Oh boy.
This doesn’t have anything to do with gay rights or the ex-gay movement, but I think it’s revelatory of a certain worldview we deal with on a regular basis. This happened on Fox News this morning:
Brit Hume had some advice for Tiger Woods during this week’s “Fox News Sunday.” Woods will recover as a golfer, Hume says, but it remains to be seen whether he will recover as a person.
“He’s said to be a Buddhist,” Hume said. “I don’t think that faith offers the kind of forgiveness and redemption that is offered by the Christian faith. … Tiger, turn to the Christian faith and you can make a total recovery.”
Jesus is magic, you see! Because people who convert to Christianity never ever EVER run around on their wives, no NEVER.
This is the same worldview that beatifies Lisa Miller because she’s become a fundamentalist Christian. This is the same worldview that asserts that gay people can’t be Christians. This is the same worldview that worships Our Sarah Of The Perpetual Word Salad, even though they don’t really know what her positions are*, because she’s One Of Them. This is the same worldview that would never stop to question whether groups like the Family Research Council, Focus on the Family, Concerned Women for ‘Murka, as well as their assigned pundits, et al. might be lying to them through their teeth/playing their adherents for fools, because they know their followers will never factcheck them. Or if they DO factcheck them, they factcheck within the echo chamber: “Rush was a-talkin’ about it, and then I saw it on Hannity too, and then OneNewsNow had a press release about it, so I’ma gwine-a say this is probably true!”
Hume’s quote also references the obsession that many American Conservatives have with “the redemption story.” I’m all for changing course and righting past wrongs, but with these people it goes much further. Ted Haggard says he’s “redeemed” from Teh Gay? Well, praises be! Let’s not look at any of the science/question whether his claim is even valid. Nope, it’s a redemption story! Slurp, slurp, slurp. Convicted Watergate criminal Chuck Colson is one of the luminaries of the Religious Right. It’s a redemption story! Slurp. And again, since it’s a thread running through so many of our conversations these days: Lisa Miller. She can do no wrong because She Hath Been Redeemeth-ed!
SLURP.
Here’s the video, if you want to suffer through it. It’s kind of funny, because after Brit Hume says the weird thing about Tiger needing to find Jesus, Bill Kristol, who is usually the wingnuttiest of them all, sort of shoots this uncomfortable look because he’s sort of, um, Jewish.
(h/t Rumproast and Balloon Juice)
*Yeah, that’s totally a Sarah Palin Parking Lot link. Watch it if you need entertainment for Sunday Funday!
Unbelievably insensitive and simplistic, and insulting on a number of levels. It’s insulting to Buddhists, and to just about anyone of any other faith tradition. It’s insulting to Tiger, as it trivializes the very real pychological, emotional, and spiritual aspects of his “fall from grace” (for lack of a better phrase). And it’s insulting to anyone with half a mind that realizes how complex this kind of situation is. But then nothing that Hume or other Fox-fascist commentators have to say come as any surprise anymore.
just imagine if Hume threw out another religion. I think the feedback from if he did that is the reason why so many folks are raising objections to what he said.
I about choked when I saw this headline, for the same reasons you link to in your third paragraph. It would’ve been nice if, instead of looking uncomfortable, Bill Kristol had given Brit Hume the dressing-down he so desperately needs. Unfortunately, he’s far too committed to the idea of being considered a conservative opinion leader to take his own religious beliefs into account, and most Fox viewers would agree with Hume. This does, as you said, vividly illustrate what is behind anti-gay political activism, and why their view of sexual morality is something straight people should care about, too.
Let’s not pretend that every single person who opposes gay equality is a stereotypical Southern Hick. If I recall, Rick “Man-on-dog” Santorum, Ann Coulter, and Alan Chambers speak quite “properly.” And if I recall, Jim Burroway of BTB is from Appalachia and indeed has an accent reflecting that. In a way, it’s ironic to be using this form of dialect in a post that talks about denigration of other religions, because really what you’re doing is denigrating people who come from parts of “‘Murka” that have regional accents. Not everyone who comes from Texas, for example, “slurps” the Focus on the Family Kool-Aid.
I also never thought I’d see the words “Teh Gay” used on this website. At least it wasn’t “Teh Ghey.”
Well:
A. I’m Southern.
B. The people who hold those beliefs are indeed becoming more regionally based.
C. There is a difference between an educated Southern accent and an uneducated Southern accent. Put simply: Julia Sugarbaker’s dialect wouldn’t be spelled that way, not in a million years.
Oh, ok. well now that you put it THAT way, I’m sure anybody on the other side accusing an anti-ex-gay author of being immature and derogatory will not dare raise their voice.
Glad we see eye to eye.
[...] This is the offending piece. That Wayne Besen really is mean, isn’t he? I mean wow, simmer down, Wayne! Wait…wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute — Wayne didn’t write that. [...]
I see that Palin-obsessed fanatic Peter LaBarbera is ranting and raving about this piece. But really Tiger Woods’ private life is his business and no one else’s. He’s a golfer for goodness’ sake.
Redemption – commit all the crimes you like, make a mess of everything, and then get a religious makeover and pretend the past never happened. Commit perjury after having sex in the Oval Office? An alcoholic, unintelligent no-hoper running for office of governor in Texas? No problem, wheel in a pastor for a whitewash. It doesn’t make people change. It doesn’t deal with the problem, it doesn’t bring murdered victims back to life, it just washes away responsibility.
Evan is right to point out that you cannot cherry pick examples of Christianity. Claim all or none of it. Pastor Steven Anderson, who looks forward to Obama’s assassination, is also a christian. Only a televangelist can get away with pickpocketing millions off people. Only raving fanatics will hijack science and ruin the minds of schoolchildren with Creationism, or put lives in danger by saying that using condoms is worse than catching aids.
