Tim Tebow wears face paint with a reference to John 3:16.

He threw for 316 yards on Sunday in his OT win against the Steelers. The average was 31.6 yards a pass. The TV ratings for the last quarter of the game was 31.6.

It’s a miracle!

Having watched the game, I can tell you the miracle was the chess match played by the offensive coordinator of the Broncos, who ran on first down on nearly every play except the crucial overtime first down, when Tebow pulled out a perfect play-action fake and threw to Damaryius Thomas for an 80-yard touchdown to end the game.

The other miracle is the number of people looking up John 3:16 on the internet to see what it says. Regardless of what you think of the Broncos and Tebow, that’s a good thing.

In addition to Rameumpton’s great work on Book of Mormon scripture study, I am enjoying Prof. William Hamblin’s new blog Mormon Scripture Explorations. We newly called Gospel Doctrine teachers can never get too much information on the subject.

Prof. Hamblin puts his notes on-line as well as offering youtube videos and podcasts. Take a look.

The fact that any Republican is even considering voting for Newt Gingrich should be proof enough. But here we have a classic case of Republicans being outmaneuvered on the tax issue by big-spending Democrats. Oy vey, the humanity! This is a no-brainer! How could this ever have happened?

Here’s the background: a year ago President Obama, reeling from the shellacking in the November 2010 election, handed the Republicans a gift. First, he signed an extension of the Bush tax cuts. They are no longer the Bush tax cuts. They are the Obama tax cuts. But second, he signed a law giving all working Americans a one-year break on the payroll tax. This is that hateful tax called FICA that you see on your pay stub. The government takes 6.2 percent of your salary from you and another 6.2 percent from your employer and supposedly invests in the chimerical “Social Security Trust Fund.” Well, that tax was cut to 4.2 percent.

If you are like me, you thought this was a wonderful thing. I have hated that FICA monster ever since I was a teenager and I thought I was going to get a check of $100 for my first job, and it turned out to only be about $90. Now, finally, the Republicans won the House, and they forced President Obama to lower that tax. Genius!

There’s only one problem: lowering the tax costs more than $100 billion in revenue. Trying to sound sober and businesslike, the House Republicans were concerned about balancing the budget and worried about replacing that lost revenue. So, some of them said continuing the tax break for another year (remember, it was only a one-year tax holiday) would increase the deficit. They also pointed out, rightly, that a temporary tax break does nothing to stimulate the economy in the long run because it does not change people’s behavior for long-term investments.

But enter the scheming machiavellian Harry Reid. While Republicans were mumbling about the deficit and abstruse concepts like long-term tax policy, Harry was, as always, thinking about politics. He convinced the Senate to pass a two-month extension of the tax cut. No matter that a two-month extension does absolutely nothing to stimulate jobs and is very difficult for businesses to plan for, Harry had found a way to put money in workers’ pockets!

Harry looked like the tax cutter and the sober Republicans looked like Big Government tax raisers! The fact that Republicans fell for this is a sign that they are a)very bad at politics and b)not reading the mood of the country very well.

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Feb. 25, 2009: Atty Gen. Eric Holder tells Congress that the new administration wants to reinstate the ban on assault weapons and says, “I think it will have a positive impact in Mexico at a minimum.”

March 26, 2009: Sect of State Hillary Clinton, speaking in Mexico, claims “90 percent” of guns used by drug cartels in Mexico come from the U.S.

April 16, 2009: At a press conference with Mexican President Felipe Calderon, President Obama also uses the 90 percent number. Pressed to provide any evidence of the 90 percent number, the Obama administration cannot provide any, and the nonpartisan group Fact Check.org finds the number incorrect.

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Ebenezer Scrooge in Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” is one of the most horrendous of fictional characters. Asked by two “pleasant,” “portly” gentlemen to donate to the poor, he refuses, saying that if they die it would decrease the “surplus population.” In short, he would rather see the poor die than release some of his money to help them.

But of course as we all know, Scrooge changes by the end of the book. Confronted with his own past and the realities around him, he becomes a beneficent and ebullient donor, a truly changed man. The things that seemed ridiculous to him in the past, helping those in need and being kind to family and friends, suddenly seem of prime importance to the new Scrooge.

But notice that Scrooge is never forced to change. None of the ghosts compel him to become virtuous. No government official comes and takes half of his money and gives it to the poor. Scrooge’s transformation is all about a voluntary change of heart. In this sense, his story is the most Christian story of all: he changes from CS Lewis’s tin soldier into a real man of flesh and bone, a person much more like the Savior himself.

Scrooge’s story would be completely meaningless if compulsion had been involved. We can imagine “Robin Hood” scenarios where “good” people come to take his money and give it away to the more deserving. But such scenarios seem ludicrous precisely because the point of the story is the beauty of Scrooge’s voluntary transformation. Christ does not want an unwilling, forced virtuousness: he wants us to come to Him because we are contrite and anxious to change.

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