Apparently Fox News is no longer content being the voice of the GOP, and has decided to become the voice of Christianity, as well:
Brit Hume had some advice for Tiger Woods during this week’s “Fox News Sunday.” Woods will recover as a golfer, Hume says, but it remains to be seen whether he will recover as a person.
“He’s said to be a Buddhist,” Hume said. “I don’t think that faith offers the kind of forgiveness and redemption that is offered by the Christian faith. … Tiger, turn to the Christian faith and you can make a total recovery.”
Tell me again- why don’t the other networks go after Fox news on a daily basis? Shouldn’t it be in their interest to expose these hacks and frauds for what they are? Wouldn’t it just make sense from a competition standpoint, if pride in the profession is not enough?
Incertus
You just filled me with sad. Thanks.
scav
I sometimes try so hard not to judge religion by the company it keeps. Maybe I should just give up.
demkat620
They don’t go after Fox because hacks like Robertson and Warren and all the other professional christians will defend what Hume said until judgement day.
We are a Judeo-Christian nation and no other religions deserve respect, right?
What sux is 50 years ago, he would have been thrown off the air for saying that.
John Cole
Jeebus. My spelling.
beltane
I’ve been waiting for someone to go there. No surprise that it was Fox. Poor Tiger, salvation on the cheap will be denied him because he is a Buddhist. Christians can fornicate all they want because a simple “Jesus forgives me” absolves them of all responsibility for their actions.
Mike Kay
Oh brother.
Hume’s son Sandy Hume was gay and sadly committed suicide after being dumped by his closeted lover congressman Bill Paxson (R-NY), because paxon was running to unseat newt.
Under his fanatical interpretation of scripture he must of hated his son.
Mike in NC
By all means, those clowns at FOX should set up an appointment for him to get some marriage and bonus religious counseling from Newt Gingrich. Or Mark Sanford. Or Karl Rove. Or [fill in the blank with your favorite right-wing hypocrite]…
cleek
because the response would be “LIBRUL! LIBRUL! LIBRUL!”
blahblahblah
He’s a Buddhist, he’s in it for the suffering.
gbear
Won’t Hume be disappointed when he passes on and finds that the afterlife isn’t what he was expecting.
Corner Stone
I think what you’re missing is that Tiger reportedly cost assorted corporations a billion dollars in lost revenue.
That’s the real sin here, and Fox et al believe he can salvage that lost revenue by a little ‘i have sinned against you’.
ricky
Jeebus helped my spelling, my slice, my handicap, and serves as my personal savior and caddy.
He also helped that nice fat man coach Texas Tech to a win
proving that obesity should return to major college coaching ranks after the loss of the tubbies at KU and Touchdown Jeebus U.
Mike Kay
Well, Olbermann does. And to a lesser extent, so does Rachel and Ed.
Raenelle
I actually know a couple of nice Christians, but the public face of Christianity is so repulsive I’m surprised they get any converts anymore.
As for forgiveness, again look at the public face. To steal a line first made in reference to Old Fuss and Feathers General Winfield Scott–you could cover Brit Hume’s mouth with a button.
ricky
@Corner Stone:
Tiger’s lack of Christian faith is responsible for the financial losses plaguing the Buick division at GM. That is a known fact.
Joey Maloney
Unbefuckinglievable. Even for Fox.
Jim
You never know when you might be shuffling to Roger Ailes hat-in-hand, or at least wanting to go to your boss to negotiate a raise knowing rumors of your lunch with Fat Roger are in the air (See Tapper, Jake).
and that
Jon H
Who came up with the line about Hume’s massive, fungoid head?
That was a classic. Might have been The Poor Man.
New Yorker
Yes, Tiger Woods needs to be more like that good Christian Ted Haggard. Tiger hasn’t smoked enough crystal meth with all the hookers he was nailing.
Max
David Shuster went after the comment on Twitter. David’s my favorite MSNBC’er.
Jon H
Also, Christianity offers eternal damnation. Indeed, some Christians believed only 144,000 would make it to heaven, meaning a heck of a lot of Christians are going to be a bit miffed.
