By now you’ve probably heard that Britt Hume had the temerity, the unmitigated gall, made the unpardonable social faux pas to suggest that Tiger Words turn to Christianity to find “forgiveness and redemption.” How could he do such a thing? Doesn’t he know that the Christian faith belongs where it should always have been, in the closet? Quiet, minding its own business?
Of course this is only controversial to our precious, leftist media elites. I’m sure even some of those same elites that come down on the opposite side of the political/cultural spectrum were even a bit uncomfortable with Hume’s remarks. It is amazing that in less than half a century Christianity came from being the dominant faith of Western civilization, to being “controversial.” How did this happen?
The seeds of this rejection are partly the nature of the faith itself. Throughout the gospels, Jesus predicts he and his followers’ persecution, and so do the writers of the epistles. Paul in 1 Corinthians says it well, “[W]e preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to Gentiles.” But culturally speaking, this utter lack of respect for the faith that created Western civilization came about because people of said faith abdicated the professions of cultural influence.
In H. Richard Niebuhr’s seminal book, Christ and Culture, he describes how various Christian traditions view and interact with culture. One example of this happened over the 20th Century. More and more Christians began to see their relationship to the surrounding culture as antagonistic. The dominant culture was increasingly seen as something to avoid and criticize. Into this vacuum came those saw the Christian faith as something backward, something inimical to America’s ideals and values.
When certain Christians finally saw what a mistake it had been to abdicate culture to secular agnostics, it was too late. The machine that defines cultural interpretation, i.e. media and journalism, education and entertainment, was able to marginalize and demonize anyone of faith who dared question the relativistic assumptions that dominate those professions.
Of course this abdication doesn’t just apply to professing Christians. Anyone who appreciates the contributions that a traditional view of morality and faith had toward the founding of America and the flowering of Western Civilization is an enemy of the relativist. They are all guilty of ignoring the power of cultural influence. Until the balance of that power is again evenly distributed, we will continue to witness perfectly reasonable opinions pilloried by the enemies of liberty.
If you would care to e-mail a note of support to Brit you can do that at: [email protected].
Dementia? A perfect description of the utterly irrational left.
Wonderful, Mike. I sent the following comment:
I want to express my support for Brit Hume’s comments regarding Tiger Woods and Christianity. Mr. Hume’s point is certainly defensible and is in fact a central premise of the religion on which our nation’s politics and culture were founded. For Mr. Hume to be excoriated for expressing an opinion in agreement with the overwhelming majority of the nation’s founders and indeed of the great majority of the nation’s current population is surely evidence of an arrogance bordering on dementia on the part of those who have attacked him.
Thanks, Sam. Went to the Fox News website and found this address to contact Brit: [email protected]. I’ll put it in above as well.
An excellent analysis, Mike. The real remedy for this cultural and indeed civilizational transformation is for Christians to engage the culture confidently and with politeness, decency, and courage. That appears to be what Brit Hume did, and he is being attacked for it, as was quite predictable. That would seem to confirm that what he did is indeed the correct response to the anti-Christian hegemony of our culture, or they would not find it so threatening. If you know of an email address to which readers can send a note of support to Mr. Hume, perhaps you could publish it as an addendum to your article above.