Thank you Brit Hume

For anyone who doesn’t know, Fox News commentator Brit Hume made a bit of a gaffe a little over a week ago, when he said of Tiger Woods:

“He is said to be a Buddhist. I don’t think that faith offers the kind of forgiveness and redemption that is offered by the Christian faith. 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.”

Quickly the Buddhist blog world was abuzz. There were calls for an apology or his being fired, calls to just ignore it as so much Fox News nonsense, and plenty in between.

I’m obviously a bit late in chiming in my two cents, but here they are: Thank you, Brit Hume.

Thank you first for raising a very interesting theological point regarding Tiger Woods’ religion, Buddhism: does Buddhism offer the kind of forgiveness that Tiger Woods – or anyone who has made grave mistakes in his or her life – needs? I think we need more conversations like this. Unfortunately most discussion didn’t seek to answer this question.

The simple answer, one that I could have given you as a child, is yes. All religions teach a path of forgiveness. Buddhism sets out a very clear set of guidelines for followers, the five precepts. These differ in some traditions or are replaced altogether, but the message and intention remains the same. Tiger Woods egregiously violated the 3rd precept, the one dealing with misconduct in sexuality or sensuality.

Buddhism also teaches karma, the notion that there ‘is fruit and ripening of deeds well and ill done.’

Actions have consequences. And Mr. Woods is finding that out now. But we are always reminded that the extent of the deeds and consequences is beyond our knowledge. Perhaps he will inspire “copy-cat adulterers,” perhaps some of the women he is accused of committing adultery with harmed others in their actions, perhaps he and his wife can reconcile, perhaps each will find new love in the future. The future is complex, which is why we must resist the urge to reduce karma to a sort of utilitarian calculus. His actions are wrong not because of the bad results, but rather his actions have bad results because they were wrong.

But along with the ability to cause harm in the world, each of us is endowed with the ability to right it, and to help alleviate suffering in ourselves and others. When we do this we create stores of good karmic fruits, even as our negative ones remain or ripen. This will be Tiger Woods’ task now, if he wishes to practice the Buddhist path.

And thank you, Brit Hume, secondly for reminding me why I don’t have a television and reinforcing these wise words, written over forty years ago but brought again to my attention tonight:

There is a pervasive form of contemporary violence, and that is activism and overwork. The rush and pressure of modern life are a form, perhaps the most common form, of this innate violence. To allow oneself to be carried away by a multitude of conflicting concerns, to surrender to too many demands, to commit oneself to too many projects, to want to help everyone and everything, is to succumb to violence. The frenzy of our activism neutralizes our work for peace. It destroys our own inner capacity for peace because it kills the root of inner wisdom which makes work fruitful.

– Thomas Merton in Confessions of Guilty Bystander:

Mr. Hume, your words seem to indicate your own “multitude of conflicting concerns.” And we, the public, indicate ours by instantly pouncing on your misstep (myself included, even though I’m only now writing about it). This isn’t even mentioning those who, in their own ignorance, failed to see your mistake completely. Getting to the heart of that matter is Br. Anthony Thomas, who commented at Rev. Danny Fisher’s blog recently:

…Brit Hume’s comments are nothing new. It is simply another manifestation of neurotic attachment to one set of metaphors that are assumed to have exclusive claim to truth. The ignorance and arrogance should be called out as just that. Forget the apology. It’s not Hume that matters. It’s the millions that think in the same way about their own traditions and create thereby a framework for hatred, antipathy, violence, and inhumanites of so many kinds.

Hear hear.

And this brings me to the third “thank you, Brit Hume.” Because Buddhism, like Christianity, teaches that it is not for us to point out the saw dust in our brother’s eye when we have a plank in our own. Your comments betrayed ignorance and arrogance. And as I begin to point, I instead welcome this teaching and the opportunity to watch- and not act on- my own ignorance and arrogance.

I wish you well Brit Hume. Thank you for giving us what will hopefully be a good conversation starter at dinner tables around the world. Thank you for making obvious the schizophrenia of contemporary TV News programming, where morning news turns to the sex lives of sports stars turns to a call for conversion. And thank you for reminding Buddhists everywhere that they still have plenty of work to do.

I hope someone you know and trust has helped you understand your mistake. I hope anyone who was truly angered by it takes the time to examine his/her own anger and find a place for you in his or her heart as well. And I hope we all move on, out of this latest frenzy and into a place of abiding peace.