Incidentally, this is why I don’t understand why fundies are so het up about sex (HPV vaccine encourages sex, Sex Ed encourages it, etc.) Why subject your kids to the risk of life-altering STDs and/or pregnancy? Jesus can wipe away your sins, but herpes and HIV are forever.
(Also, the forgiveness he needs is from his family, not Jeebus. Had he been a ‘better’ Buddhist, he might have had the compassion and mindfulness to not be slinging his dick and money around. He probably wouldn’t have been any better as a Christian. Hell is full of Christians.)
Violet
He’s right though. The only kind of “recovery” that matters is in the public eye. Tiger converts to Christianity, he becomes the poster child for redemption. Advertisers don’t fear coming back to him. Win, win, win.
smiley
What did Bill Kristol say?
John Cole
@Jon H: It was. I have been searching for the post where he apologizes about the things he said about his head- it was a classic.
Marc
Turn to Jesus, Tiger. You can find forgiveness, counseling, and unimpeachable moral authority at this lovely house on C Street.
RedKitten
Because they all frigging know each other, and are all in each other’s back pockets. It’s a brotherhood, and even if they might disapprove of each others’ methods sometimes, they’ll stick up for each other against outsiders.
Sentient Puddle
With the resulting karma points Brit Hume lost with that comment, he is now on track for reincarnation as a strain of E. coli.
Obliterati
They’d go after Fox if they thought it was in their best interests, but it’s not, so they won’t.
It’s not like people are still confused about what Fox is doing. The bulk of the very small number of people watching cable news are older white suburbanites who are looking, not for news, but but for smeone to prop up their own hopes and fears.
For the majority of people watching cable news, Fox’s bullshit is a feature, not a bug.
Jim
Now they are even leaking Tiger’s exploits in detail here. :)
No shame.
Corner Stone
@New Yorker:
I think this is by no means clear yet.
Corner Stone
@Jim: This is the answer. Beside it being a fraternity none of us are invited into – you don’t shit on anyone you may be working for by the end of the year.
Davis X. Machina
The talent won’t go after Fox — on a sinking ship, what kind of idiot shoots holes in the lifeboat?
JenJen
@Max: My favorite, too. Shuster’s tweets:
Brent
Serial adultery is just dandy at Fox and Fools as well as most protestant establishments. I wonder if the same sort of outreach and promise of simple forgiveness and redemption would have been tendered if Tiger had caught teh gay? It seems highly improbable, no impossible. Ya gotta keep the poor religious sheep stewing in bigotry to deflect awareness of corporate big brother. As long as his naughty bits went nowhere near the nether regions of another man, the welcome mat is always out. If we still had prayer in schools (exclusively christian) none of this would ever have happened. A theocratic fourth estate is the end of democracy and the realization of Orwells’ Ministry of Truth. The mind is unrecoverable once the blinders of religion are applied.
MikeJ
@gbear:
No. I don’t think he’ll have any thoughts on it at all.
Sly
You have to believe that humanity is drenched in sin in order for a path of spiritual redemption to be necessary. Christian sects are not alone in preaching this, unfortunately.
Jim
Having been raised Catholic, there are a lot of RCs and other Xians for whom I have a great deal of respect. If I were Jesus (was it blasphemous just to type that?) I couldn’t imagine a worse sort of spokesmodel for my followers than a sour rage-oholic like Brit Hume. The man radiates bitterness and anger.
Alex S.
@Mike Kay:
Wow, that is sad. Brit Hume must be wondering if his version of faith was worth it all the time.
It seems to me that a lot of christians are questioning the sacrifices they make and they try to find comfort in imposing their beliefs on others, because every conversion erases the doubt at least for a while.
Alex S.
@JenJen:
That’s actually a great point. I wonder how many people know that there are two buddhist members of congress. Hank Johnson would have been the perfect guest.
