"Television isn't the truth; it's an amusement park. We're in the boredom killing business.
We'll tell you anything you want to hear. We deal in illusions; none of it is true,
but we're the only thing the viewer knows and you're beginning to believe it."
movie line by an aging network program executive, Max Schumacher, to
a young, ruthless program director, Diana, in the seventies satire, Network
While working for Duracell batteries one day at a local Wal-Mart, I noticed the tabloid headline about Tiger Woods' supposed long-standing "affair" with a cocktail waitress. This was a couple of days before the news hit the internet, radio, and TV. I did not know whether to believe this nationally-read tabloid newspaper at the time, but at the same time, I said to myself then that it would not surprise me one bit if the allegations were true. I am not a golfer--I gave up golf because I was having trouble with the windmills--nor do I follow golf that much. Although like the rest of non-golfers out there, I have been amazed at the athletic skill of Tiger Woods. What we see play out away from the golf course in the life of Tiger illustrates so well the dilemma of postmodernism and the utter failure of any philosophical approach toward life that denies the moral absolutes expressed in divine revelation, namely the Holy Scriptures.
Since the initial story broke, the news cycle has been having a hard time keeping up with the latest young lady who is coming forward with her own story involving Tiger. It first began with a car wreck outside Tiger's palacious estate, and now the wreck on his life, marriage and career has become the focus. Who would have thought that Tiger would become like he is today endless fodder for late night comedians and internet jokes? Who would have entertained the idea a few weeks ago that Tiger might not be playing golf for years to come, if ever again?
The salacious, titillating details of Tiger's personal life is not where my interest lies. A high-profile athlete, politician or celebrity involved in infidelity is not a news story anymore. It has become the expected norm to so many people. So what makes the Tiger story so different from the rest? It is simply this, that Tiger Woods worked hard not only on his golf game, but he worked just as hard crafting an image for public consumption that left us all in appreciation for his strong allegiance to his family. As we have found out, it was all a pretense, a deceptive trick. Tiger did everything possible to carve out the image that he was a private individual, keeping himself and his family out of the spotlight, when he was away from work. We envisioned him going home to his wife every time, another trophy and millions more in hand, and spending all his spare time dolling out hugs and kisses on his family.
What the average Joe did not know for the past decade, nearly all those on the golf circuit knew exactly what was really going on for years behind the Tiger facade. Somehow his wife did not find out, until just recently, if we can believe all the published reports. Whether Tiger can save his marriage, I do not know; whether he will pick up a golf club ever again, I do not know; whether there will be a string of more revelations on Tiger's personal life, I do not know. I can hear my mother-in-law quote one of her favorite verses, found in the book of Numbers, which she used on her four children while they were at home, "Be sure your sin will find you out." That we do know for certain from this story.
Like the movie line quoted above from Network, Tiger Woods lived an illusion, which is all we have left if we do not stake our lives upon the Truth. This story is about the failure of postmodernism to live up to its billing, just like modernism was discovered as a fraud for what it was. A manufactured persona does not have the long-term stability to endure the truth whenever it comes around. On the other hand, truth does have that inner fortitude to withstand anything, because it does not rely upon man-made props to hold it up. Postmodernism is left with image building that shoves moral absolutes to the side for the purpose of accentuating the tolerant diversity of man's lifestyles. But when the image comes crashing down, then what is there to pick it back up? Or how does postmodernism attempt to justify the behavior of Tiger Woods without sounding and looking ridiculous to the average man? Or how does postmodern society come to any critical analysis of Tiger's conduct without betraying the central tenet of postmodernism, and that is there are no authoritative rights and wrongs?
One blogger said this in defending Tiger: "We should cut Tiger a lot of slack, because his wife should have known that Tiger needed more than she was providing at home. It was her fault that Tiger had to go elsewhere to find his sexual fulfillment." How does that strike a chord with just the postmodern women out there? While listening to a professing Christian local sports radio personality talk about this, someone who attends a megachurch known for its downplaying such things as preaching against sin or preaching for repentance (in other words, a postmodern church), I was taken aback a little when all he had to say on the matter is, "Well, we all make mistakes." I wonder, again, how many postmodern women out there, would think along these lines, that infidelity on the part of their husbands was simply a mistake. After all, we should be tolerant of other people's lifestyles, even with those within our own home, if we are going to march consistently to the beat of the postmodern drum. Who are we to make value judgments? Who are we to judge others? "He who is without sin should cast the first stone." I wonder if Tiger used that verse on his wife. I wonder how many spouses would have all their worries and fears abated if their unfaithful partners would use that out-of-context verse for its intended postmodern purposes.
Postmodernism is failure that has happened, or is about to happen in one's life. An illusion of any kind is only a delusion; the truth is the only solution. I pray that Tiger will call it like it is, like David did in Psalm 51. It is not a mistake, it is not a personal lifestyle choice, it is not a spouse's fault, it is not the pressures of life. It is a sin against God who has revealed His authoritative Truth for all to read, hear and obey. May Tiger and all other postmodernist sinners come to see that all that image making in the world will catch up with them one day and overtake them and destroy them, but it is only the Truth in Jesus Christ that will set them free. Tiger may not be out of the woods yet, but he can be forgiven and reconciled to God by grace alone through faith in Christ and repentance from sin. Postmodernism or any other philosophy offers no hope when our personal world comes crashing down on us. The gospel does, so why should the church today forsake the one thing that offers hope when the lives of postmodernists are in shambles?
