Somehow I missed this:
Brit Hume offered some startling advice to Tiger Woods on Fox News Sunday yesterday (1/3/10): "Tiger, turn to the Christian faith and you can make a total recovery and be a great example to the world." According to Hume, Woods’ current faith, Buddhism, doesn’t offer "the kind of redemption and forgiveness offered by the Christian faith."
News Hounds
Not that Brit is wrong per se, but he is wrong in the sense that Buddhism has a totally different take on life and "sin", in the sense that Buddhism does not have a concept of sin:
As USA Today reported in the wake of the drubbing Hume has gotten, Buddhist and journalist Barbara Hoetsu O'Brien wrote, "Buddhism doesn't offer redemption and forgiveness in the same way Christianity does. Buddhism has no concept of sin; therefore, redemption and forgiveness in the Christian sense is meaningless in Buddhism. Forgiveness is important, but it is approached differently in Buddhism."
But what is appalling of course is not his faulty reasoning, but basically his shitting all over Buddhism as a religion or way of life and then telling Tiger to become Christian. Seriously WTF!
Well, he went on the O'Reilly factor to clear things up except...not so much.
O'Reilly: Is that proselytizing?
Hume: I don't think so.
However,
As Priscilla noted, "proselytize" is defined as "an act of attempting to convert people to another opinion." Hume had directly and unequivocally urged Woods to "turn to the Christian faith." It’s hard to see how that can be called anything but proselytizing. But Hume immediately took the out O’Reilly handed him by saying, "I don’t think so."
Of course, O'Reilly turned into an attack on Christianity, etc. But the hubris of Hume would be alarming if it wasn't Brit Hume. But I also love how Hume says some thing dastardly, then he gets to go on a FOX "infotainment" show to explain himself and basically gets a group hug.
BTW, Tiger in his apology today, whether you like it or him or not, indirectly addressed, by discussing how his Buddhist faith will help him recover. Dunno if it had anything to do with Hume's comments, but I like the probably inadvertent kick to Hume's balls.