MattF
The Fire Sermon suggests, truth to tell, that Tiger’s not your ideal Buddhist– e.g., not exactly “divested of passion”. But becoming a FOX-brand Christian would just fix everything, I’m sure.
HRA
Gd it! I am currently reading about Henry VIII, Thomas More and the heretic campaign that was waged back then. Now I have to know Hume is dissing a religion he probably knows squat about today. What I think when I hear the word, Buddhist, is peace and tranquility.
Bill Paxon was not my Congressman and I made an appeal to him about a problem. He personally got on the phone and even called later to see if it was resolved. They lost a good man in Congress.
I had and have the same idiot for a Congressman now.
WereBear
@Alex S.: That is my take on it.
It’s a psychological trick: doubt will make you lose your chance at heaven, so you have to suppress it, and when you are doubtful, you can’t have that challenged, or you’ll lose your grip on keeping the doubt at bay.
This is why they get so upset at, well, anything; they have to show God how hard they are working at believing.
Xanthippas
What Hume meant to say is that Buddhism doesn’t offer the sort of cheap and meaningless forgiveness that only Christianity can offer, or the public relations cachet that comes from hanging out with celebrity televangelists.
Jim Once
@HRA: Is the book Wolf Hall? I’m in the middle of it (on my Christmas Kindle). Great, great reading. (I approve of the Kindle, too.)
JK
Brit Hume always looks and sounds constipated. It’s a damn shame that this obnoxious douchebag is viewed as a sensible elder statesmen by many journalists.
Sarcastro
He also helped that nice fat man coach Texas Tech to a win
proving that obesity should return to major college coaching ranks after the loss of the tubbies at KU and Touchdown Jeebus U.
I’ll convert to Satanism if it keeps
the fat ignorant redneckFulmer from coming back,Mike G
Brit Hume (and what a face of compassion he has) has a point, in a roundabout way. The right-wing version of Christianity appears to enable Gingrinch, Larry Craig, Pat Robertson, Ted Haggard, Tom DeLay et al to to indulge in drug abuse, adultery, divorce and massive-scale lying, assholery, bullying and taxpayer theft without any pangs of conscience. So Tiger could go back to his Vegas-hookers lifestyle and not feel any guilt about it — full recovery!
Brachiator
You have got to be kidding me. Hume really said this? Was there any reaction from anyone else, if he said this to other pundits?
This has got to be one of the dumbest dumb-ass public statements I’ve read recently. What a way to start the New Year.
Hume’s statement is commentary. Punditry is covered by double secret First Amendment probationary protection. Opinion doesn’t have to be factually correct, logically consistent or intellectually coherent.
Besides, who are the network news giants who have the credibility to attack Fox? Chris Matthews?
Worse, these clowns are probably afraid that if they say anything about Fox, more of their own viewers will defect to Teh Stoopid.
Alex S.
@Brachiator:
Now that I read Hume’s words in your comment, I have a revelation: He’s promoting Christianity like a product. It’s an easy-to-handle religion.
Lisa K.
Wow. Holy shit. They are getting bold, aren’t they?
Oh, fuck them. Anybody who watches Fox News deserves what they get.
Ruckus
John
Wouldn’t it just make sense from a competition standpoint, if pride in the profession is not enough?
I believe that you are making the mistake of not understanding that a bought person has no pride. IOW a corporate whore is a worthless piece of shit.
If you’re not sure of this just glance at your next post about everyone’s best friend Sandy Weill. /snark
Lisa K.
@Brachiator:
It’s too bad Cronkite or Hewitt didn’t have the balls to do it before they kicked off.
rikyrah
they are ridiculous…this is a given. but, it is the pretense of the rest of the networks that Fox is legitimate which just gets my goat.
jrg
The fact that the average Fox news viewer believes that Brit Hume knows the will of
AllahGod, yet the viewer does not expect their news a week in advance, shows just how fucking stupid the average Fox news viewer is.I hope Glenn Beck has luck selling gold. These idiots deserve to be fleeced.
Martin
When forgiveness is available on the endcap in Borders at 40% off, why actually work to resist temptation?
