Brit Hume Should Convert to Buddhism

On WTOP, a radio station here in the Nations Capital, Mr. Hume was interviewed again this evening about his comments he made on the Fox News Sunday program. Mr. Hume did not only not back down, nor qualify or explain his reasoning for stating his need to express his belief that Christianity is a superior religion to Buddhism, but dug his heels in even further, expressing his belief in the superiority of Christianity to anything else. Cathy Grossman from USA Today writes;

Tonight, in an interview with WTOP News radio in Washington, D.C., Hume did more than shrug off critics. He ramped up his pitch of the superiority of Christianity, a religion he says is "uniquely and especially about redemption and forgiveness," as the one right choice for Woods.

You can listen to the whole interview here.

In case you missed it, here were his original comments:

"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. 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."

But the Buddhist faith does offer this kind of forgiveness and redemption, it just manifests itself in a completely different way than the Christian faith. In the Christian faith we try our best efforts to lead a moral life because we think it is the right thing to do or because we are told it is the right thing to do; and there is nothing wrong with that. In Buddhism however, we lead a moral life because we make some effort to see why it is the right thing to do.

If we do not make some effort to study our words and our actions that lead to hardship and suffering for ourselves or others, how can we learn from our mistakes? We can pray for forgiveness, yes, but wouldn't it be wise to reflect on our actions and ourselves to see why we ask for forgiveness and need redemption. If we keep repeating the same mistakes over and over in life then we haven't really learned anything from our sins, have we?

Redemption is a virtue that begins with accepting the mistakes we've made and making a boundless and determined effort to take that brave choice to change our ways. My message to Brit would be, 'turn to the Buddhist faith, make a determined effort to see how thoughts rise and fall within us, and how suffering is not other dependent, but with a solitary mind, rises within ourselves.' Brit, I believe you could make a complete recovery from your bigotry and ignorance by turning to Buddhism, and that would be a great example to the world.