If you want to see how Buddhists are responding to Brit Hume's advice to Tiger Woods (that he abandon Buddhism and embrace Christianity), check out the comments section at this post over at the Shambhala SunSpace blog.
Shambhala SunSpace is an online entity that is part of Shambhala Sun's online presence (and Shambhala Sun is one of the oldest and most widely known US Buddhist magazines out there).
The really interesting news, though, is that Shambhala has a "pending" request in for an interview with Brit Hume! What are the chances?????
Well, until that interview comes along, here are some tidbits from Tom Shales withering column on the subject from today's Washington Post:
"It sounded a little like one of those Verizon vs. AT&T commercials -- our brand is better than your brand."
"Whom did he sound more like -- Mary Poppins on the joys of a tidy room, or Ron Popeil on the glories of some amazing potato peeler?"
"You could almost hear the gears of YouTube turning as he spoke, and imagine the writers on 'Saturday Night Live' trying to find ways other than the painfully obvious to satirize the moment and what it represents."
"At the same Republican convention where Hume bemoaned his advancing years, he spoke of knowing when to leave the party and go home. 'I'd like to walk away while I'm still doing okay,' he said, "and not have people say, He was fading." It's easy to understand the sentiment, but Hume ought to know that what people are saying right now is a whole lot worse than that he's fading."
Thanks for noticing what we're doing on SunSpace.
ReplyDeleteI don't think anyone expects FOX to agree to a request from us; they seem to like to keep coverage of FOX-related news on FOX as much as they can.
Still: it seemed to me irresponsible not to try. This is not a small story; it could (and most likely will) greatly color the culture's perception of Buddhism. Will it be twisted thanks to misled thought-leaders? Will it shape up to resemble a skillful view? These are important questions.
I'm so gratified to see all the great (and varied!) comments on SunSpace, and all over the Buddhoblogosphere. Being heard is what the web is for.
Hume has publicly, and repeatedly, attacked Buddhism. I mean, after all, he could have said, "Tiger should look to whatever faith tradition he finds most meaningful", or something along those lines. But no, Hume went out of his way to use the situation to explicitly denigrate Buddhism as inferior to Christianity.
ReplyDeleteSo now the question is, does Hume have the cajones to sit down with a Buddhist writer and, on the record, explain himself to Buddhists?
I thought The Daily Show hit the nail on the head on this topic:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/mon-january-4-2010/the-best-f--king-news-team-ever---tiger-woods--faith
http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/tue-january-5-2010/the-temple-of-hume