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{"id":2197,"date":"2013-01-08T10:59:00","date_gmt":"2013-01-08T10:59:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/2013\/01\/a-fight-you-cannot-win.html"},"modified":"2013-01-08T10:59:00","modified_gmt":"2013-01-08T10:59:00","slug":"a-fight-you-cannot-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/2013\/01\/a-fight-you-cannot-win.html","title":{"rendered":"A fight you cannot win"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Looks like some conservative and Christian sites are jumping up and down about a new Super Bowl ad featuring Neil Patrick Harris<\/a>. \u00a0In the ad (which I\u2019ve not found yet, and haven\u2019t seen since I don\u2019t usually watch CBS), apparently uses Harris \u2013 an outspoken homosexual \u2013 with eye black showing the game\u2019s date. \u00a0The eye makeup was made famous by Tim Tebow as a way of promoting the Gospel. \u00a0The outcry is that this is some deliberates slap at Tebow, and by extension, Christianity as a whole.<\/p>\n

You know what? \u00a0It probably is. \u00a0It\u2019s unlikely that the management at CBS is\u00a0unaware\u00a0of Harris\u2019s open\u00a0advocacy\u00a0for gay rights and gay marriage. \u00a0It\u2019s also probable that they get the modern cultural reference that comes with using various words and numbers on eye black. \u00a0It isn\u2019t as if they\u2019ve not heard of Tim Tebow, or don\u2019t really know why Tebow became a lightning rod of hatred following his own pro-life Super Bowl commercial. <\/p>\n

But here\u2019s the thing. \u00a0This is a fight you can\u2019t win. \u00a0It falls under that slippery little category of \u2018plausible deniability.\u2019 \u00a0That was long a mainstay of the sex and drugs culture of the 70s and 80s, before Rap and Hip-Hop blew the lid off things and let a singers say whatever. \u00a0Back in the day, if you wanted references to sex, drugs, female body parts or\u00a0whatever,\u00a0 you had to use boat loads of innuendo and\u00a0figurative\u00a0language. Of\u00a0course\u00a0the punchline was that if some adult or parent became outraged at a line like \u2018honey dripping from her pot\u2019, the brave rock star or equally courageous teenage fan could just hold up their hands and say \u2018Hey, we\u2019re just talking about honey, you know, like Whinny the Pooh. What are you thinking about?\u201d \u00a0Followed, of course, by adolescent snickering and giggling.<\/p>\n

The point is, it was dishonest, and knowingly so. \u00a0But it was plausible\u00a0deniability.\u00a0 \u00a0You couldn\u2019t prove that\u2019s what they meant, and millions of teens and rock stars were happy to go along with the sham. \u00a0Same here. \u00a0Already CBS defenders are saying, \u201cHey, who\u2019s to say that someone with eye black who happens to be a homosexual gay marriage advocate has anything to do with any message against Tebow or, by extension, Christianity?\u201d \u00a0You just can\u2019t win. It could be true, but if it isn\u2019t, you could\u2019t prove it if you had to. \u00a0Best to let this one go. <\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"