{"id":218816,"date":"2010-01-21T22:01:17","date_gmt":"2010-01-22T03:01:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.personalliberty.com\/?p=10342"},"modified":"2010-01-21T22:01:17","modified_gmt":"2010-01-22T03:01:17","slug":"is-brit-hume-%e2%80%9ctoo-christian%e2%80%9d-for-tv","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/218816","title":{"rendered":"Is Brit Hume \u201cToo Christian\u201d for TV?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Holy  mackerel, what a tempest in a teapot <em>Fox  News<\/em> commentator Brit Hume unleashed when he made a pro-Christian comment  on national TV. Judging by the hysterical outcry from the left, you would think  he had publicly advocated devil-worship.<\/p>\n<p>Come  to think of it, had Hume instead advocated giving Satan a chance I&rsquo;m sure the  reaction would have been far friendlier. He would have been hailed for his  open-mindedness and applauded for being so non-judgmental.<\/p>\n<p>In  case you missed the beginning of this controversy, here&rsquo;s how it started: Appearing  on a panel on <em>Fox News Sunday<\/em>, Hume  was asked what advice he would give the embattled Tiger Woods, in an effort to  end the controversy that has besmirched the reputation (and flattened the bank  account) of the superstar golfer.<br \/>\n  &nbsp;<br \/>\n  Hume  began by saying that, while Tiger&rsquo;s golf game would eventually recover, if he  wanted to overcome the guilt and shame of his repeated infidelities he should  turn from Buddhism to Christianity.<\/p>\n<p>Hume  then observed, &ldquo;The extent to which he can recover, it seems to me, depends on  his faith. He is said to be a Buddhist. I don&rsquo;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, &lsquo;Tiger, turn to the Christian faith and you can  make a total recovery and be a great example to the world.&rsquo;&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Needless  to say, the loony left went absolutely ballistic over Hume&rsquo;s pro-Christian  comments. Keith Olbermann, <em>MSNBC&rsquo;s<\/em> bile-filled poster boy for intolerance, berated Hume for trying to &ldquo;threaten  Tiger Woods into becoming a Christian.&rdquo; <\/p>\n<p>Really?  I hope someone asks Olbermann by what stretch of imagination he could find a <u>threat<\/u> in Hume&rsquo;s remarks. They sounded very conciliatory to me&hellip; perhaps even overly  optimistic in the promise of &ldquo;total recovery.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>But  Olbermann wasn&rsquo;t finished. He went on to compare <em>Fox News<\/em> to Islamic extremists, for allowing Hume to promote  Christianity on national TV. He then invited Dan Savage, a homosexual  extremist, on his show. Savage promptly lambasted Hume as a &ldquo;lunatic&rdquo; for his  remarks. Olbermann nodded approvingly.<\/p>\n<p>Jon  Stewart, the smirking liberal who hosts <em>The  Daily Show<\/em>, played clips of Hume&rsquo;s comments to the amusement of his  audience.<\/p>\n<p>Tom  Shales, the TV critic at <em>The Washington  Post<\/em>, mocked the idea that Christians should &ldquo;run around trying to drum up  new business.&rdquo; What Hume did was outrageous, Shales insisted&mdash;unless you were so  backward as to believe that &ldquo;every Christian by mandate must proselytize.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Actually,  as you no doubt know, many Christians believe exactly that. But I doubt if my  more evangelical friends would give Brit Hume high marks for calling Tiger (or  anyone else) to account. What he said was a long, long way from an altar call. But  the blogosphere responded as though Hume&rsquo;s remarks were the most glaring  example of bigotry, bias and downright stupidity ever uttered outside <em>The Jerry Springer Show<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>David  Shuster, Olbermann&rsquo;s colleague on <em>MSNBC<\/em>,  lambasted Hume for violating &ldquo;the separation of church and television.&rdquo; I think  he confused that principle with another one that&rsquo;s just as phony&mdash;the so-called  &ldquo;separation of church and state,&rdquo; which is also nowhere in the Constitution.<\/p>\n<p>One  of the strangest criticisms of all came from Dan Savage, the homosexual  activist I mentioned above. He roared indignantly that Hume was claiming  Christianity &ldquo;offers the best deal&mdash;it gives you the get-out-of-adultery free  card that other religions just can&rsquo;t.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Excuse  me, but isn&rsquo;t that <u>exactly<\/u> what Christianity promises? As Ann Coulter  put it, &ldquo;God sent his only Son to get the crap beaten out of him, die for our  sins and rise from the dead. If you believe that, you&rsquo;re in. Your sins are  washed away from you&mdash;sins even worse than adultery!&mdash;because of the cross.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>And  then the acerbic columnist and commentator added the following: &ldquo;Surely you remember  the cross, liberals&mdash;the symbol banned by ACLU lawsuits from public property  throughout the land?&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>To  my surprise, I found one of the most reasonable comments about the whole affair  in a column in <em>The New York Times<\/em>,  when Ross Douthat wrote, &ldquo;This doesn&rsquo;t mean that we need to welcome real  bigotry into our public discourse. But what Hume said wasn&rsquo;t bigoted: Indeed,  his claim about the difference between Buddhism and Christianity was perfectly  defensible. Christians believe in a personal God who forgives sin. Buddhists,  as a rule, do not. And it&rsquo;s at least plausible that Tiger Woods might welcome  the possibility that there&rsquo;s someone out there capable of forgiving him, even  if Elin Nordegren and his corporate sponsors do not.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Yes,  as many observers have noted, Christianity is the best deal in the universe. There  is no other faith of which I&rsquo;m aware that promises your sins will be forgiven. <\/p>\n<p>Of  course to the intellectual elite, there is no such thing as &ldquo;sin.&rdquo; We are  supposed to tolerate anything and everything, from serial infidelities to the  most blatant perversions.<\/p>\n<p>In  the land of the free and the home of the brave, no one can be persecuted for  his or her beliefs anymore. Unless, of course, they are so old-fashioned and  intolerant as to believe that sin exists&hellip; that sinners will be punished&hellip; and  that redemption can only be found at the foot of the Cross.<\/p>\n<p>Brit,  I&rsquo;m sure glad you no longer get your paycheck from one of our so-called  &ldquo;fair-minded&rdquo; networks. Because if you did, I have no doubt they&rsquo;d require you  to grovel an abject apology&mdash;right before they threw you out the door.<\/p>\n<p>Until  next time, keep some powder dry.<\/p>\n<p><em>&mdash;Chip Wood<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Holy mackerel, what a tempest in a teapot Fox News commentator Brit Hume unleashed when he made a pro-Christian comment on national TV. Judging by the hysterical outcry from the left, you would think he had publicly advocated devil-worship. Come to think of it, had Hume instead advocated giving Satan a chance I&rsquo;m sure the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4206,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-218816","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218816","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4206"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=218816"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218816\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=218816"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=218816"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=218816"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}