Below is an excerpt from  Barbra O’ Brien’s Blog on Buddhism – Barb’s words were a bit twisted by the Family Research Council to defend Brit “If It Ain’t Christian…It’s Crap” Hume.  It’s a good read.

Today I was disappointed to learn that the Family Research Council, a conservative Christian organization, has quoted from my “Let’s Forgive Brit Hume” post to “prove” the superior forgiveness/redemption power of Christianity over Buddhism.  Peter Sprigg of the FRC writes,

Has Brit Hume slandered Buddhists by mischaracterizing their theology? Not really. Barbara O’Brien, author of “Barbara’s Buddhism Blog,” admits, “Mr. Hume is right, in a sense, that Buddhism doesn’t offer redemption and forgiveness in the same way Christianity does. Buddhism has no concept of sin; therefore, redemption and forgiveness in the Christian sense are meaningless in Buddhism.”

From here, Mr. Sprigg proceeds to slander Buddhism by mischaracterizing our “theology.”

Citing what must be non-Buddhist sources, Sprigg paints Buddhism as a religion without faith or grace in which people are perpetually working off karmic debts:

The problem is, if Tiger Woods now gets out of this life what he’s put into his moral life, he’s in a heap of trouble. Buddhism is not tolerant of sexual libertinism–even Barbara the Buddhist Blogger agrees that it’s “fairly plain that Mr. Woods’s conduct has been falling short of the Third Precept.” If Buddhism is true, not only is there no redemption for him in this life, but because of reincarnation, Woods will be paying a price in the next life as well. According to Eerdmann’s Handbook to the World’s Religions, in Buddhism, “[G]ood works automatically bring about a good rebirth, bad works a bad one.”

Related articles about the Controversy

• Michael Sigman: The Gospel According to Brit Hume (huffingtonpost.com)
• Hume Decries Persecution By Critics, Reiterates It Would Be ‘Magnificent’ To ‘Witness’ Tigers Woods’ Conversion (thinkprogress.org)
• Brit Hume Reiterates Tiger Woods “Needs Something Christianity Especially Provides” (Video): (huffingtonpost.com)

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