Educational Karma

“I don’t think [the Buddhist] faith offers the kind of forgiveness and redemption that is offered by the Christian faith.” — Fox News talking head Brit Hume, referring to the Buddhist religion and Tiger Woods’ indiscretions

As noted in previous posts, the doctrine of panticca samyupadda states, (and I’ll use Thich Nhat Hahn’s paraphrasing this time): “This is like this, because that is like that.” The arising of everything–from tangible things, to thoughts, to sights, to phenomena–are dependent on something else. So when a news (and I use the term in the lightest, most non-technical sense possible) reporter like Brit Hume makes a glaring verbal gaff like he did in the wake of Tiger Woods’ outed affair, the focus should not be so much on the product, but on the process. Out of all the possible paths that Mr. Hume could have taken, out of all the words that could have been strung together, did he end up there with those?

While it would be easiest to simply judge Mr. Hume, the Buddhist community knows that there is much more at work than merely a media anchor who says too much while knowing too little.  The causes and factors that led to this point are just as (if not more) significant than the event itself. And while I am not a close confidante of Mr. Hume, his public presentation, career path, previous statements, and chosen faith can indicate a few causal factors that have led to his inability to correctly understand and speak about Buddhism.

Raga: Desire. You don’t have to be Buddhist to realize craving fuels much of man’s motivations, wondrous and disastrous. In this case–and historically for most of the Abrahamic religions–there is a strong desire to show how one ideology is superior to another. Mr. Hume is Christian and it is clearly important to him (as it is to many Christians, past and present) to demonstrate how his professed faith can be of greater benefit than another (in this case, Buddhism). I suspect that he genuinely believes his ideology can help Tiger Woods “recover as a person”, “have a relationship with his children” and receive “forgiveness and redemption”. And he may in fact be right. But sadly, he must demonstrate is lack of understanding of Buddhism in order to do so. If we could break Buddhism down to fundamental principles, one of the first would be that when desire is eliminated, so is dis-ease. While Mr. Woods may be granted forgiveness and redemption as a Christian, Mr. Hume would acquire mindful speech and compassionate insight as a Buddhist. There is good reason it is not your neighborhood Buddhist that comes knocking on your door to share the “good news” with you. And it is not for lack of numbers or dedication.

Moha: Delusion. Brit Hume also seems to think that all religious core beliefs are comparable. Prominent to Christianity is the doctrinal belief that mankind is essentially sinful and in need of divine salvation through grace. People tend to, as St. Paul aptly pointed out in his letter to the Romans, “do what they shouldn’t, and what should be done is left undone.” (Romans 7, paraphrased)  To say Buddhism is lacking forgiveness and salvation is like saying airplanes lack sails and anchors. It seems that Brit Hume cannot conceive of another worldview that doesn’t begin with the idea that mankind is in desperate need of heavenly forgiveness. Belief in salvation, grace, and forgiveness is not the delusion. But extending it as a universal truth that other faiths should also feature is delusional. Or ignorant. Take your pick. Either way, adults should not make the Easter Bunny Blunder: mistaking a faith-based belief for a undeniable truth. A believer can allow for exceptions without believing in those exceptions.

Dosa: Aversion and Ill-will. Accusing Brit Hume of aversion and extending ill-will towards Tiger Woods in this situation, in this context, may seem a bit extreme. I wish it were. Sadly, it is simply the modus operandi of the infotainment world. If Brit Hume–or any of the executives at Fox News–actually had any compassion for Tiger’s family or for Tiger himself, the entire situation could have been avoided. It is no small tragedy that personal affairs are now considered breaking news. Mr. Hume is the product of a society that has no qualms about airing a private citizen’s personal affairs simply because he can hit a small white ball into a distant hole. Mr. Hume was simply giving his audience what they will pay for: the dirty laundry of others. Aversion and ill-will are the stuff of news stories, and I am saddened  by this. Such deeply personal stories cannot be publicly aired without disregarding the lives of the people involved and over-valuing the monetary profit generated. This is aversion and ill-will. Like many, Mr. Hume is simply a playing the supply slave to our demand. The real question that must be addressed is how to go about decreasing the demand for stories that, really, are none of anybody’s business.

To his credit, Brit Hume did begin with the “I don’t think…” caveat before continuing to be wrong. But he would do well to also understand that Buddhism does not require or request faith. He immediately goes astray by identifying Buddhism  in the fifth word, faith. In the Kalama Sutta (AN 3.65) it is written, “Don’t go by reports, by legends, by traditions, by scripture, by logical conjecture, by inference, by analogies, by agreement through pondering views, by probability, or by the thought, ‘This contemplative is our teacher.’ When you know for yourselves that, ‘These qualities are skillful; these qualities are blameless; these qualities are praised by the wise; these qualities, when adopted and carried out, lead to the welfare and to happiness–then you should enter and remain in them.” Buddhism stresses the importance of experience and testing, not the things of faith. Compared to Hebrews 11:1 (Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.) Buddhism is largely a faith-less religion. In the strictest sense of the word, Buddhism is far more agnostic than faith-based.

(As a quasi-related aside, I relatively recently read The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins (which I plan to write about later). While the book reads like a tourist criticizing a land he knows little about and has never lived in, I wish more religious believers would be as thoughtful as he is about his beliefs. Mr. Dawkins is aware that his title  of “atheist” is not absolute. He must, as a rational, thinking person, acknowledge that he may very well in fact be wrong. Mohammed may be the last prophet; Jesus may have risen from the dead; Shiva may be the destroyer; Buddha may be enlightened; Ra may command the sun; and/or Zeus may hurl thunderbolts. To this extent he is an agnostic. He must allot that he may be wrong; he just doesn’t believe that he is wrong. To understand possible exceptions without believing in them–and clearly understanding the difference–is a lesson that is sadly neglected in many ideologies.)

As a non-practicing Christian and practicing non-Buddhist (I’ll let you figure that one out), I find it interesting that when a supposed Buddhist makes a poor family choice that has been made throughout the ages (think King David, Martin Luther King, Jr., Bill Clinton) by Christians, the conservative Christians find room to point out how the accused’s ideology didn’t manage to restrain them. And yet, when we are abysmally saddened by the Roman Catholic’s pedophilic popes, smug comments about Buddhism’s compassion for all sentient beings and the five precepts (including damaging, harmful sex)  trumping the offenders’ faith are all but absent.

Still, there is every possibility that his comment should not analyzed with any depth. As with the rest of Fox News’ reporting staff, Brit Hume’s rhetoric is meant simply to preach to the Choir of the Right. Infotainment probably should not be considered with academic seriousness, and there is a certain amount of futility in trying to hold it to any objective reporting standard, much less religious awareness. Hume did attempt to smooth things over a bit on Bill O’Reilly’s show, “I was really meaning to say in those comments yesterday more about Christianity than I was about anything else.” I, for one, believe him. After all, his commentary does indicate that he understands more about Christianity… and little about anything else.

Tags: Brit Hume, Buddhism, Christianity, compassion, Dosa, Fox News, Moha, Raga, Tiger Woods