Brit Hume's Faith and Tiger Woods' Buddha

There was a predictable furor last week over Brit Hume's advice to Tiger Woods to embrace Christianity and jettison Buddhism if he wanted a true moral recovery from his philandering ways. The reason? There is forgiveness and cleansing to be found in Jesus Christ, not to be found anywhere else.

Brit Hume, some would think, stepped on a landmine when he mentioned the "Chrisitian faith" and by implication Jesus Christ. The anti-God, Leftwing blogs went beserk, the Huffington Post exploded in wrath and derision with numerous bits of advice for Tiger to ignore Hume.

But Jesus Christ is far greater than the 500 pound buddha in Tiger's livring room. The mere mention of His name is enough to ignite brush fires of indignation all over the nation.

It was not the fact that Brit was simply giving Tiger some good advice. He could have recommded some innocuous (and ineffective) psychological counselling, or he could have opined that Tiger should just "move on", but he didn't. He pointed to Christianity as the actual solution to Tiger's problems.

Such a clear and strong statement strikes at the heart of our modern "no truth but your own truth" culture. We swim around in a pea soup of denial of the Absolute. The only thing that most people (Liberals all) can agree on is that there is no Truth (with a capital T). Everybody gets to define truth any way they want to.

Therefore, for Brit Hume to advise Tiger that there is real forgiveness to be obtained in Christianity immediately exposes the self-serving lies that most of the Liberals tell themselves about Reality. He dares to say that there is such a thing as right and wrong; that what Tiger did is not only wrong but that it requires forgiveness (not just from his wife and family) but from a Transcendent God who is offended by such behavior. Tiger knows it was wrong, but there are legions of hanger's on that would love to absolve him  totally, for in doing so they absolve themselves also. But all the denial or wishful thinking in the world cannot wash away a guilty conscience.

And that, I believe, is at the root of the furor that was raised over Brit's accurate and well-meaning (and very courageous) advice: he stung multitudes of guilty consciences which had been sleeping fitfully, tossing and turning, hoping no one would turn on the light or pull off the covers. Brit gave the covers a mighty pull and hosts of people sat up, outraged that someone would dare to mention - or even refer obliquely to that Name above all Names, Jesus Christ, for in mentioning Christ, he reminded them of their guilt. For many that is simply intolerable.

Strange that no other deity's name arouses such ire. Strange isn't it?

There is no combination of words that has more power. As the song lyrics say, "there is something about that Name." Accurately understood, Jesus Christ - and Him crucified, buried and risen - means that sin is real and has dreadful consequences; it means that the very Son of God had to pay for sin on the Cross and die for the sins of every human being; it means that if God would do that to Him for our sins then He would not look favorably on anyone who dismissed the Son of God and the meaning of the Cross.

That is the rub: no one can ignore Jesus Christ. And the unbelievers - the proud and unrepentant unbelievers - just hate that. They won't "have this man to reign over them," and they will persecute and kill anyone who even reminds them that they are in a pickle and cannot escape. Psa 2:1-4 "Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD, and against His Christ, saying, Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us. He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision."

So I applaud Brit Hume. Those comments about Christ took courage for a "talking head" and one acting as a senior commentator for FoxNews, a not inconsiderable cable news network. (Partially owned by the Saudi's I might add.)

I didn't know that Brit Hume is a believer in Christ Jesus but I am glad to count him as a brother in the world's biggest Truth fight. He is also a courageous man too. I say courageous, because I predict that Brit will pay a price for his forthright stand for Christ. But he is in very good company, with a long line of others who esteemed the reproach of Christ of far more value than all the riches of the world. Heb 13:26

However distasteful it might appear to them at first glance, his detractors would do well to take the advice he gave Tiger Woods. The God of the Bible is the only true and living God. We all have a meeting with Him and it is inescapable. The gods of the unbelieves are self-made idols: there is no help to be found in them. "But there is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared." Ps 130:4. This is a truth to which we all would do well to take heed.