Brit Hume to Tiger Woods: Convert

FOX News Anchor Brit Hume offered Tiger Woods some interesting advice on Sunday, January 3rd, in regards to his recent personal struggles. On “Fox News Sunday,” Hume said to the world famous golfer, “The extent to which he can recover seems to me depends on his faith…Tiger, turn to the Christian faith and you can make a total recovery and be a great example to the world.” (video clip)

As someone who personally believes that Jesus Christ is the way, the truth, and the life, I believe that choosing to follow him would be a good decision for Tiger, or anyone else, to make. And, while the Christian faith offers a forgiveness that no other religion offers, that’s not the end of the story.

Choosing to believe in Jesus means that we sign up for a life of following him. That definitely doesn’t make all of your problems disappear or make life easier. In fact, it should make life more difficult. In the Gospels and throughout the New Testament, true followers of Christ are promised that they will encounter criticism from friends and family, face hardships, and be totally misunderstood by the rest of the world.

I don’t know much about Brit Hume, but it sounds to me as though he pictures the Christian faith as a Jesus-themed band-aid that can make our boo-boos better. There might be some truth to that, but I believe that it’s more like the scene from LOST when Charlie has Sayid fix his wound by pouring gunpowder on and lighting it, upon which we hear Charlie scream bloody murder (it does the trick, though).

Choosing to follow Jesus is a beautiful and amazing decision to make, but we cannot forget the sacrifice that following him requires. One of my favorite quotes is from German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer: “When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.” While extremely important, our description of following the “Christian faith” can’t be just about love, forgiveness, and rainbows. We must make sure that the call to come and die and a long, difficult road is realized by all those who consider the decision.

What do you think? Is calling Tiger Woods to convert the best advice that we can give him? Is the Christian faith supposed to be easy? Should we only focus on love and forgiveness in presenting Jesus?

UPDATE January 5th, 2009

To be fair, here is Brit Hume attempting to clarify his statements on the Bill O’Reilly show.

Recovering Republican

Ask me what political party I affiliate myself with today, and my answer would be completely different than it would have been one year ago.

One year ago, my Political Views on Facebook read “Conservative.” Less than a year ago, I was getting weekly e-mail alerts from the Christian Coalition. And, a year ago, I was rolling my eyes at national health care, listening to the Sean Hannity show religiously, and touting a “NOBAMA” background on my company PC. All of this because I thought Republican was the only way a person of faith was allowed to intelligently vote (credit that to Karl Rove). I don’t really like giving labels anymore, but if had to pick one, I’d say I’m a Recovering Republican.

I see the world differently today, and I credit some of that to Jim Wallis. Jim is the founder of a group called Sojourners. A few years ago he wrote a book called God’s Politics with the subtitle “Why the Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn’t Get It.” The subtitle grabbed my attention and I decided to give it a spin, not knowing what I was getting myself into. Wallis tackled issues from a perspective that I had never heard before, growing in a white suburban neighborhood and a white suburban church. From my first day of reading his book, I started to see issues like poverty, abortion, and international trade differently. I saw government and the United States more through the eyes of Jesus of Nazareth, instead of through the eyes of Pat Robertson. I laid aside my suburbian political lenses and saw politics through the lens of a person who grew up differently than I.

If you are a person ascribing to a certain faith group, a non-faith group, or and think that your party’s views are the only “correct” way, you’re wrong. If you’re thinking that everyone that fits into your particular religion should vote the way you do, you’re wrong. The truth is no single party can match completely to the ideals of complex individuals, and extremely intelligent and informed people are voting and thinking differently than you are.

Take a moment to see things differently. Put yourself in the place of someone with a different upbringing, different life experiences, and different circumstances of life. Be careful though, you might find yourself in need of recovery.