Brit Hume & Public Square Christianity

“… the Tiger Woods that emerges once the news value dies out of this scandal — the extent to which he can recover — seems to me to depend on his faith. He’s said to be a Buddhist; I don’t think that faith offers the kind of forgiveness and redemption that is offered by the Christian faith. So my message to Tiger would be: ‘Tiger, turn to the Christian faith, and you can make a total recovery and be a great example to the world.’”

Brit Hume
Senior Anchor – Fox News
Live Comments From Fox News Sunday

After scraping myself off the floor from hearing anything so explicitly Christian coming from anything or anyone associated with the America’s pravada Journalism industry or a major media out let I said to myself, “There is going to be hell to pay by Mr. Hume for that statement.”

I was right. Ever since Hume said this the “I hate Christ” media has weighed in,

I think it’s rude and crass to drag another person’s private faith into the public square for judgment and belittlement, as Hume did to Woods.

Jay Bookman
Atlanta Journal & Constitution

“But doesn’t it also denigrate Christianity when you do that on a Sunday political talk show. This isn’t church, this isn’t some sort of holy setting, this is a political talk show.

By talking about it (Christianity) on a Sunday political talk show. Doesn’t that minimize the significance of Christianity, when you bring a discussion of Christianity into a conversation about politics?

I do think it diminishes the discussion of Christianity. My Christian friends have said as much, that it diminishes the discussion of Christianity and faith when you have a conversation out-of-the-blue on a political talk show. This wasn’t the ‘700 Club,’ this wasn’t ‘Theocracy Today.’

David Schuster
MSNBC

“The fact that a journalist — and I use that term loosely as it pertains to Hume — would go on a national news show and put down another high-profile individual’s faith should tell all of us that religious bigotry, and bigotry as a whole, is a growing problem in this country.”

Eve Tahmincioglu
Huffington Post

“If Hume wants to do the satellite-age equivalent of going door-to-door and spreading what he considers the gospel, he should do it on his own time, not try to cross-pollinate religion and journalism and use Fox facilities to do it.”

Tom Shales
Washington Post Columnist

Before we move on with more quotes notice the theme running through these quotes. The theme is that the public square is not the place to examine “private beliefs.” The assumption is that the public square should be left sanitized of all religious beliefs. Now, of course that assumption is itself just another private religious belief w/ monumental implication but these people just take it as a given and as the way the world works. The religion of Bookman, Schuster, Tahimincioglu & Shales teaches them that it is the most obvious thing in the world that the public square is not to be infected with other religious beliefs that challenge their unstated but omnipresent religious beliefs — religious beliefs that are controlling the public square.

Indeed, I would contend the reason underneath the foaming and gnashing over Hume’s comments is the reality that such a comment is an explicit challenge of the prevailing religious beliefs that hold hegemony over the public square. Hume, in his comments, has inadvertently attacked the guiding religious fiction of the dominant pagan humanists stranglehold over the public square and as such he must be crushed and Christianity put in its place.

Now oddly enough this attitude of wanting to sanitize the public square does fit in w/ some versions of Christianity. For example, I have no doubt that adherents of R2Kt likely thought that Brit Hume was in bad form. No doubt they believe that Mr. Hume would have better served Christ by appealing to what Natural Law teaches on these matters, leaving Christianity out of it. R2K adherents Lee and Misty Irons believe that the church should not be opposed of homosexual marriages and as such why should Christians like Brit Hume be opposed to Tiger Woods teeing up in every sand pit of every golf course with every hooker in America? If R2Kt has taught us anything it has taught us that the public square is no place for Christians to be pushing a Christian agenda.

What we see here is that the Escondido Hermeneutic w/ its R2Kt ancillary implications requires us to reinforce the dominant religious beliefs that Christ or Christianity has nothing to do w/ Journalism, or the public square. Somewhere in the country there are legions of R2K Christians who are sympathetic to the criticisms of Hume cited above. Somewhere in the country there are boatloads of R2K pastors who are actually thinking, “You know when guys like Hume go off like this it just makes our job more difficult.”

