Yesterday, Fox News’ Brit Hume weighed in on the Tiger Woods sex scandal, offering Tiger some practical advice for obtaining “forgiveness” for his indiscretions: Hume said that Tiger, who Hume identified as a Buddhist, should “turn to the Christian faith” so he can get the “kind of forgiveness and redemption” needed to make “a total recovery and be a great example to the world.”
Hume said:
The extent to which he can recover seems to me depends on his faith. He is 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 to the Christian faith and you can make a total recovery and be a great example to the world.”
Here’s the full clip:
Reactions to Hume’s comments have been unsurprisingly shocked, with The Atlantic’s Andrew Sullivan commenting that “the pure sectarianism of this comment – its adoption of the once-secular stage of political journalism to insert a call for apostasy – is striking.”
The Washington Monthly’s Steve Benen was also appalled:
It’s hard to even know where to start with something like this. How many high-profile Christians have had damaging sex scandals of late? Why is Buddhism deemed inadequate for those with family problems? Why is a senior political analyst for a so-called “news” network proselytizing, on the air, during one of the network’s “news” programs?
The folks on Morning Joe took a more jovial tone about the comments, with Mika Brzezinski snarking: “So find a religion that forgives you for your idiotic behavior. Change your religion and you’ll be OK!”
Andy Serwer piped in: “It’s also interesting that Brit Hume is an expert on Buddhism,. I mean that surprises me.”
Mika had the final word: “I think honestly we should just keep our opinions to ourselves.”
