Breaking 90

Just when you think we were finally freed from all this Tiger Woods extramarital affair nonsense, Brit Hume drags us back into the gutter.

For those who haven’t heard, Brit was on some political roundtable show where the topic of Tiger Woods came up. Hume expressed his belief that Tiger, who apparently is a Buddhist, should convert to Christianity to find ‘forgiveness and redemption’.  Making matters worse, in my mind, is the fact that, when faced with the initial backlash, Hume had the gall to play the victim card, stating the ‘two most explosive words in the English language’ were Jesus Christs.

Needless to say, Hume riled a lot of Buddhists with his remarks, as well as folks from a veritable melting pot of religions. And, I would think, rightfully so.

However, one group has struck me as particularly mum on this matter, or worse, flat-out supportive of Hume. Now, I’m not the most religious person in the world, but I do consider myself a part of the Christian faith, and I found Hume’s remarks boorish and offensive, and I am a bit disappointed more Christians aren’t saying the same thing.

Why do I feel this way? To put it simply, if you take a minute to think about Hume’s comments, the more it seems that Hume is interested in more interested in talking about himself than his faith. Consider the evidence against him:

• His decision to comment public, not privately – Now, I don’t know if Brit tried to reach out to Tiger personally or not, but I think it’s a safe bet that he didn’t.  Call me a cynic but in my experience, when people choose to give advice publicly rather than privately, it’s because the person giving the advice is much more interested in themself than the person they are ostensibly “helping”.
• Hume talks about Christianity as if it were a spiritual ‘Get Out of Jail’ card – I understand that forgiveness is a key element of our faith, but is it really the right reason to become a Christian? Sounds like focusing too much on the reward and not the work, so to speak. Might as well suggest Christianity because it’s a great way to meet women.
• Too much focus on the faith, not the reason for it - Maybe it’s just me, but I find it disheartening that Hume would use the phrase “Christian faith” rather than God or Jesus Christ. It might seem meaningless, but it reeks to me of a man more interested in getting Tiger to join his ‘team’ than in making the connections with God necessary to redeem his life or his soul.