American story of honest conviction or of ostentatious piety, of faith and family or of aggressive sectarianism.
Read the full column (free for subscribers) here.