PARTIAL TRANSCRIPT of Brit Hume's recent comments on Christianity and Tiger Woods.
TIGER WOODS will recover as a golfer. Whether he can recover as a person, I think, is a very open question, and it's a tragic situation for him.
I think he's lost his family. It's not clear to me if he'll be able to have a relationship with his children. But the Tiger Woods that emerges once the news value dies out of this scandal -- and the extent to which he can recover -- seems to me to depend on his faith. He's said to be a Buddhist. I don't think that faith offers the kind of forgiveness and redemption that is offered by the Christian faith. So my message to Tiger would be, "Tiger, turn your faith, turn to the Christian faith and you can make a total recovery and be a great example to the world."
(Brit Hume, Fox News Sunday, January 3, 2010)
Look, Tiger Woods is somebody I've always rooted for as a golfer and as a man. I've greatly admired him over the years and I always have said to people that it was, it's the content of his character that made him, beyond his extraordinary golf skills, so admirable. Now we know that the content of his character was not what we thought it was.
He is paying a frightful price for these revelations. I, my sense is that he has basically lost his family. And there's a lot of talk about the endorsements he's lost, but that pales, I suspect, in his mind, uh, with what he's lost otherwise.
And my sense about Tiger is that he needs something that Christianity, especially, uh, provides and gives and offers, and that is redemption and forgiveness. And, I, I, I was, I was really meaning to say in those comments yesterday more about Christianity than I was about anything else. . . . But I think, I think that, that Jesus Christ offers Tiger Woods something that Tiger Woods badly needs.
. . . .
And I'm, what I'm saying is if Tiger Woods were to make a true conversion, we would know it. It would show through in his, in his being. And he would know it, above all. And he would feel the extraordinary blessing that that would be. And, and, and it would shine, because he is so prominent. It would be a, it would be a shining light. And I, and I think it would be a, a mag--, it would be a magnificent thing to witness.
. . . .
[What drives the negative comments about Christianity] has always been a puzzling thing to me -- uh, the Bible even speaks of it -- that, uh, that, uh, you know, you speak the name Jesus Christ and, I, and I don't mean to make a pun [read a play on words] here, but all hell breaks loose. And, uh, and it, it has always been thus. It is explosive. I didn't even say the name in that way. I simply spoke of the Christian faith. But that was enough to trigger this reaction. It, it, it triggers a very powerful reaction in people who do not share the faith and who do not believe in it. Always has.
(Brit Hume, O'Reilly Factor, January 4, 2010)
Excerpts from a recent interview:
I certainly expected this. I'm nowhere near the first Christian to be mocked for his faith. It is simply a fact of life that the two most explosive words in the English language appear to be Jesus Christ. You don't even need to say them if you speak openly of Christianity. Faith engenders a tremendous reaction, a lot of it positive and a lot of it negative.
I grew up in a Christian family and I went nine years to an Episcopal boys school. I've always been, at least on paper, a Christian. It wasn't until my son died eleven years ago that I began to get serious about it. His death was devastating. I was shattered. Yet through all that, I had this feeling that God would save me, that he would be there for me, that I was in his hands, and that I was going to be okay. It really happened.
[On receiving 973 sympathy cards after the death of his son:] I read them all. My mailbox would be stuffed with them night after night. I'd weep over some of them. Some of them were prayer cards, some of them would tell me a tree had been planted somewhere. I felt that I was seeing the face of God. I felt people's support and love. To me it was a miracle. I've been trying to face up to the implications of beliving in Christ and believing in God ever since.
Instead of urging that Tiger Woods turn to Christianity, if I had said what he needed to do was to strengthen his Buddhist commitment or turn to Hinduism, I don't think anybody would have said a word. It's Christ and Christianity that get people stirred up.
I didn't say much about Buddhism. Look, I don't think there's any question. This is a matter of fact. I don't think Buddhism is hostile to forgivness or redemption, but Christianity, like no other religion we've ever known, is principally, and fundamentally, and especially about forgiveness and redemption. That is what Christianity is based on. That is why Christ was here. That is what he came to achieve. On that issue, Christianity is unique.
I don't think you can draw a straight line [from Christianity to being more faithful to your spouse]. My sense is that if you turn to Christ and seek his forgiveness and mean it, you'll get it. You will be impelled and inspired to live a Christian life. Christianity is a religion for sinners. It doesn't encourage you to sin, it encourages you not to, but it provides a way of forgiveness and redemption. That is what Tiger Woods, like many sinners, needs. That's something we all need. He, in his particularly desperate moment here where he appears to be losing his family, is in special need of it. And I hope he finds it.
I don't want to practice a faith that I'm afraid to proclaim. I don't want to be a closet Christian. I'm not going to stand on the street with a megaphone. My principal responsibility at Fox News isn't to proselytize. But occasionally a mention of faith seems to me to be appropriate. When those occasions come, I'll do it.
Christianity is scorned by many in the media. . . . Think of how many times we've seen an athlete interviewed on the sidelines of a football game who says he owes it all to God or owes it all to Christ, and the weird silence that greets those statements. People are uncomfortable with it. People don't want to talk about it. Politicians who proclaim their faith, the next question is about something else.
I don't think I would blame Christianity for the failings of people like [Ted Haggard or Mark Sanford]. Christianity is the right religion for people like that. Christianity is a religion for sinners. Christianity is not about the salvation of perfect people. Christianity is a way for people who are not perfect to be saved. What Mark Sanford needs is not less Christianity. He needs more of it.
(Bit Hume, quoted by Sarah Pulliam Bailey, "Q&A: Brit Hume," Christianity Today, January 9, 2010)
IN CHRISTIAN terms, these events -- what Mr. Hume said about (and to) Mr. Woods and what Mr. Hume said about his own faith -- are about spiritual maturity. A sermon by Jesus in Mark 8 speaks directly to both men.
What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul? . . . If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his Father's glory with the holy angels.
These events are also a good reminder of why Unca D tries, though he often fails, to dedicate weekends to First Things. Saturdays to finding small ways to help others, in obedience to Jesus' injunction to love others. (See "Good Works" in the right column of this blog.) And Sundays (as here) to spiritual matters.
Why do I blog? For a combination of motives, probably, and not all of them attractive. But one reason, perhaps the best, is in hopes of changing minds for the better, as I see it, about the things of this world and thereby making this world a better place.
But Jesus' words -- "What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul?" -- are cautionary about the matter of priorities. So Sundays in this precinct are reserved for the greatest priority, First Things.
Diana and I share more with Mr. Hume than we ever would have wished. We too lost an adult son early in life. And we too are willing to testify to the power and grace of God, acting directly on our hearts and indirectly through the words and acts of Christian friends, to provide comfort and hope. And, yes, as Mr. Hume said, redemption and forgiveness.
You've suffered your own hardships and heartaches. They're the common lot of mankind. In this -- and I'm speaking directly now, from the heart, as a friend -- Jesus Christ offers all of us, you included, something we all badly need: a way for people who suffer and who are not perfect.
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UNCA D is no Johnny-come-lately to the Brit Hume fan club. See this November 5, 2008, post, based -- of all things -- on a good Houston Chronicle interview.
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