AN OPEN LETTER TO TIGER WOODS

December 8, 2009

Dear Tiger,

When the American media blasted us with the breaking news that you had left your home at 2:30 AM and run into a fire hydrant and then a tree and ended up unconscious, it put a question into our minds. Had you been drinking or taking drugs? When the police released a statement that alcohol and drugs were not the cause of the accident it created even more questions. When the news broke that there had been an argument and fight between you and your wife and that you had stormed out of the house in a rage, we then understand the accident. People in a rage do not drive very well and at times deliberately drive into objects on the road.

You have asked for privacy, but that can’t be expected because you are a world renowned golfer with handlers who market you as a commodity. Your handlers and the American media have built you up as a celebrity and role model for young people. You have not rejected the fame and the fortune, but as a savvy businessman, you have been riding the surf to the top and it has brought you great riches and fame. But now you are a fallen hero like Michael Jackson, Britney Spears, Lindsay Lohan and so many other young celebrities. Money and fame do not build morality and character but have the tendency of doing the opposite. Why has your life crashed all around you? Why was your wife upset when she found out you committed adultery with several women? The reason your life has come down and crashed is that you have no moral foundation; you are a modern heathen who has been your own god, even if you claim to be a Buddhist.

YOUR FATHER FAILED YOU

Your father was an American hero who served in the armed forces with great bravery. He served two full tours in Vietnam, was a member of the Green Berets, and made the U.S. Army his career and retired as a Lt. Colonel. He went on to teach Military Science and Tactics at the City College in New York.

Your father was a patriot but his personal life was a failure. When he married Barbara Gary in 1954, he made a commitment until death. God blessed them with three children. But in 1968, your father broke the vow and divorced his wife. Another failure in your father’s life was that he did not know God so he couldn’t teach you about God. When he married your mother (Kultida) in 1969, he knew that she was of the Buddhist religion and did not know the God of the Bible, who is also the Creator of all things. Your mother follows a man who stated in his own writings before he died that he never found what he was looking for. And now you continue to follow the same man who failed to find the answer to life.

Your father started early on in training you to become a great golf player. Golf was the most important subject in your life during your entire childhood and your father spared nothing to make sure that one day you would end up at the top. You are now considered one of the best golfers in the world and you have also achieved fame and fortune at an early age. But your father did not understand that a man must have a moral upbringing in order to build character and have integrity. In this area you are a dwarf, totally empty on the inside. God created man to have fellowship with God. When there is no fellowship with God, man must fill that void with something like money, fame, sexual lust, etc.

WHERE ARE YOU GOING?

You have said that the Buddhist faith from your mother has helped you to control your stubbornness and impatience but what about your lustful sexual appetite for women? Are you aware that Thailand is the worst nation in the world when it comes to sex trade? Pedophiles from all over the world travel there to pay for sexual acts with children, some of them as young as three or four years old. Boys and girls are sold as sex slaves to furnish the whorehouses and the homosexual establishments for lewd men and women coming from all over the world to satisfy their filthy sexual perversions.

When you married Elin Nordegren, who worked for your friend Jesper Parnevik in 2004, you took a vow to stay true to her as your wife and forsake all other women. You did not marry an ugly woman but someone who had worked as a model, but your desire for women could not be quenched by your wife as she has born you two children. You have not committed adultery with just one woman. And now the truth is coming out, because these women have no respect for you and are openly talking about your sexual escapades. You’ve gone from being a role model to just another fallen idol who quickly achieved fame and fortune and couldn’t handle it.

Buddha has no solution for a man that has committed adultery, only Jesus can help you and your wife. No religion, friends, rehab or anything you buy will help. Has your life reached a low enough point that you are willing to let Jesus help you?

ELIN IS DEVASTATED

I believe that Elin has a broken heart because she has been betrayed by the man she thought loved her and now has been hung out to dry with the rest of the young and restless from Hollywood. Elin came from a broken home because her father (Thomas Nordegren) let her down when he divorced her mother (Barbro Holmberg). Your wife comes from a dysfunctional broken family, and since Barbro is a strong member of the Swedish Social Democratic Party and at one time held the post as Minister for Migration and Asylum Policy, it does not look like her mother knew Jesus either. Thus, Elin has no inner strength and no one to pray to, so she cannot give comfort to your children when they learned that daddy has been unfaithful to their mother.

TIGER, YOU ARE NOT ALONE

All over the world people have lost their way, and instead of turning to God, they abuse alcohol and drugs, trying to find comfort in sexual escapades and hope in various religions. But there is Jesus who can give you and Elin the relief you seek. Jesus was God’s own son who died on the cross for you and all people in the world. He rose from the dead after three days, returned to heaven and our Heavenly Father and now intercedes for people to be saved and born again.  

Forty years from now most of the people in the world will have forgotten your name and will not even remember how great a golfer you were. Look at all the sport stars before you that have been forgotten with time. Only those people who have contributed their lives to helping others or achieved something great which helped mankind are remembered. But even these people will fade away as we will enter eternity, and the only people that will be remembered will be those who walked with God and represented Jesus to a dying world. Look at what Jesus said some 2000 years ago:

“Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” (Matthew 16:24-26 KJV)

There is only one way to victory for you and Elin, repent of your sins, ask God to forgive you and receive Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior. This is what Jesus said about salvation:

“Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother's womb, and be born?

Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.” (John 3:3-8 KJV)

WHAT GOD SAID 2,800 YEARS AGO

King Solomon early on in his life walked with God and wrote the following about adultery:

“My son, keep thy father's commandment, and forsake not the law of thy mother: Bind them continually upon thine heart, and tie them about thy neck. When thou goest, it shall lead thee; when thou sleepest, it shall keep thee; and when thou awakest, it shall talk with thee. For the commandment is a lamp; and the law is light; and reproofs of instruction are the way of life:

To keep thee from the evil woman, from the flattery of the tongue of a strange woman. Lust not after her beauty in thine heart; neither let her take thee with her eyelids. For by means of a whorish woman a man is brought to a piece of bread: and the adulteress will hunt for the precious life.

 Can a man take fire in his bosom, and his clothes not be burned? Can one go upon hot coals, and his feet not be burned? So he that goeth in to his neighbour's wife; whosoever toucheth her shall not be innocent. Men do not despise a thief, if he steal to satisfy his soul when he is hungry; But if he be found, he shall restore sevenfold; he shall give all the substance of his house.

 But whoso committeth adultery with a woman lacketh understanding: he that doeth it destroyeth his own soul. A wound and dishonour shall he get; and his reproach shall not be wiped away.” (Proverbs 6:20-33 KJV)

Tiger your woes are just beginning and your family cannot be healed unless you repent of your sins and turn to Christ. Your siblings suffered because your father divorced their mother. Elin and her siblings are suffering because their father divorced their mother. The curse of divorce is now coming to the third generation, your children.

No person can make the decision for you. Being rich and famous makes it harder for you to trust someone to help you. Many people will take advantage of your situation and try to get something from you. You need to seek out a man that is walking with God who cannot be bought with money, who knows the Bible and is strong enough to tell you the truth without fear of rejection. Such a man can help you find God and be forgiven in the name of Jesus.

May God have mercy on your soul is my prayer for you,

Pastor John S. Torell
Resurrection Life of Jesus Church