So Brit Hume has been quite the darling of the angry liberal media lately, and by ‘darling’ I mean punching bag. And by ‘liberal media’ I mean liberal media, which is a phrase I rarely use or believe in. However, the typically mythological secular media machine has been having field day over his highly offensive statement regarding the Tiger Woods scandal and Tiger’s nominal Buddhist faith:

“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.’”

Yeah. That’s it. The correct assessment that most forms of Buddhism aren’t very helpful when you’ve demolitioned your life to pieces (that’s a boatload of bad karma Tiger just racked up) and maybe Christianity might be a better deal for people who are sitting in their own debris.

But no. Hume has been labeled all sorts of nasty things, from inflammatory to being a religious bigot. Even Charleston’s most involved atheist and left-wing activist (God bless him) argued that “embracing Brit Hume as a Christian Voice is no different than embracing Rudolph Hess”—that is, Hitler’s mentally-ill third-in-command. My favorite critique of him came from Washington Post columnist Tom Shales, who questioned, “is it really his job to run around trying to drum up new business? He doesn’t really have the authority, does he, unless one believes that every Christian by mandate must proselytize?”

Um, actually Tom, he does because there is. That whole Great Commission thing, y’know. Or how about 2 Timothy 2:4, where Paul implores every Christian to “Preach the word of God. Be prepared, whether the time is favorable or not.”

Gosh darn it. Could it be that the liberal media elite failed to understand their conservative target’s faith before they started giving theological pointers? Shocker. I fully grant that pundits can debate the articulation of Hume’s statement (because I do think it was pretty awkward), but whether he had a right or an intrinsic faith-based imperative to make it should not be called into the media spotlight that it’s in. It’s pretty obvious that as a news commentator and Christian, he does have the right—and perhaps even the obligation—to comment on the news from the occasional Christian perspective.

And I still haven’t seen a single explanation on why Hume’s alleged bashing of Buddhism isn’t factually correct. Robert Thurman, a professor of Tibetan studies at Columbia University, remarked “I think it’s ridiculous to make those statements,” to Tamara Lush of the Associated Press. “It is insulting to Buddhism to indicate that Buddhism doesn’t take care of its own believers and followers. But I think he will discover that Buddhists are very forgiving about his stupid statements.” Again, we could debate the manner in which it was said, but I didn’t notice where Hume says, “Buddhism doesn’t take care of its own believers and followers”, did you? Hume very clearly says Buddhism doesn’t offer the kind of forgiveness or redemption offered by Christ. Actually, Hume is being too kind here, since the most classical forms of Buddhism don’t offer any forgiveness or redemption. Those are truly foreign concepts to Buddha’s teachings.

Ironically, Stephen Prothero, a Boston University professor on Buddhism, agrees with Hume even as he derides him and Christianity while being interviewed. “You have the law of karma, so no matter what Woods says or does, he is going to have to pay for whatever wrongs he’s done. There’s no accountant in the sky wiping sins off your balance sheet, like there is in Christianity.” So basically, Prothero is saying…Hume is completely correct—only that Christianity is stupid for offering forgiveness. Guess that’s why he’s Buddhist and Hume is not.

Now, back to you, Tiger.

I was guest-preaching at a nearby church last Sunday, and boy, was it ever awesome.  Lightning had struck the sanctuary the night before, knocking out much of the power—at least the power that supplied the sound amplification and the lights.  I got to shout in the dark. My facebook friend and awesome Anglican church planter Dale Brown said it was fitting, given that I was talking on prayer.  I’m not very good at praying.  But the service planners insisted I preach on it.  Talk about the blind leading the blind. It was a learning experience if nothing else.

That night at the contemporary service the presiding ordained minister was set to serve communion to the small group gathered in the makeshift worship room.  She was essentially blind, but had since learned to be fairly mobile with a walking stick and what very partial vision she had left. 

There was also a middle-aged man from Pennsylvania visiting that night who was a recently retired minister.  Retired because he had to.  He went totally blind. His family with him there as well. I remember he could only introduce his teenage daughters by calling out their names and grasping the air until he found a hand.  When the presiding minister heard that he was in the congregation, she approached him and asked if he could perform communion with her. 

When it was time, she led him by the hand out of his seat and down the aisle to the communion table.  “Talk about the blind leading the blind,” she joked.  She turned him around so that he awkwardly stood facing the gathering at a seven o’clock angle.

She placed the cup in his hands while she held the bread.  She proceeded to bless the bread, looking all around to the congregation.  What was the word? She had talked about it using “gusto” when we say the Lord’s Prayer earlier in the communion that morning.  She certainly had it now.  If it weren’t for her walking stick, you would have never known she was blind. 

Then holding out the cup almost nervously, the man blessed the wine.  He eyes were fixed just upward enough as if he was gazing upon some heavenly display that danced over the audience.  His smile confirmed the suspicion.  By the way he said it, you would have thought it was his last communion.  If you had heard it, you would have thought it was the first communion.

We were all lead by the blind that night.