This post on Brit Hume's spiritual advice for Tiger Woods made the Lead Story position on WORLDmag.com. I guess that makes me a journalist now.
Fox shock! Brit Hume on Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace crossed the line of decency (and on Sunday, of all days!) by recommending "the Christian faith" to Tiger Woods as the remedy for his personal problems. Here's the clip. Viewer discretion advised.
As you can see, reflecting on the mess that Tiger Woods has made of his life--his career, his family--Hume points out that Tiger's religion, which is Buddhism, is ill-adapted to deal with the family side of the crisis, as there is no element of forgiveness and redemption in the Buddhist religion. Essentially, Hume called him to give his heart and life to Christ.
Hume is Episcopalian, which is usually as Protestant as a public figure can become while still remaining respectable. He became much more serious about his faith after the suicide of his son, Sandy Hume, himself a prominent journalist, in 1998. When he retired as Fox News anchor, he told The Hollywood Reporter concerning his post-retirement plans,
I certainly want to pursue my faith more ardently than I have done. I'm not claiming it's impossible to do when you work in this business. I was kind of a nominal Christian for the longest time. When my son died, I came to Christ in a way that was very meaningful to me. If a person is a Christian and tries to face up to the implications of what you say you believe, it's a pretty big thing. If you do it part time, you're not really living it.
The next day, on "The Factor" with Bill O'Reilly, Hume went even further beyond the bounds of good taste and acceptable public morality. He used two of the nine words you must never use on public airwaves: Jesus Christ. Swearing is okay, but he wasn't swearing. O'Reilly asked Hume if he was "proselytizing" in what he said. Hume said he didn't think he was, but of course he was. He also denied that he was criticizing Buddhism, but he was obviously doing that too. He was pointing out a rather stark and fundamental deficiency in the religion, in comparison to what is found in Christ.
I then give Tiger Woods' own description of his religion, a clip of li'l Tiger at age 2 on the Mike Douglas Show, and my concluding reflections on the whole matter. Read it all at WORLDmag.com, "Proclaiming Christ on Fox News."
Read Peter Wehner's "Hume's Gentle Witness" at National Review Online.
No comments:
Post a Comment