It's not as though the media world has lacked for wacky takeaways from the never-ending Tiger Woods scandal in the past month: Glenn Beck had his O.J. Simpson "Christmas question," Roger Cohen, in discussing why more women don't cheat, compared men to polar bears, while others wondered if Woods's marital infidelity bespoke a cheating tendency that extended to performance-enhancing drugs on the golf course. But now there's a new one for bloggers to puzzle over: Fox News political analyst Brit Hume says Tiger Woods needs to convert to Christianity. Buddhism just won't cut it for those seeking forgiveness:



Cue internet feeding frenzy:

• 'Brit Hume Said WHAT?,' exclaims one of the usually calmer liberal bloggers, Steve Benen. "It's hard to even know where to start with something like this. How many high-profile Christians have had damaging sex scandals of late? Why is Buddhism deemed inadequate for those with family problems? Why is a senior political analyst for a so-called 'news' network proselytizing, on the air, during one of the network's 'news' programs?"

• Strange "Well, first of all," begins Philadelphia Weekly's Joel Mathis, tongue firmly implanted in cheek: "I'm certain that Brit Hume has studied Buddhism deeply." But explaining that "evangelical Christians" aren't trying to be "intrusive ... they just don't want you to go to Hell," Mathis writes that he doesn't "begrudge Brit Hume his Christian faith, nor his right to proclaim it publicly," particularly given the "Fox News demographic." Instead, Mathis decides the incident "isn't so much troubling as it is ... deeply weird."

• Hume a Better Preacher than the Preachers? Noting that the statement was made on a Sunday talk show, Politics Daily's David Gibson wonders "how many preachers," that same day, expressed themselves as succinctly and, as a bonus, "got in a shot at Buddhism?" But he points out that Hume may have misrepresented Christianity slightly: "In his remarks, Hume almost sounds like all those Christian 'life coaches' and prosperity gospel preachers who see Christianity as a means to a happy and successful life. Christianity is more about what has been called 'the sanctification of failure,' namely through Jesus on the cross." The best quip comes in Gibson's headline: "Jesus Can Tame You, Tiger."

• More Fun from Fox "The slow morphing of Fox News into the 700 Club is not exactly new," writes a disgusted Andrew Sullivan. "What earthly reason do these pundits now have to prevent or stop it? Once you have abolished the distinction between secular and religious discourse, as they routinely insist on doing, their politics is their religion and their religion is their politics. And both are corrupted."

• Simple Message "Brit Hume hates sexually promiscuous Buddhists," announces Ernie Smith at Shortformblog. "Wtf, man?" he adds. "We say Brit's a bigot."
  

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Heather Horn