Vince Deagler

have any of you been following the flap over the comments of brit hume???  if not, he commented that tiger woods should consider turning to christianity because forgiveness and transformation are foundational beliefs of christianity.  in doing this he referenced that tiger was apparently a buddhist, due to his mothers influence, and brit was not sure whether forgiveness was an essential element to buddhism.  but he was sure christ offered tiger forgiveness, and out of that forgiveness comes transformation.

like brit hume, i am not an expert on buddhism, and i do not want to be.  i have looked into it enough to see immediate and irreconcilable problems.  but here is what i do find interesting.  the media has rushed to the defense of buddhism.  WHAT??????

when was the last time the media rushed to the defense of christianity?  in my life, that would be…never???  but i digress.  i expect nothing different.  but let me throw a few thoughts out there.

1.  why not have a serious evaluation of buddhism.  you know like the critical scrutiny applied to christianity.  why not question the truth claims of buddha to see whether they stand up to scrutiny?

2.  when you do this, at least when i do this, here is the problem i immediately faced.  the whole premise of buddhism is to rid the world of suffering.  to break the cycle of birth, suffering, death.

but where does this suffering come from?  as far as i can tell, suffering stems from man’s inability to follow the path of enlightenment.  i say this because in their belief system the way to eradicate suffering is to follow the eightfold path to enlightenment.  failure to do this results in a reincarnation to a lesser status (bad karma).  this eightfold path consists of right actions, concentrations, efforts/exercise, livelihood, mindfulness/awareness, speech, thoughts, and understanding. 

again, more questions.  i assume it was buddha who decides what the right actions, concentrations, efforts/exercise, etc. consists of.  but on what basis.  why are his ideas superior?  and remember, we live in a hyper tolerant, morally relative culture.  isn’t it inconsistent to say the ideas of buddha are superior to any other ideas.  that is what i hear about christianity all the time.  but i see christianity differently.  buddha was a man.  buddhism rejects the idea of a creator god mankind is accountable to.  they do embrace the idea of gods…divine beings…but that in my estimation just opens up another can of worms.  which god is right, on what basis is some entity considered to be a god, is there superiority or inferiority among these gods, and if so, on what basis, etc.  as far as i can tell in our culture, you couldn’t conclude buddha was any more right than the arian nation, the skinheads, or the nazi party.  since there are no absolutes, on what basis does one conclude the nazi’s are wrong???

i mentioned i see christianity differently.  you do not have to believe it, but christianity presents us with a creator god to whom we are accountable.  because of our (mankind’s) rebellion, we call this sin, god became a human (jesus) and sacrificed himself so we could be forgiven.  jesus was not a man, he is god.  he died,  rose again, and offers us forgiveness, relationship, and transformation as a free gift if we are willing to submit to his leadership and control in our life.  when we do this, his spirit takes up residence within us, and the metamorphosis begins from the inside out.  so i agree with brit hume, tiger needs jesus.

should he stick with buddha, this is what i see.  first, because he has screwed so many people over, he has piled up a bunch of bad karma.  that means he won’t enjoy the status of being the best golfer on the planet, multi millionaire, married to a model, top of the world guy he has experienced in this life.  in his buddhist reincarnation who knows what he would come back as…but i don’t see much forgiveness in the whole karma thing.

and then there is the simple reality of ability.  if tiger was able to get on, stay on the eightfold path to enlightenment (and surely he must have excelled in a previous life to have the advantages he now enjoys), what happened???  how could this happen???  to enjoy his present status, he must have been advanced in the whole eightfold path stuff.  so i can only conclude one of two things.

either that 8 fold path is bizarre when it comes to moral issues, and tiger really is doing everything right.  or, somehow, this advanced follower of buddha fell off the wagon.  and then the whole karma thing kicks in and he comes back as a snail.  haha, couldn’t resist. 

don’t get me wrong, i’m all for self improvement.  buddha probably has many good ideas.  but the premise of buddism seems to be that man is essentially good…that he can understand the right path and follow it perfectly.  that is about as far from reality as i can imagine.  man is not essentially good.  we are predisposed to sin.  our total instinct is to pursue self interest.  this is the story of tiger woods.  he had everything this world could offer and it was not enough.  if he can’t get it right, who can?  i would suggest none of us can, we need a savior, we need jesus.  tiger didn’t go down this road out of ignorance of right from wrong.  he went down this path with eyes wide open, he didn’t care enough to change.  he needs help, he needs jesus.  he doesn’t need buddha telling him to get ready for his return as a slug.

just some thoughts.  very raw.  unorganized.  tell me what you think.  blessings.  vince