Tebow tweeted on Thursday (February 21) that he was axing a planned speech at Dallas's First Baptist Church due to allegations of its pastor using anti-gay rhetoric.
Pastor Robert Jeffress reportedly once gave a sermon titled 'Homosexuality is a Perversion' and referred to AIDS as a "gay disease", in addition to allegedly making anti-Semitic comments about Jews.
A spokesperson for the First Baptist Church has now released a statement to TMZ claiming that Tebow was unfairly pressured to cancel his April 28 appearance.
The church's statement is as follows: "We are saddened that Mr Tebow felt pressure to back out of his long-planned commitment from numerous New York and national sports and news media who grossly misrepresented past comments made by our pastor, Dr Robert Jeffress, specifically related to issues of homosexuality and AIDS, as well as Judaism."
A representative of the First Baptist Church also told the website that Tebow personally called Jeffress to say that because of "personal and professional reasons, he needed to avoid controversy".
The deeply religious Tebow tweeted on Thursday that he remains committed to using "the platform God has blessed [him] with to bring Faith, Hope and Love to all those needing a brighter day".
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