But there are more quotes denouncing Hume that we must turn to. In one of my more favorite ones Tom Shales of the Washington Post steps up again,

“(Hume’s comments) sounded a little like one of those Verizon vs. AT&T commercials — our brand is better than your brand — except that Hume was comparing two of the world’s great religions, not a couple of greedy communications conglomerates. Further, is it really his job to run around trying to drum up new business? He doesn’t really have the authority, does he, unless one believes that every Christian by mandate must proselytize?”

Similarly, Ubermensch Keith Olberman makes comments about ill advised Christian proselytizing in this clip,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfjcV5hTxWg&feature=player_embedded

But again as in the previous quotes the underlying problem with Brit Hume is that he has the gall to take his Christian faith public.

What shall we say in light of all this?

First, we should note that a Christian faith that can not or will not express itself in the public square and will not or can not influence and inform what the public square looks like is a Christian faith that will either die or will be relegated to Christian ghettos that will, strangely enough, measure their success by how well they ape the evil “world.”

Second, we should give up thinking that if we will just play by our enemy’s rules then we will have a chance to convert our enemies. We have for generations played by our enemies rules and what we have gotten by retiring to our safe church zones, and teaching a Christianity that is to be only private, individual and personal, is a dessicated public square that hates us with more passion with each succeeding generation. Now, this may work if one is a pessimillennialist and believes that all of these unconverted people just proves the world is going to get worse and worse before Jesus shows up but for those Christians who believe that the Kings as well as Journalist must kiss the son, retreatism from the public square is no way to leaven this present wicked age with the age to come.

Third, and similar to the paragraph above we have to give up caring if our enemies hate us. We must surrender giving a tinker’s damn if the pagan elites (and some of the Church elites for that matter) hate us for insisting that Jesus is the Lord Christ over every public square of every nation in the world. Indeed, if their hatred is driven by our public square statements that “Christianity can offer forgiveness,” then we are absolutely duty bound to cultivate their hatred. Let the Journalists rage and plot a vain thing. Let the Kings gnash their teeth and hurl invective against us. Let the Church Doctors and Academics ring their hands over our “confusing their gnostic Kingdom with Christ’s corporeal Kingdom” We must simply stop caring and put up with a generation of not being named “TIME Magazine Man of the Year” or being invited to sit at the head table of the annual “I’m More Reformed (Irrelevant?) Then You” conference. While we are contending for the crown rights of King Jesus we must be willing to embrace ignominy and the status of pariah for a generation so that those who come behind us can triumph. This doesn’t mean surrender. This means fighting against majority opinion, both within and without the Church and wearing as medals the wounds that are inflicted.

Fourth, rebuilding a vibrant Christianity will be resisted. Recognize it, live with it, and get on with the task of Reformation. If your family suggests your doing your children a disservice simply point out their obvious error, smile at them, and raise your children. If fellow saints are offended by your insisting that Christians have no business being in a military fighting to implement pagan humanism throughout the world simply point out their obvious error smile at them, and keep on pointing out the painfully obvious point. If fellow saints lob rhetorical bombs at you for insisting that Scripture has imperatives that apply to this world as well as the indicatives that apply to Redemption just politely mock them and get on with pointing out the obvious.

Fifth, earnestly pray and weep over the enemies of the Gospel and of Christianity. While it is certainly true that we must vigorously resist the pagans it is also true that our hearts must be broken not only over their rebellion but also over their lost-ness. We must petition the great benevolent sovereign of the world that the Spirit of Christ might do for them what He did for us and that is defeat them by the power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ so that they who are now enemies will be friends of the Gospel. Our anger at their attacking Christ must be matched by coursing tears for their lost-ness, their ubiquitous alienation, and for the culture of death they are trapped in.

The Church has, for several generations, followed a path of retreat and appeasement.

This must end.