I need to be done with this Tiger-thing.  I was just listening to 94.5 in Birmingham.  Paul Finebaum and his callers were discussing Tiger’s situation and how he needs to best couch the situation so as to save his career and maybe even his family.

Let me be clear about something.  What Tiger has done to his wife and kids is heinous.  Regardless of how hard his father was on him, despite that maybe he spent all his youth playing golf and never “had fun like other kids,” and no matter how many women threw themselves at Tiger, ADULTERY IS SIN.  In our world there is no real – that is legal – penalty for cavorting with another woman so some people want this kind of thing to stay off the radar and go away.  Fine.  But God thought adultery was bad enough to warrant a death penalty in Ancient Israel.  NOTE: I am NOT advocating a death penalty for this sin, but I want us to realize that adultery so serious to God that He demanded blood sacrifice for it.

I’ve heard people say, “But Jesus said that lusting is just as bad as the real thing so no one can point a finger at Tiger.”  True.  Jesus did say that.  He also said to put your eye out if it makes you sin.  Has anyone done that?  None that I am aware of.  Jesus did not make that statement to make it easier for adulterers.  He wanted to nip adultery in the bud.  He was saying that adultery starts with that second look – or that long first look.

So we’re still back to the seriousness of adultery.  God put a stiff penalty on adultery.  Maybe He did so because of the fallout adultery brings: A broken wife or husband, a torn-apart family, and broken and upset and blaming-themselves children.  I hope Tiger gets saved, but in the mean time we’ve ALL been had by Tiger.  We’ve all begun to buy into the idea that getting past sin is simply a manner of spin-control, keeping our sponsors, and a good interview on Larry King.

Sin requires what Psalm 51 teaches: A broken and contrite heart before God.  Unless we each do that there is no hope for any of us.  What the “Tigers” of the world have tried to teach us is that we need to get our image back to be right with the world.  Yeah, but to be right with God, we need righteousness in the “inmost” place: our hearts.