Give me some redemption

Less people know about Brit Hume of Fox News than the impression Brit Hume of Fox News might be laboring under. Nevertheless his unsolicited advice to the golfer Tiger Woods deserves some dissecting. Twice in two days Hume said on Fox that Christianity of what Woods needs to overcome his problems.

"He needs something that Christianity especially provides and gives and offers, and that is redemption and forgiveness. I was really meaning to say in those comments yesterday more about Christianity than anything else...I think that Jesus Christ offers Tiger Woods something that Tiger Woods badly needs,” Hume said on The O’Reilly Factor’ reiterating a position he had taken on another show earlier.

Implicit in Hume’s comment is that Woods has not much hope of redemption and forgiveness if he continues to remain a Buddhist, his mother’s faith that he is supposed to have embraced. While all religions are irrelevant in my life, Buddhism too has path to redemption. It is called nirvana. In any case every time Woods was with one of those women he did sample a little bit of nirvana, short-lived but nirvana nevertheless.

There is a perception among many Christians that those who follow non-Judeo Christian faiths are heathens and pagans who indulge in drunken orgies to placate their wild gods. The idea that Jesus Christ can save these troubled souls, such as Woods, is more prevalent than popularly believed.

I remember a highly amusing incident that I was involved in soon after I arrived in the San Francisco Bay Area in 1998. I was waiting for a bus early one morning when two young men dressed in black slacks, white half-sleeved shirts and black ties with copies of the Bible in their hands approached me. Their hair was neatly combed and both wore near identical smiles that seemed to stem from some profound realization.

I thought they were going to take the same bus as I was waiting to take. It turned out their plan was a little more ambitious. They both shook hands with me after cheerfully saying hello. I thought that was that but it was not.

“Do you think about redemption,” one of them asked me even as the other nodded in agreement. My brain quickly processed the question and concluded that this was not as innocuous as it first seemed.

“Not while waiting for a bus,” I replied with my tongue firmly in my cheek.

“Do you accept Jesus in your life?” asked the other, younger man.

“In so much as I accept anyone at all,” I said.

“Have you considered converting yourself?” the older man asked.

“Convert from what to what?” I persisted.

By that time I saw my bus approaching and I had to end the conversation as politely as I could under the circumstances. So I said, “That bus is about 50 seconds away from us. I don’t think that is long enough my redemption.”

The two men did not know what to make of my response. They walked off with what seemed like not very forgiving thoughts.

I think they should replace Brit Hume on Fox.