BellaOnline Forums Religion and Spirituality Buddhism Brit Hume/Tiger Woods Buddhism/Christianty Comment

Brit Hume of Fox News recently said that he thought Tiger Woods should renounce Buddhism and adopt Christianity in order to receive full redemption. You can view the video here. What do you think of this?

I think he will catch a lot of flack for that one! Not a good thing to say at all.

Yes, it was well-intentioned, but he has already gotten a lot of flack for it from some quarters, because some people took it to mean that he was saying that the fact Tiger was Buddhist (or has studied it - he has not to my knowledge ever said 'I am a Buddhist') - was part of what 'allowed' him to do these things. Which wasn't really what Brit Hume said, but that's part of the debate going on out there in the blogosphere. There are a lot of misperceptions about Buddhism, and this is highlighting some of them. Karen Maezen Miller, a Zen priest author and writer I like, did a great job highlighting the real issue for me in this post .

Interesting in his press conference yesterday that Tiger addressed Buddhism, perhaps indirectly in response to this controversy. If you listen to the entire thing, at one point he talked about being raised Buddhist, and how he had not lived according to its guidance, and now hoped to....

That interview/press confidence was the biggest mistake he made since putting it about in the first place.

Because he didn't seem sincere? I didn't like it for that reason. Although honestly, I haven't followed him all that closely and didn't watch the whole thing. But the bits I saw just felt too contrived and forced.

I noted it here just because for better or worse, this IS about the most exposure Buddhism has gotten in the mainstream media in quite some time. Virtually all the major news site have since run some feature saying 'Tiger Returns to Buddhism' or the like.

"Didn't seem sincere" doesn't cover it....

I strongly suspect the whole thing was entirely carefully and meticulously scripted and orchestrated.
Just look at what he was wearing (the jacket gives you authority, the open-necked shirt, a casual, endearing manner... the pale blue colour {especially against his darker skin} a sense of purity and freshness - remember that Mary is always depicted wearing white and azure blue....)
The carefully-timed raising of the head and looking at the camera, the obvious instruction to look round the room, to include everyone....
The reference to Buddhism came at almost the last moment.... and he said that, and I quote....



I think more people than he knows, realise it, due to previous press coverage. And frankly, I find his reference to it, somehow an insult to all those who practice Buddhism, came to it a lot later than he did, and yet still manage to behave in a far more socially acceptable - not to say admirable - manner.
Note that he says he drifted away from it 'in recent years'. I'll say.....

Interesting also that he states what Buddhism teaches (generally - which is straight out of a 'Buddhism Guide for Idiots' book) but then swings to a personal comment - 'It teaches me (Present tense) to stop following every impulse and to learn restraint. Obviously, I lost track of what I was (past tense)taught.'
It's all over the place....


Which is why I think he was therefore coached in this statement, too.
There is much in Right Speech which recommends that actually, sometimes Right Speech entails keeping your great yap shut, and being dignified.
The whole thing was 10 minutes too long.
And dignified?

Er........

No.

Maybe I'm just a tired old cynic. But the Britishness in me just sees it as just so much more superficial, shallow 'Hollywood'.....

Absolutely. I agree. He has an entire 'PR crises' team (in addition to his 'regular' PR team), so I'm sure it was entirely orchestrated. There was a lot of writing here in the states afterwards about his tie color, and how it's the same color politicians use when they want to appear sincere and/or are making an apology for something. And the three women in the front row (his mother was one) that the cameras kept panning to were chosen by his team also. And of course tight control was exercised over what press was allowed to attend (or wasn't allowed to attend, more to the point.)

Also, a lot of the coverage here noted that it is standard for a public figure seeking redemption to reference religious faith. Usually of course, it's Christianity. But obviously he couldn't simply pull that out of a hat at this point. So he referenced his upbringing as Buddhist (his mother is Thai and a Theravada Buddhist, I don't know what affiliation, if one, however.) The Brit Hume statement that I posted at the start of this thread did cause a slight uproar, here in the states anyway, amongst Buddhists here. So I do think he may also have felt he needed to combat the idea that Buddhism was somehow not concerned enough with morality. Or maybe his mother urged him to.

Or maybe I am too cynical and he actually was sincere in all of this. Time will tell. Or he will simply be more careful next time.

And that's exactly it, isn't it?
It wasn't remorse because he simply couldn't carry on this way...
It was guilt - because he got found out.
Lisa - we're on the same page!

Yea, I fear there wasn't even guilt. Just regret at getting caught.

But interesting, there's been a little uproar in the Buddhist blogosphere, at least here in the states, because Fox News, the network that Brit Hume is from, cut the Buddhism statements from its version of the press conference, at least from its online versions. (Hume is the commentator from the top of this thread, that made the comment that Woods should convert to Christianity because Buddhism didn't offer him the kind of 'redemption' that Christianity could.) So if you read the transcript of the entire speech at Woods site, or watch a full version of it, the comments are in, but if you watch Fox News' version of it, they are out.

Not sure what that is about!

The other comment someone made to me is that it seems strange all the Buddhist websites and blogs have been talking about almost nothing but Tiger Woods since his press conference, because he made this comment about Buddhism. It seems off-kilter a bit that everyone seems so thrilled about a celebrity's reference to Buddhism. Although for whatever it is worth (and this is debatable) it does raise the profile of Buddhism - apparently it was one of the top search terms on Google following the press conference and the coverage afterwards.