Hume Reiterates Woods “Needs Something That Christianity Especially Provides”
Bill O’Reilly asked Brit Hume tonight on The O’Reilly Factor about his suggestion on Sunday that Tiger Woods should “turn to the Christian faith.”
The discussion was brief, but saw Hume reiterate his original point.
“Was that proselytizing?” asked O’Reilly after playing a clip of Hume’s comments.
Hume qualified his statement by saying Woods is “somebody I’ve always rooted for as a golfer and as a man,” praising the “content of his character.” But, he says, the content of his character “was not what we thought it was.”
So:
He needs something that Christianity especially provides and gives and offers, and that is redemption and forgiveness. I was really meaning to say in those comments yesterday more about Christianity than anything else…I think that Jesus Christ offers Tiger Woods something that Tiger Woods badly needs.
Hume made it sound like Woods needs to be “saved”: “If Tiger Woods were to make a true conversion, we would know it, it would show through in his being and he would know it above all.”
Brit Hume used to be a hard news anchor at Fox News when he held down the most traditional news broadcast, Special Report. But he’s not an anchor any more – he’s a commentator. It’s clear Hume doesn’t have bad intentions with what he’s saying, and that he’s legitimately trying to help Woods in the best way he sees fit. But bringing religion into the story, especially in a way that boosts one specific type of religion over another, is murky territory.
Hume and O’Reilly spent the rest of the segment talking about the reaction, which spanned the gamut from support to those who thought Hume was a “pompous jerk.” One of those who disagreed was David Shuster of MSNBC, who asked today if Hume “denigrated Christianity” when he made his original comments.
Here’s the Factor clip:
