You’d have to be living under a rock not to know of Tiger’s scripted confession last week. A fellow blogger posted this question: “Who is Tiger Woods and Why Should I Care?” My answer: the “Tiger Affect.”
Do you remember the media brouhaha that was created when Brit Hume said Tiger needed to turn to Christianity to find forgiveness? (See my January 27 post) Well, in his carefully-worded 13-minute confession, Tiger explained that the root of his problem was not the Christian doctrine of sin, but the Buddhist philosophy of ‘cravings.’ (Buddhism teaches that craving for things causes an unhappy and pointless search for security.) By confessing that he had “stopped living by his [Buddhist] core values,” Tiger was rejecting Brit Hume’s exhortation to turn to Christ.
Effectively, Tiger is validating Buddhism, and putting himself on a par with the likes of Ted Haggard or Jimmy Swaggart—well known Christians who failed to follow their core values. This normalization of Buddhism is what I am calling the “Tiger Affect.” Allow me to explain.
American ‘evangelicals’ are moving away from the doctrine of “Jesus is the only way” so fast it makes your head spin. In a recent poll, 52% of American Christians agreed that religions other than Christianity can lead to eternal life. While Tiger Woods' actions have bruised his celebrity status, his confession of leaving his Buddhist values plays right into this ‘new’ American belief that all religions are the same. Because of his celebrity, people will be watching him. And if he succeeds (by the same self-discipline and will power he applies to his 'game') in overcoming his addiction, he may also succeed in convincing even more people that Jesus is not the only way: Buddhism works! This is the “Tiger Affect.”
We'll see, but I don't know if even buddhism will keep Tiger married! (Pun intended)
ReplyDeleteI'm just amazed at the country's fasination with this. I guess we like to live vicariously through other people's drama, thus all of the reality television. And I don't understand the whole public apology thing. He needs to apologize to his wife for sure, and possibly the women he was involved with, but I don't see why he owes us anything. I don't need an apology...
It's "public relations" to the rescue. Surely someone told him this needed to be done in order to get back to his former money-earning reputation.
ReplyDeleteBut the most significant point is this: If he recovers, to any extent, he will be the poster boy for Buddhism. That's frightening. If Buddhism had a public relations campaign, they would never get the kind of public attention and 'TV time' they are getting with this.
Because I tried to stay away from hearing his confession in full, I missed the whole Buddhism part and didn't know about it until my pastor used it in his sermon Sunday. I don't think Tiger understands Buddhism, really, but that's another matter. Most people don't, they just think it's peaceful and anti-war, tolerant, that kind of thing. Thanks for a good take on this, and for posting to my blog.
ReplyDeleteGreg,
ReplyDeleteOne way to take real scrutiny off of yourself when things aren't looking good for you is to deflect attention onto something else. Tiger Woods has done this, to some extent thanks to his PR people, as you pointed out. But the radical Muslim agenda also profits from Tiger's "rediscovering" of the core values of his Bhuddist belief system. Watch how American celebrities (and their money)jump on the bandwagon to tout the values of classical Bhuddism by endorsing its belief system. Well-known personalities such as Richard Gere and Robert Segall will also get some air-time, to be sure. But this diversion of attention to the Bhuddist belief system could very easily work to the advantage of the radical Muslim agenda by taking the heat off of their militant plans for world domination, at least in the minds of Americans for a while.
Just a thought...
Stan
Barbara
ReplyDeleteActually, Tiger probably is more Buddhist than some of the wannabe's like Richard Gere (as Stan points out) because he was taught by his mother, ie., he grew up Buddhist.
Thanks for your good posting as well.