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What Tiger Woods and President Obama Have in Common

In case you haven’t heard, last week Tiger Woods got into a little car accident and a whole lot of trouble. He has been accused of marital infidelity. Much has been said about this in both the secular media and the Christian blogosphere (e.g., “Hunting Tiger Woods” and “Cheaters, Tigers, and Idiots – Oh My!“).

On his website, Tiger Woods released a statement concerning the situation. The statement begins,

I have let my family down and I regret those transgressions with all of my heart. I have not been true to my values and the behavior my family deserves. I am not without faults and I am far short of perfect. I am dealing with my behavior and personal failings behind closed doors with my family.

Notice that he refers to his actions as “transgressions,” “faults,” and “failings.” But against whom did he transgress? For one, he transgressed against his family. He admits to “let[ting his] family down” and not being “true to . . . the behavior [his] family deserves.” If he did indeed commit adultery, then it is certainly true that he transgressed against his wife and children.

But who is the other person mentioned in the statement against whom Tiger transgressed? That’s right . . . himself. Notice again his statement: “I have not been true to my values.”

When I first read this, I immediately thought of an article I read some time ago that detailed an interview President Obama gave back in 2004 when he was running for the Senate. Here is the relevant portion (the interviewer refers to herself as “God Girl”):

GG: Do you believe in sin?

OBAMA: Yes.

GG: What is sin?

OBAMA: Being out of alignment with my values.

GG: What happens if you have sin in your life?

OBAMA: I think it’s the same thing as the question about heaven. In the same way that if I’m true to myself and my faith that that is its own reward, when I’m not true to it, it’s its own punishment.

So what do Tiger Woods and President Obama have in common? Not their actions, for as far as we know President Obama has not been accused of marital infidelity.

No, Tiger Woods and President Obama have this in common: their view of sin as an offense against themselves and their own moral standards.

But it’s not just Tiger Woods and President Obama who speak this way. Last year John Edwards admitted to an extramarital affair in 2006. His statement began similarly:

In 2006, I made a serious error in judgment and conducted myself in a way that was disloyal to my family and to my core beliefs.

More examples could be found, I’m sure.

Is this the Biblical view of sin? No, the Bible says that sin is, first and foremost, transgression against God and His law. David recognized this after his sin with Bathsheba when he told God, “Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight” (Psalm 51:4 ESV).

But the perspective that “sin” (if the word is even used) is an offense against one’s own moral standards is widely held in our culture. David Wells writes,

During the 1960s a new worldview emerged. To a great majority of Americans, it now became clear that the self had become the source of all values. . . . For what is reality except what I have experienced? What matters except what matters to me? What could be as important as what is feeling important to me right now? I am the mirror in which reality is reflected. All of it. At least all of it that is important to me (The Courage to Be Protestant [Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2008], 136, 141).

He believes a shift has taken place from “virtues” to “values.” Virtues are “aspects of the Good, or of Virtue. They are the moral norms that are enduringly right for all people, in all places, and in all times” (p. 143).

Values, on the other hand, “represent the moral talk of a relativistic world” (p. 146). They are things or standards that are important to people. So my values may not necessarily reflect your values. But I value my values, and you must respect that.

Actually, sin is not choosing to go against oneself. Sin is choosing to follow oneself—one’s own desires rather than God’s holy standard. And that is something each of us must guard against.

Let’s pray for Tiger Woods, his wife, and his children. Let’s pray that they will turn from self to God in repentence and faith in Christ. Let’s also pray that God will help us each to follow His way, not our own.

6 Comments

  • Corey Brookins says:

    Thank you so much for bringing to light the real problem in this situation! This is a great opportunity to address this unbiblical view of sin which has also crept into the church.

  • Jeff Gates says:

    You make some good points about Woods, Obama, Edwards, and probably most other people. Your point about sin being primarily against God is well taken, but we should not forget that sinning against God is also sinning against ourselves. So in a way, sin is choosing to go against oneself. We think it will bring us benefits, but it ultimately brings us harm. Solomon wrote that one who commits adultery destroys his own soul (Proverbs 6:32) and one who hates wisdom wrongs himself (Proverbs 8:36). Paul wrote that one who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body (1 Corinthians 6:18).

  • Greg Long says:

    Jeff, it’s one thing to say, as the Bible does, that sin affects oneself. It’s another thing to say, as Tiger Woods, President Obama, and John Edwards very clearly do, that sin is transgressing against one’s own “values.” In other words, they are saying that the standard that has been violated is their own.

  • Greg,

    True. Plus, Obama’s definition of sin is logically absurd. No one can sin against their own values. We always do that which we most desire. If one commits adultery, although he may have valued the idea of faithfulness to his spouse–his greater operative value was the sexual encounter with another woman.

    Logic notwithstanding, Obama is simply representative of that moment that trivializes sin (which we see in conservative churches and pulpits, too btw). Sin is reduced to a ‘mistake’, a ‘bad choice’, and ‘ah shucks, I guess I shouldn’t have done that’ type of behavior. It is also something that we can fix ourselves. Under Obama’s definition, we do not need a savior—we simply need to realign ourselves with our values and then we will be fine.

    In excessively fundamentalist churches sin is externalized (long hair, alcohol, and homosexuality), the same view of sin is found in the holiness/perfectionist movements (its rather easy to claim sinlessness when we so limit the definition and scope of sin).

    For Joel Olsteen (et al) sin is not having faith in your right to be fulfilled, happy, and wealthy.

    In mainstream Evangelicalism, sin is vaguely described as something that the fundamentalists do.

    In hyper-fundamentalism sin is something that everyone other than a hyper-fundamentalist does.

    For Catholics and hardcore Arminians sin is something that is quite bad, but not nearly as bad as those Calvinist-types claim. Sure, its had some pretty negative effects, but we are (somewhere deep inside) still a little good and quite capable of coming to God on our own.

    It is becoming increasingly rare to find a Christian who has a fully biblical and personally applied understanding of the total devastating impact of our wretched sinfulness.

  • Greg:

    Very revealing article. I remember doing values clarification activities, and going to Steven Covey, Seven Habits, classes. I benefited from those exercises.

    I benefited from them because they revealed that what I said I valued (Christ, His Word, etc) was not what my actions proclaimed I valued. Then I had to examine my life in light of what I knew was of greatest value, God’s Word and following Christ. That may not be what those classes intended.

    The error in Woods and Obama is not that they have a personal system of values. Everyone does. What I value most drives what I do. The error of Woods, Obama and others is that what they value centers on themselves and not on the Lord.

    When I value God’s Word and the Lord above all else, all of my actions and words will be transformed (Matt 13:44).

  • Jeff Gates says:

    Adam, Surely you must realize that what a person does is not necessarily what he thinks he or she should do. When Woods admitted that he had not lived up to his own values, it is not the same as admitting that he had not lived up to God’s values but it is a step in the right direction. I have heard that Woods is favorable to Buddhism (Sports Illustrated, December 23, 1996), but having God’s law in his heart (Rom. 2) makes him know that adultery is wrong. It is good to see that Woods has not completely seared his conscience. We can only pray that this incident will drive Woods to see that Buddhism offers no real power to keep him from sinning against this God-given value nor does it offer any forgiveness when he does sin against it. Jeff

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