Commentary by Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Journalist
The liberal media is responding with characteristic hypocrisy to a comment made on the Fox News Sunday show by former anchor Brit Hume who predicted that Tiger Woods could recover from the scandals surrounding him if he turns to the Christian faith.
“ . . . (T)he Tiger Woods who emerges once the news value dies out of this scandal – the extent to which he can recover – seems to me to depend on his faith,” Hume said on the show. “He’s said to be a Buddhist; I don’t think that faith offers the kind of forgiveness and redemption 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.”
The comment brought immediate fire from liberal news organizations such as MSNBC whose host Keith Olberman referred to the episode as “Hume’s Holy War.” He went on to criticize Christianity, quipping “‘WWJDIHS,’ which is: What would Jesus do if he strayed?”
After chiding Hume for pretending to be Woods’ spiritual advisor, Jay Bookman of the liberal Atlanta Journal-Constitution blogged: “Kinda makes you wonder why God allowed that darned Buddhist to win so many golf tournaments over good Christian men. Then again, He also allowed a Muslim to be elected president of HIS country, the United States of Christian America.”
The Washington Post’s TV critic Tom Shales (the same man who referred to President Obama as “President Wonderful”) predicted that the comment would be voted as one of the most ridiculous of the year. He cracked: “Whom did he sound more like — Mary Poppins on the joys of a tidy room, or Ron Popeil on the glories of some amazing potato peeler?”
Not everyone was willing to share their talking points, however. MSNBC anchor David Shuster interviewed political analyst Pat Burchanan about the episode, asking: “Doesn’t it also denigrate Christianity when you do that on a Sunday political talk show?”
Buchanan went “off-script” when he replied: “He’s not denigrating Christianity….A lot of us feel that there ought to be more discussion of religion in politics and religious beliefs and what’s moral and right and wrong.”
Catholic League president Bill Donohue says there’s no excuse for the kind of vitriol that has been spewed against Hume.
“None of Hume’s critics, of course, seem to have any problem with the increasingly aggressive campaigns launched by atheists seeking to proselytize Christians. During this past Christmas season, we were treated to a slew of atheist evangelizing efforts, ranging from billboards in towns across America to posters on urban buses, all designed to promote atheism and denigrate Christianity.
“In England, author Philip Pullman is pushing for an atheist curriculum in the elementary schools, and his fellow countryman and cohort, Richard Dawkins, wants summer camps aimed at weaning kids away from Christianity.
“These examples, of course, are seen by Hume’s critics as nothing more than exercises in free speech. But when he speaks, as an analyst, not as a reporter, he’s put on the liberal watch-list as a closet Taliban.”
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