Fundamentalists don’t really care if you’re snorting coke off your babysitters ass, just make sure you use baby Jesus wrapping paper at Christmas when you give your wife her big ‘I’ve sinned’ gift.
MikeBoyScout
Happy New Year!
You do know that in the never ending effort by Faux News panelists to set the bar for EPIC FAIL, Brit led the pack right out of the gate.
Let’s see Herr Goebbels Kristol beat that in 2010!
and…. how much would Rupert Murdoch need to pay you to be part of a discussion panel with the moronic crowd led by Brit? Juan and Mara know. ;-)
Sly
Maybe Hume can use his great grasp of statistical analysis to tell us why Christianity is better for adulterers than Buddhism. He can do a report on the divorce rate in Tibet compared to other regions of similar geographic size.
mcd410x
Jesus was pretty straightforward with the rich men and kingdom of heaven thing. Good luck with that.
Leelee for Obama
Slightly OT-but only slightly: Couple years back, Zach Johnson won the Masters. He’s a good golfer and I have no problem with people being religious, but he completely turned me cold when he thanked his Lord Jesus for the win. All I could think of was, yeah, we’re in two wars and GWB is still President, but Jeebus made sure you won the Masters. Blarrgh!
On the other issue-it’s Brit Hume for fuck’s sake, of course he’s offensive and full of shit. That’s what he gets paid for.
JenJen
@Mike G: This.
aimai
Jeebus saves [your marketable brand identity]. You and your sponsors can be redeemed. Its efficient, I’ll grant him that.
aimai
Brachiator
@Lisa K.:
Cronkite had a few astute observations about the decline of journalism, but he was just ignored as a crotchety old guy.
Leelee for Obama — Slightly OT-but only slightly: Couple years back, Zach Johnson won the Masters. He’s a good golfer and I have no problem with people being religious, but he completely turned me cold when he thanked his Lord Jesus for the win. All I could think of was, yeah, we’re in two wars and GWB is still President, but Jeebus made sure you won the Masters. Blarrgh!
I pretty much don’t care what athletes or anyone else says about their personal faith. And the idea here is that thanks go to a deity for the opportunity to perform. There is a bit of humility here. Nothing to get hung about.
On the other hand, I’m not looking for theological lessons from journalists. I wouldn’t care whether Hume was endorsing Christianity, Buddhism or animism. That Hume is comfortable making such a blandly arrogant, ignorant, and uninformed statement is absolutely infuriating. Note also that there is the typical dash of ignorant speculation, since Hume knows nothing about Wood’s upbringing or religion (or lack thereof).
FlipYrWhig
True. That’s kind of why it’s hard for me to take Christianity seriously.
Blue Raven
@Alex S.:
They’ve been doing that for years. All the ad parody T-shirts and repackaged motivational speaking boils down to, “Take this religion pill and you will be fine.” Those of us who practice faiths with no such foolishness, including some Christians I know, can’t grasp how self-improvement and intelligent application of ethics to reality could possibly be that simple. I for one both pity and despise the pill approach.
JoyceH
The sad thing is that I’d bet money that Tiger’s ‘people’ really ARE recommending a conversion, not to save Tiger’s soul, but to repair his bottom line and his PR image. Christian conversion as PR stunt. Even sadder, it would probably work with a lot of people.
Leelee for Obama
@Brachiator: Well, I found it more in the vein of his deity made it happen, not that he helped him have the opportunity, but you make a good point. I just don’t like religion being brought into the national conversation about what should be sports, or other things for that matter. Just my opinion.
Like I said above, it’s Brit Hume speaking and he’s a complete and utter sell-out, so he thinks nothing of spouting this kind of crap, or other crap he knows little to nothing about. I’ve said before I’ve been a major Woods fan for years, and I have no idea whether he has any religion. Never thought about it, and I find Hume as offensive as can be on spec, so this doesn’t surprise me in the least. The comment from Mike G is about where I’m at. These people think absolution means saying you’re sorry and then telling people to get over it.