Hume is welcome to make any recommendation he likes, but looking at what people do and say on account of their faith, I don’t see what is so marvellous about it.
Being saved means you have go further than saying the supposed Jesus offers the way for living a good life. You have to say Jesus was born of a virgin, turned water into wine, died and came back to life. It’s not logical to say that the way to resolve family problems is to believe nonsense and superstition.
Some closet case who claims to know the truth about something he read in an enlessly edited book of Jewish fairy tales said this site is run by the devil.
Hey, that was all I needed.
Since when does someone’s superstitions give them the power to decide who can love whom? He claims his deity hates some people, but don’t we really hate others for the characteristics we don’t like about ourselves? I mean, whether he likes it or not, he has made homosexuality the focus of his life. The soft, Penthouse Magazine focus of his life.
When I am around some of my gay friends I see two people in love, as is evidenced by their constant bickering. When this person, let’s call him Peter (sophomoric titter), sees two gay people together, he goes somewhere in his mind that I suspect is dark and rather well lubricated. Does Peter imagine every couple he sees in sexual situations? Does he define every adult by how things play out behind closed doors in his stinky little mind?
How can anyone think the “truth” comes from any single place? Or book? Especially a very old book.
If people ever want to get serious about protecting traditional marriage, they’ll start by outlawing divorce. After all, it’s a stoning offense.
The Christian is NOT WITHOUT SIN. The surrender of our old sin filled lives does not bring about the end to our FREE WILL. The difference is…WHEN WE SIN…the Holy Spirit which exists in us brings about conviction of that sin. The UNBELIEVER simply embraces his/her sin and wants others to do the same. By the way…JESUS is the ONLY WAY one can enter into fellowship with God.
Prove it.
Have faith and you won’t need proof. That’s what faith is about, believing with your heart what you can’t see with your mind.
And ‘ex-gay’ isn’t a ‘myth’. Just ask the thousands who are out there. It’s ignorance to deny it. It’s this blogger who needs the real ‘dressing down’ and will get one from God on judgement day if nothing else. HE’s in for a rude awakening.
Prove it.
And we have proof that ex-gay is a myth. It’s all over this website. And again, you all never can produce the “thousands” you speak of, and the dirty little secret is that those who have completed ex-gay programs and gone through graduation are considered “success stories.”
Guess how many of those guys I’ve dated, long after their graduations?
If you comment here, you ought to at least make an effort to know what you’re talking about.
“Have faith and you won’t need proof. That’ what faith is about, believing with your heart what you can’t see with your mind.”
Well, that’s all the convincing I need. I have faith in the Loch Ness monster. I guess he/she is no longer a myth because I have faith. I don’t need pictures. Nor, a real sighting. No video….I just want to believe it and it is true….I’ll try the same method with becoming a millionaire.
Wayne, I have faith that there are ghosts in Andy Roddick’s underwear. For his own safety, and because of my strong faith, they must go.
Pornagain said “The UNBELIEVER simply embraces his/her sin and wants others to do the same.”.
If by “sin” you mean “wrongdoing”, that’s an outrageous lie. I don’t believe your fairytales and I feel terrible regret about the wrongs I caused to others in my younger days. Atheists make up 10-15% of the American populationa and .21% of the prison population. Unbelievers are much less likely to embrace wrongdoing than religious people.
Pornagain said “And “ex-gay’ isn’t a “myth’.”.
It most certainly is. Many studies have been done on this and it is virtually unheard of for anyone to even claim to have fully changed same sex attractions into opposite sex attractions.
[...] went inside the teevee box and started spreading the gospel to Tiger Woods? Then, the next day, I wrote a piece mocking it, because it was weird. Then Our Favorite Anti-Gay Warbler got mad at Wayne for writing that mean [...]
Tiger may nominally be a Buddhist, but he doesnt practice it anymore than the gay bashers here practice *real* Christianity. They don’t! Brit Hume obviously knows as much about Buddhism as I do brain surgery. I’ll take the Dalai Lama any day over sanctimonious pharisees like Brit Hume.
The folly of arguing with the gay-lesbians in this forum is obvious and goes to prove what was written about 2000 years prior.
With practice the pain is almost unfelt by those who has let his conscious be hardend by his folly and in his eagerness to violate what was imprinted on his heart by God he has become as this verse states
“So God abandoned them to do whatever shameful things their hearts desired. As a result, they did vile and degrading things with each other’s bodies”.
Giving your advice to one hardened like this is best done from a distance to avoid the terrible wrath of the depraved heart. You only need to read the responses here to see the hardened hearts and terrible wrath that would be manifest with personal violence against one so foolish to bring this up in person. Thus proving the verse
“Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast your pearls before the swine, lest haply they trample them under their feet, and turn and rend you”
I don’t think will stay up long if at all.
Yep, Paul had a lot to say about internet comments, didn’t he?
Oh, and you’re at a liberal blog. We don’t delete comments we disagree with, because we’re secure in the validity of our positions.
In order to believe that the verse you quoted is about gay people, you have to lie to yourself and others about who gay people actually ARE.
It’s likely you don’t know any gay people personally, so you believe the garbage you’ve been spoonfed.
If so, I’m sorry.
Hope you enjoyed reading!
[...] Jan. 3rd Evan Hurst wrote about FOX anchor Brit Hume’s on-air proselytizing, where he condemned Tiger Woods’ current [...]
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If Tiger were a “christian” like Hume, he’d be banging underaged boys!
[...] Jan. 3rd Evan Hurst wrote about FOX anchor Brit Hume’ on-air proselytizing, where he condemned Tiger Woods’ current faith and [...]