Brit Hume Sticks Foot In Mouth By Insulting Buddhists
January 05, 2010
I was half asleep when I heard Brit Hume saying something about Christian forgiveness and his suggestion Tiger turn to that because of its forgiving nature. That Tiger could turn his act around via the Christian faith and be a great example of how you can still cheat on your wife twenty dozen times and be forgiven. I'd missed the part that he said he thought (didn't even *know*) Tiger was a Buddhist and that Buddhism didn't offer forgiveness like Christianity does. WTF?
I mean, first as a journalist couldn't he feel or hear his inner voice yelling "danger danger!!!" before he bashed on Buddhism? But then again, I remembered he's a Fox News "journalist" and husband to Kim Schiller Hume who is VP of Fox News. Oh boy. I don't expect a retraction is coming.
It is true that Buddhism tends to focus on recognizing the suffering your bad actions will create and to avoid those using various methods employed by the religious teachings in Buddhism. I'm no Buddhist expert, but they certainly are a forgiving and peaceful group. Has this guy heard of Tibet? Hello.
His commentary is insulting to both Buddhism and Christianity, actually. I realize this guy lost a son and turned to Christianity to help him with that and I'm glad it could help him through such a tragic event but it still doesn't make his statements any less offensive. It's like he's linking Christianity as some kind of free pass on adultery. I looked to the panel to see how many jaws dropped and was not surprised I guess to see fellow Fox commentators just nodding their heads to his sound advice to Tiger.
Forgiveness isn't the sole possession of any one religion, Brit. Tiger should turn his life around sure but I don't think it has much to do with him being a Buddhist. That, as a Buddhist, his faith doesn't provide the tools for him to rebuild his life or become a decent husband and father should he get that chance again with his wife Elin. Plus Brit, if Christianity is the key for forgiveness then it would be Elin that should be turning to Christianity so she can forgive Tiger. Or all of his fans, so they can forgive him.
I don't need to forgive him (as I'm not his wife, child, friend or family) and I don't care what religion Tiger belongs to anyway or if he was an atheist. He is a horrible husband on the trust, love and devotion side of his marriage - this is obvious now. No idea what kind of father he is but he certainly didn't think of his kids as he slept with half of the available blond escorts in Vegas. Tiger Woods just needs to man up and find a moral compass. If he wants to save his marriage he's going to have to do a lot of work to get Elin's trust back. It has nothing to do with religion, Brit. Nothing.