Behind what Brit Hume said

The longtime professional journalist and Fox News contributor has been excoriated in the press for suggesting that while Tiger Woods may recover professionally in the sports world when news of his adulterous scandals dies down, his personal recovery may be more questionable if his Buddhist upbringing guides his conscience.

For such a characteristically measured journalist as Hume, this was startling. But the blistering attacks on him for ‘proselytizing’ and calling Woods to conversion have betrayed a bias far more sanctimonious than what they accuse Hume of doing on the Fox News roundtable. After seeing Jon Stewart skewer Hume again on The Daily Show, I have regret for everyone involved that the comedian’s producers didn’t do enough homework to temper their satire.

What none of them seems to know is that Brit Hume considered himself a “cultural Christian” (and more acceptable to cultural Catholics, Jews and Christians) before the self-inflicted death of his son. After that shock, according to Hume, he became a more committed Christian.

“Over a decade later, upon his 2008 departure from Special Report, Hume commented on part of the impact of his son’s death:

“I want to pursue my faith more ardently than I have done. I’m not claiming it’s impossible to do when you work in this business. I was kind of a nominal Christian for the longest time. When my son died, I came to Christ in a way that was very meaningful to me. If a person is a Christian and tries to face up to the implications of what you say you believe, it’s a pretty big thing. If you do it part time, you’re not really living it.”

It is unimaginable that these harsh attacks would be launched against a committed member of any liberal belief system who had gone through the same devastating personal loss.

Mercy.