For me, Tiger is just another reason to boycott Nike.
Yes, I’ve boycotted Nike, the former reason also being another big name; I switched to New Balance when LaBron signed a ticket worth more than the debt of a small African nation. Other than accepting a few gifts, I’ve kept to my non-Nike support and Tiger might just cause me to wave that banner high.
There’s been some public opinion asking if people are over Tiger’s indiscretion. I saw a facebook status that said, “no matter if Tiger is bad at life, he’s wicked at golf” and I’m sure this is probably true. But I’m not ready to forgive Tiger. I don’t trust him.
KLM said that her dad used to ask, through the process of grounding the kids, “are you sorry you did it? Or are you sorry you got caught?” Though Tiger has put out a timely apology to his fans, I believe he’s only sorry that he got caught, especially in such an embarrassing manner. So when he says he’s sorry, I don’t think that’s necessarily the case. He just wants his life back. And honestly, I don’t think he cares that I’m not over it – as long as he can go back to doing what he wants.
And, (this may be a bit more surprising), it’s not the infidelity that really gets me. Adultery realllly gets under my skin, but I think this version is especially worrisome. Though the real cause of death was adultery, the sickness leading to it was an overdose of power.
King David provides a parallel example. Both were caught with their pants down, but that’s not what should cause us to be apprehensive to trust again. Both were men at the top of his game. The world at his fingertips and no one to stop him. Whatever he wanted, he got – whether it be the conquest of a small nation or a green blazer. And so why should it be any different with people, specifically, beautiful women? These men thought that because they had money and authority that they can also take what was not theirs simply because they wanted it. Any person who believes this has fallen into a very dangerous place.
The adulterous nature of the sin makes me especially queasy not just because I feel awful for the wife. When a man feels so entitled to possess whatever he wants, and he puts women – people, God’s creation, individual lives – in that same category, it makes me a bit scared. We cannot be a society that allows a man collect ladies the way he does cars and it be brushed off so simply.
Fortunately, we’re not trusting Tiger to make decisions on behalf of our country; he just fills our TVs on a Sunday afternoon. But I do think it would be to our benefit if we take the position that the sort of person who thinks that a person makes a good object to conquer doesn’t belong on our list of idols.