B-log

Yesterday, husband/dad/golfer/magnate Tiger Woods offered his mea culpa for repeatedly committing adultery against his wife, Elin.

He asked for forgiveness from (and I think in this order, but I could be wrong):

• The employees at his foundation
• His business partners
• His family
• The parents of children who idolized him.

To be honest, it’s a little silly to suggest that I, or any fan, needs to forgive him. To do so also suggests that there is a relationship that has been damaged. To use the word “relationship” between him and myself would be to stretch the term tenuously thin.

The truth is, he is a professional athlete and we live in the age of where virtually every professional athlete is little more than a well-managed, messed up human being who happens to excel at sports. My son has taken down more posters from his wall in the past few years thanks to steroids, cheating, and now… sex scandals.

Tiger asked the golf fan world to “one day believe in him again.” Make no mistake, to believe in Tiger Woods is no different than believing in the Tooth Fairy. Both have lots of coin, and they’re both happy with a hole in one. Oh, and both are fictitious creations. “Tiger” is a mythical beast who dominates the golf course. His alter ego, Eldrick, is the one I hope finds restoration in his marriage and redemption from God (although I’m pessimistic about the latter given his Buddhist inclinations).

My son asked me who the best golfer was, in light of these developments. I told him, as far as golf goes, it is still Tiger. When he plays, I enjoy watching golf…and that’s saying a lot.  But when it comes to being an honorable person, I have no idea. And it doesn’t matter if you are making hundreds of millions of dollars a year, if you have no integrity of character, you offer nothing to believe in.

If Tiger never golfs again, I suppose it would be sad, to some degree of sports significance. But if Eldrick fails to follow through on this proverbial tee where he finds himself with all his personal relationships, the result will be far more sad and significant. May God show him grace, bring him healing, and lead him to truth.

Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity (Romans 1:24)

I know that it’s rather puritanical, chaste, or antiquated to agree with what the Bible says about sexual purity, but in light of recent events, I have to ask, “Has the world gone insane?”

There is an increasing call to free admitted rapist Roman Polanski because he happens also to be a talented and celebrated film director.

Polanski was recently jailed in Sweden on an outstanding US warrant from his 1977 rape of a then 13-year-old girl. He drugged her with champagne and quaaludes and then raped her. Her longstanding testimony reveals that she said ‘no’ at every step of the assault, and that he confessed to every offense against this young girl.

Now, more than thirty years later, the victim has forgiven him and has asked that no charges be brought against him. Polanski’s famous friends have interceded on his behalf. Actress Whoopi Goldberg even recenlty offered the clumsy, unfortunate excuse that it “wasn’t ‘rape’ rape,” as though Polanski’s crime against this girl was somehow mitigated by the fact that she was not able to resist him because he manipulated her resistance through drugs and alcohol. Hollywood has a long, unhealthy record of these types of relationships and practices.

Remember that Polanski’s crimes are a criminal offense. Perpetrated against an individual, they are crimes against the state….particularly his fleeing from bail because he was his own most lenient judge in determining the prospect of his inevitable lengthy jail time would have been an unbearable penalty to pay for his inability to control his lust.

While the victim’s forgiveness could be a factor the judge presiding over Polanski’s case will consider, a victim’s absolution is rarely grounds for legal absolution (particularly when one crime is compounded by subsequent crimes perpetrated as a result of the initial offense).

¹Obey the rulers who have authority over you. Only God can give authority to anyone, and he puts these rulers in their places of power. ²People who oppose the authorities are opposing what God has done, and they will be punished. (Romans 13:1-2 cev)