Brit Hume Takes A Risk To Proclaim The Gospel

I wanted to elaborate a bit on what I said yesterday about Brit Hume because this story clearly will not go away, and as Christians, all of us in the faith know that ANY mention of Jesus Christ and the Gospel in the mainstream media leads to a torrent of reaction, mostly negative.

Fortunately, Hume himself was more than prepared for the backlash that came. Christianity is, after all, probably the only faith which divides, since it is the only one that claims exclusivity. This claim comes from God himself, and since God's detractors seem unable to get through to God himself, it is only to be expected that they take out their frustration on the next best thing - God's representatives on Earth.

The Bible makes it clear that opposition is to be expected from those who do not understand or accept our faith.

1 Corinthians 1:18 says: "The message of the cross is foolish to those who are headed for destruction! But we who are being saved know it is the very power of God." (NLT)
Matthew 10:22 -- "And all nations will hate you because you are my followers. But everyone who endures to the end will be saved." (NLT)
And in John 14:6 -- "Jesus told him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me."" (NLT)

So we know that opposition will come, and mainly from those who cannot or will not understand the good news.

Brit Hume talked about the differences between Buddhism and Christianity. Generally Buddhism does not believe in a personal God or a divine being, it does not have worship, praying to, or praising of a divine being (although some sects do.) It offers no form of redemption, forgiveness, no heavenly hope, or a final judgment to those practicing its system. Buddhism is a moral philosophy, an ethical way to live for the here and now of this world to gain the ultimate state. It has more in common with humanism and atheism than its original religion Hinduism it separated from. But Buddhism is not atheism just because they don’t believe in a personal God. It is more like pantheism, there is a impersonal force the void which is the ultimate.

Against this background, Brit Hume was correct when he offered Christianity as one of the few hopes Tiger Woods has. From the above description it is clear that Buddhism does NOT offer hope to Woods, and to say so is not anti-Buddhist rhetoric, it is FACT.

Brit Hume has widely been accused of proselytizing over the past few days. Merriam Webster's Online Dictionary defines proselytism as:
"to induce someone to convert to one's faith" or
" to recruit or convert especially to a new faith, institution, or cause"

Now I think it is pretty clear that Brit Hume cannot convert anyone to the Christian Faith. He can encourage, but only God can convert someone, and of course, the decision to convert is up to the individual concerned. There was no "inducing", no "recruiting" and no "converting" on the part of Hume, so that accusation holds no water.

What Brit Hume DID do was risk his career and reputation. Why did he do that? Because after the suicide of his son some years ago, God proved Himself to be real to Brit, and Brit felt that what he said was worth the risk.

Elizabeth Elliot said "There is nothing worth living for, unless it is worth dying for. ”. I challenge you today -- do you have anything, any values in your life that you consider worth dying for, worth sacrificing your reputation and credibility for? I ask myself the same question, and if the answer is no, maybe it's worth all of us re-examining our lives...