Check out this 22-year-old giving the closing prayer at today’s National Prayer Breakfast:

When I was his age, I was a fornicating, unambitious drunk (sounds really bad when I put it that way; wait a second…it was!) who wouldn’t have spoken about anything in front of anybody, no matter how much you paid me. What a contrast, eh? Super Bowl predictions: New Orleans loses, Tim Tebow shines, and pro-aborts hyperventilate. Good day for football. And for life.

When was the last time you heard a secularist react to the name of Allah the way he reacts to the name of Jesus Christ?

“You speak the name Jesus Christ…and all hell breaks loose…it has always been thus. It is explosive. And I didn’t even say the name in that way. I simply spoke of the Christian faith, but that was enough to trigger this reaction. It triggers a very powerful reaction in people who do not share the faith and who do not believe in it.” – Brit Hume on The O’Reilly Factor

No other religion offers the kind of redemption the Christian faith offers. The Bible teaches this as a fact, and true Christians believe it. In our PC society, however, a Christian cannot, without stirring up anger, state a plain and powerful (and non-violent) truth taught and illustrated in his own holy book!

It is offensive and insulting, according to some, to say that Buddhism doesn’t offer forgiveness and redemption as the Christian faith does. Why?

Would secularists have had hissy fits if an adherent to Buddhism or follower of Allah had said on a cable news show that so-called Christian Ted Haggard, who solicited a male prostitute, should seek forgiveness and redemption in Buddhism or Islam? Would they be ranting and raving about separation of church and state (more like separation of church and the public arena).

The questions are rhetorical.

No other name on earth generates such strong reactions as the name Jesus Christ. The Gospel message, especially the exclusive claim that no one can enter heaven but through Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is offensive to those who don’t believe it. It has always been that way and will remain so until Christ returns.

If you don’t know Christian apologist James White, you really must listen to his webcast, Reformed or “Calvinist” Christians especially. He addresses the Brit Hume “controversy” on his latest program. Download the show to hear what James says about the quasi-religion of secularism.

Subscribe via iTunes here.

Update: Says Ann Coulter:

“In The Washington Post, Tom Shales demanded that Hume apologize, saying he had ‘dissed about half a billion Buddhists on the planet.’

“Is Buddhism about forgiveness? Because, if so, Buddhists had better start demanding corrections from every book, magazine article and blog posting ever written on the subject, which claims Buddhists don’t believe in God, but try to become their own gods.

“I can’t imagine that anyone thinks Tiger’s problem was that he didn’t sufficiently think of himself as a god, especially after that final putt in the Arnold Palmer Invitational last year.
…
“God sent his only son to get the crap beaten out of him, die for our sins and rise from the dead. If you believe that, you’re in. Your sins are washed away from you — sins even worse than adultery! — because of the cross… Cristianity is simultaneously the easiest religion in the world and the hardest religion in the world.”

Related post: Jews Need to be “Perfected”: What Ann Coulter Was Trying to Say

Update (1/5/09): For those “challenging” my comment about no separation of church and state in the Constitution, I addressed the issue in a post about John Kerry years ago. Check it out. Separation of church and state became a legal doctrine read into the document. The First Amendment does not forbid the federal government from dealing with religion absolutely; it forbids the establishment of a national religion and interference with religious exercise. Everything else was read into the Constitution, just like the so-called right of privacy to kill babies in utero. (Can you believe it?)

Additionally, some folks are misreading and misinterpreting Thomas Jefferson’s letter to the Danbury Baptist Association.

Update II: Christian apologist and author James White writes (emphases in original):

“The secularists are, of course, howling in protest, but if you read what they are saying, one obvious underlying theme comes to the fore. No one is offering reasoned, objective criticism of the substance of Hume’s comments, because, quite simply, he is right. Buddhism does not, in fact, provide for redemption and forgiveness, but instead directs one to look inward for enlightenment and eventual freedom from suffering (via freedom from desire). But redemption? Not in this life, for in its classical expression, this would involve a long process of moving toward enlightenment through many lifetimes. In any case, secularists do not care about the objective truth contained in Hume’s words, but instead they are enraged that he would actually dare to express his thoughts in public—the realm over which they now claim absolute authority and control.”

***
Get ready for the inevitable Brit Hume backlash over this:

That’s right. FOX News analyst Brit Hume, a Christian, advises Tiger Woods to become a Christian for true forgiveness and redemption.

Reams will be written in response to Hume’s statements, and I want to respond to at least one backlash post. Liberal Washington Monthly blogger Steve Benen’s a bit perturbed:

“It’s hard to even know where to start with something like this. How many high-profile Christians have had damaging sex scandals of late? Why is Buddhism deemed inadequate for those with family problems? Why is a senior political analyst for a so-called “news” network proselytizing, on the air, during one of the network’s ‘news’ programs?”

First, that “many high-profile Christians have had damaging sex scandals” doesn’t negate or contradict Christ’s call to repent of our sins, to confess faith in his finished work on the cross to blot out sin, and to obey his commands. Christians are still sinners, living in fallen bodies in a fallen world, and our behavior doesn’t absolve unbelievers of their call to believe.

Yes, I cringe every time I hear or read about people, high-profile or otherwise, who say they’re Christians and yet do the most shameful things. In fact, I’m ashamed of myself for the “un-Christian” things I do, even though I know, in my bones, I am forgiven.

The Bible teaches that when we become saved, Christ is working in us to make us more like him, and that work will be complete. Sometimes we rebel and give in to temptation. Living the Christian life in a world filled with vice is a struggle, at least for this Christian. But Christ’s grace and mercy toward us is boundless.

That’s what unbelievers don’t seem to get. The Christian isn’t sinless; he is forgiven. If that seems “unfair” to unbelievers, consider this: the God of justice who must punish sin is also the God of mercy. If he were fair, we’d all walk through the gates of hell. But because he is merciful, he’s offering YOU a way to avoid those gates. His name is Jesus Christ.

It’s also possible these “high-profile Christians have had damaging sex scandals” weren’t Christians at all.

Second, Brit wasn’t talking about whether Woods’s can recover his family. He said “whether he can recover as a person” depends on his faith. Hume added:

“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.’”

In this context, I understand “total recovery” to mean being born again in Christ, becoming a new creature, which won’t necessarily bring Woods’s family back together.

Then again, I admit my bias toward the Christian faith.

Third, about Hume’s proselytizing, while I admit I’d have a problem with a Muslim proselytizing on a news show, it would be a personal problem. There’s no separation of church and news program in the Constitution, just as there’s no separation of church and state in the document. If news analysts want to inject their faith into the format, why not? It’s not unethical, illegal, immoral, or fattening. It may offend the sensibilities of some viewers, but as I said, it’s a personal problem.

“In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) And everyone went to his own town to register.

“So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.

“And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them ‘Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord.’” – Luke 2: 1-12