Hume to Woods: Buddhism doesn't “offer the kind of forgiveness” Christianity does, convert

From the January 3 edition of Fox News Sunday:

HUME: Tiger Woods will recover as a golfer. Whether he can recover as a person I think is a very open question, and it's a tragic situation with him. I think he's lost his family. It's not clear to me that -- whether he'll be able to have a relationship with his children.

But the Tiger Woods that emerges once the news value dies out of this scandal -- the extent to which he can recover, it seems to me, depends on his faith. He's 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.

So my message to Tiger would be, “Tiger, turn your faith -- turn to the Christian faith, and you can make a total recovery and be a great example to the world.”

Several conservatives defend or endorse Hume's “message” to Woods

Tucker Carlson: “Recommending that someone in distress adopt a mainstream religious faith is pretty conventional advice.” During a January 4 Q&A on washingtonpost.com, Fox News contributor Tucker Carlson had this exchange with a reader:

Jacksonville, FL: When did Brit Hume go crazy? Tiger woods should embrace Christianity and we will forgive him?

You say this on the air?

Tucker Carlson: Crazy? No. John Wayne Gacy was crazy. Judy Garland and Ezra Pound were crazy. Recommending that someone in distress adopt a mainstream religious faith is pretty conventional advice.

NewsBusters' Shepherd condemns criticism of “a gentle Christian evangelistic overture to a celebrity caught in sexual scandal.” In a January 4 NewsBusters post criticizing Atlanta Journal-Constitution's Jay Bookman for “lambasting” Hume for his remarks, managing editor Ken Shepherd wrote:

Tolerance is a virtue the Left loves to trumpet, except when the intolerable is set forward. In this instance, the intolerable is a gentle Christian evangelistic overture to a celebrity caught in sexual scandal.

Yesterday, Fox News analyst and professing Christian Brit Hume expressed his spiritual concern for Tiger Woods and urged the golf superstar to turn to Christianity for grace and forgiveness during a segment of the January 3 edition of “Fox News Sunday.”

Fred Barnes characterized Hume's “advice” for Woods as “wise and caring.” In a January 4 post on Twitter, Fred Barnes linked to a YouTube video of Hume's appearance on Fox News Sunday and highlighted Hume's “wise and caring advice for Tiger Woods”:

NRO's Kathryn Jean Lopez on “outrage”: “Hume is providing commentary ... that is his practical advice, based on an understanding of what Christianity offers in terms of forgiveness and redemption.” In a January 4 blog post on National Review Online's The Corner, Lopez wrote: “Brit Hume is providing commentary on that panel and that is his practical advice, based on an understanding of what Christianity offers in terms of forgiveness and redemption. It's a faith for sinners, and very obviously so (we Christians all too often make it all too obvious). Woods can take or leave the advice, if he happens to watch Fox or pick it up in the frenzy. But Fox does pay Hume to offer his commentary on matters in the news, after years of reporting on politics and culture. And that he did.”

Hoft: “Leftists in the state-run media are lambasting Brit Hume for promoting Christianity.” In a January 4 blog post, Gateway Pundit blogger Jim Hoft wrote of the controversy surrounding Hume's comments: “Leftists in the state-run media are lambasting Brit Hume for promoting Christianity on a Sunday morning talk show. ... According to democrats and liberals it is no longer acceptable to promote Christianity publicly.” Hoft added: “It used to be that liberals didn't want you to mention Christ in schools. Then they banned Christ from Christmas concerts and public squares. Now they are demanding that we not talk about Christianity in public. We should have seen this coming.”