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Dialogues concerning Hume and religion

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On the January 4th edition of FOX News Sunday, Brit Hume gave this surprising advice to Tiger Woods in the wake of his marital infidelity: “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. So, 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.’” While not out of character for FOX News, these words triggered an immediate debate over the place of religious proselytizing in broadcast journalism.

Satirizing Hume’s statement, Jon Stewart gave his interpretation of the incident:

Stewart: Of course it’s not proselytizing. He’s not saying Tiger Woods badly needs to come to Jesus to save his soul.

Brit: I think that Jesus Christ offers something that Tiger Woods badly needs.

Stewart: A time machine?

The blog of the Buddhist periodical Tricycle expressed a more serious reaction, asking, “What planet is Brit Hume living on?” Along the same lines, Columbia University Buddhism scholar Robert Thurman said it “is insulting to Buddhism to indicate that Buddhism doesn’t take care of its own believers and followers. But I think he will discover that Buddhists are very forgiving about his stupid statements.”

Coming to Hume’s defense was Washington Post columnist Michael Gerson, an evangelical Christian and former Bush speechwriter.  Criticizing the assumption “that proselytization is the antonym of tolerance,” Gerson wrote that “true tolerance consists in engaging deep disagreements respectfully.”

Others wonder whether criticizing religious traditions without serious study of their teachings constitutes respect. Writing in USA Today’s Monday religion column, Boston University Religion Professor Stephen Prothero criticized Hume’s fundamental ignorance of Buddhist thought and practice.  A long-time advocate of religious literacy, Prothero asked why we should “tolerate a journalist mouthing off about a religion about which he knows next to nothing?”

Meanwhile, FOX News has continued to milk the Hume controversy for all it is worth, featuring him on an episode of The O’Reilly Factor.

Buddhism Christianity popular culture proselytism Reflections on the field

Sociologist John Schmalzbauer teaches in the Department of Religious Studies at Missouri State University, where he holds the Blanche Gorman Strong Chair in Protestant Studies. He is the author of People of Faith: Religious Conviction in American Journalism and Higher Education (Cornell University Press, 2003). He is completing a book on the return of religion on campus with historian Kathleen Mahoney. He is also co-investigator on the National Study of Campus Ministries, a survey of campus ministers in six denominations and two parachurch groups. His commentary and reviews have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, the PBS NewsHour's Patchwork Nation Project, and Comment. Recent publications include chapters for The New Evangelical Social Engagement, edited by Brian Steensland and Philip Goff (Oxford, 2013) and The Post-Secular in Question, edited by John Torpey, David Kyuman Kim, and Jonathan VanAntwerpen (NYU Press, 2012).

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