Col. Klink
Isn’t Islam’s allowance of 4 wives with the promise of 72 virgins in the afterlife a far more logical choice for Tiger at this juncture?
Ash Can
Brit Hume is a fucking douchebag for insulting Buddhism and cheapening Christianity like this.
clyons
Er, Mr Cole, the answer to your question “Why don’t the other networks go after Fox on a daily basis?” was partially answered by Jim at No. 17: because they might be begging Roger A. for a job.
To complete this: News Corp has a well-earned reputation for playing hardball (you might wish to look up the Guardian’s series on phone tapping + the convenient leaks into Page Six).
If the Bush Years should have taught us anything, it is that intimidation works best the higher up the food chain one goes.
Bruce (formerly Steve S.)
One of the funniest things about right-wing Christianity is that they don’t seem to have the goddamnest clue what the religion actually teaches. Christianity plainly teaches that you have to really believe the shit deep down and that pro forma Christianity is arguably worse than not believing at all. Selling Christianity like a brand of cola is antithetical to its teachings, but not surprising coming from FOX.
If Tiger Woods came out in public next week and started talking about Jesus is there anybody in the world (outside of FOX and its viewers) who wouldn’t recognize it for palpable bullshit?
Phyllis
Obviously hardly ever, if it all, big boy.
Nellcote
Someone needs to ask Parson Jon Meacham what he thinks of Hume’s nonsense.
Mike G
Oh yes, the “Jesus wanted me to make that touchdown” syndrome, which just makes the utterer look stupid and egotistic. Like an all-seeing deity has nothing better to do than supervise your football game, and I guess Jesus hated your opponents.
Funny how it never works the other way — “I would have made that touchdown, but that jerk Jesus knocked the ball out of my hands”.
Jonathan Holbert
This sums up xtianity today perfectly. You have won this thread.
Heresiarch
Tiger, turn to the Christian faith and you can make a total recovery.
.
Oh…oh god…I threw up and it went EVERYWHERE.
fraught
I am personally willing to hear Tiger’s confession and offer him forgiveness and redemption (after suitable penance, of course) if that’s what he’s looking for. It’s this nifty little religion I’ve cooked up that customizes a person’s needs with his um, financial concerns. Sort of like a personal stylist only with a little praying. Cheap!
Kyle
Because self-improvement and intelligent application of ethics to reality aren’t the point for these people. They have no interest in becoming better people by helping at a homeless shelter, being more honest in their business dealings or whatever. That would be “hard work”, to quote one of the major proponents of their solipsistic, parochial magical worldview.
Their Christianity is like joining an exclusive club, and you automatically become ‘a good person’ by joining — improving yourself or your actions not required. And lording over others with your self-righteous, self-proclaimed ‘moral superiority’ and judgementalism is one of the major perks. Megachurches sell a no-obligation, get-into-heaven-free card.
Brachiator
@Mike G:
RE: And the idea here is that thanks go to a deity for the opportunity to perform. There is a bit of humility here.
If a person believes that a deity is the source of all things, then the deity would be the source of the skill that allows a person to play football, and this would apply equally to the victor and to the defeated.
I’m pretty much a non-believer, but I try to understand where people of faith are coming from.
And it’s laughable from a philosophical perspective to try to imagine an omnipotent deity having a to do list with “better things to do.” I could easily imagine a deity enjoying football, or even cricket. But probably not curling.
Leelee for Obama – I just don’t like religion being brought into the national conversation about what should be sports, or other things for that matter. Just my opinion.
I totally understand where you’re coming from. But athletes like to say hello to their moms, and to thank Jesus. It’s more a spontaneous outburst than a reasoned “national conversation.” I just shrug and keep going, although I would love it if a football player thanked the Great Dragon of the Universe for a victory.
Hume could have multiple graduate degrees in theology and I would still be chapped that he would pimp Christianity on the freakin’ air. I don’t give a rat’s ass about Hume’s views of absolution.
What’s next, “This is Fox News. Have you found Jesus?”
Ella in New Mexico
@Sentient Puddle:
OMG LOL!!!! However, it’s pretty obvious that he and his buds will be the antibiotic resistant O-157 strain makes you shit blood for two weeks, IF you’re lucky enough to survive.
kommrade reproductive vigor
Shorter Brit Hume: Everything heathens suffer on earth is a preview of the afterlife! Repent!
inkadu
@Brachiator: That Hume is comfortable making such a blandly arrogant, ignorant, and uninformed statement is absolutely infuriating.
Arrogant, ignorant and uninformed statements are the bread and butter of modern punditry. Why is it so infuriating when its about religion and not politics?
AkaDad
One time, at golf camp, I took my wood and my balls and…
HRA
@Jim Once:
Sorry to be late with the reply. I just got home from a family birthday dinner.
Yes, that is the book. It’s awesome.
Julius Ray Hoffman
Wait a sec… If Brit Hume didn’t make this silly comment, you here wouldn’t be able to discuss it in 86 comments so far. Hume is an entertainer and he provided some entertainment on what is probably an otherwise slow day.
Did the comment harm anyone? No.
Did it contribute to some interesting discussion? Yes.
So on balance it was worthwhile. I hope there is more of this sort of thing to come. Life would be awfully boring if people didn’t challenge the status quo once in a while.
drillfork
Ya know The Daily Show often isn’t very good coming out of a a break. Hopefully Hume’s pseudo piousness will help them hit the ground runnin’…
asiangrrlMN
@Julius Ray Hoffman: Um, what status quo is the fucker challenging? None. He is saying a godless heathen should become a Christian. That IS the fucking status quo.
Thunk thunk thunk. Head, meet wall.
Brachiator
@inkadu:
RE: That Hume is comfortable making such a blandly arrogant, ignorant, and uninformed statement is absolutely infuriating.
Politics is part of public discourse. Tiger Woods’ religion is not.
And while Hume can claim that his background and previous experience gives him some knowledge about politics, he cannot make any claim that I would find relevant that gives him any authority to declare what religion is best for anyone.
But I take your point that pundits believe that they can prattle on about anything. They are almost as bad as bloggers.
Kyle
He is saying a godless heathen should become a Christian. That IS the fucking status quo.
And many of the people who think it’s a charming expression of inspiration when an athlete thanks Jesus for his touchdown would go into a Janet Jackson’s boob-style meltdown if a player thanked Allah or Buddha or proclaimed he was an atheist, or thanked the Flying Spaghetti Monster (though the last one would be pretty funny).
And note to American athletes in international competitions — you look fucking stupid thanking Jesus for winning your track meet in Hungary or wherever. You just became the Ugly American.
Dinah
Megyn Kendall. Megyn Kendall. Megyn Kendall. (Sigh.) How quickly you forget.
DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal)
@Julius Ray Hoffman:
Wow, an Entertainment Troll who like Faux Nooz? Well isn’t that special.
If the status quo is that Faux Nooz sucks donkey balls I guess
Brit HumeShit Fume tonguing the donkey’s sphincter is definitely different.Julius Ray Hoffman
I think the status quo that he is challenging is that you can’t talk about someone’s religion.
A question: What is more disturbing?
a) Brit Hume saying that Tiger Woods ought to consider Christianity.
b) Good-spirited friends like DougL talking about “donkey balls” and calling Brit Hume “Shit Hume” and offering the nice thought of “tonguing the donkey’s sphincter”?
I take Brit Hume as seriously as I take DougL, which is not serious at all. It’s entertainment. You are free to dislike it, but it is hard to take your complaints seriously when you engage in worse things yourself.
Asa Castleman
You’ve got to be s—-g me, so called Christians are the most unforgiving, damning, conniving, viscious people on this planet. It’s too bad he has to be any religion and can’t just be Human!
LanceThruster
We should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity.
Ann Coulter
Tiger. Also.
mickarran
Huh? “Pride in the profession”? The Villagers? ROTFLMAO