The Washington Post’s ‘On Faith’ section asks a panel of people from varying religious perspectives to comment on topics every week or so. This week the topic is: Media biased against Christians?
Fox News analyst Brit Hume said "widespread media bias against Christianity" was to blame for criticism of his suggestion that Tiger Woods should embrace Christianity to find redemption. “Instead of urging that Tiger Woods turn to Christianity, if I had said what he needed to do was to strengthen his Buddhist commitment or turn to Hinduism, I don't think anybody would have said a word," Hume told Christianity Today. "It's Christ and Christianity that get people stirred up."
Sarah Palin and other conservative Christians have made similar claims. Is there widespread media bias against Christianity? Against evangelicals such as Hume and Palin? Against public figures who speak openly and directly about their faith? Against people who believe as you do?
I certainly wish there was widespread media bias against Christianity and all other ridiculous superstitions, but sadly the opposite is the case. One of the things that I always find interesting with religious people in general is that often times those with strong belief have no problem criticizing others of differing beliefs and/or no religious beliefs, but the moment someone criticizes their beliefs they cry and whine.
Let’s take a look at what Brit Hume originally said which started his so called “victimization.” Hume claimed that Tiger Wood’s religion, Buddhism, doesn’t offer the kind of redemption that the Christian faith offers. Does that mean that there is a widespread media bias against Buddhism? Of course the Washington Post doesn’t ask that question. Instead, it has bought into absurd paranoia.
It really is brilliant though. You really have to give the fundamentalist Christians credit for this type of noise making. You see, they go around telling everyone that they are going to hell to be tortured for all eternity and that everyone who don’t believe their narrow view of their religion have no morals, etc. Then when people call them out on their twisted, hateful, beliefs, they cry and whine that they are being discriminated against. It’s a win-win for them.
In the Philadelphia area like many other areas in the United States and around the world, we see this type of thing all the time. It was only last month that we had to deal with this exact issue when the Freethought Society of Greater Philadelphia put up the Tree of Knowledge holiday display in front… I mean on the side of the Chester County courthouse in nearby West Chester, PA.
Christian fundamentalists put up their crèche as a way of pushing their religion on people and trying to create the false impression that the government endorses their religious views. So when atheists put up our display as a way of celebrating the winter season and showing off our values, the Christian fundamentalists claimed that they were being victimized.
My advice to Brit Hume is this: The extent to which Brit Hume can recover from this scandal seems to me depends on his view of reality. He is said to be a Christian, I don’t think that faith offer the kind of genuine forgiveness and redemption that is offered by living in the real world and asking those whom he has hurt (i.e. Tiger Woods and all Buddhists) for forgiveness and redemption. My message to Brit would, “Brit, reject your Christian faith and you can make a total recovery and be a great example to the world.”
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On Faith Series:
On Faith: Free speech vs. God
On Faith: Religion’s Impact 2009
On Faith: Climate change a moral issue?
On Faith: Good News -- Oral Roberts is dead
On Faith: Just war or holy war in Afghanistan?
On Faith: A crèche in the White House?
On Faith: Swiss ban on Islamic minarets
On Faith: holidays or holy days?
Atheism 101 Articles:
Atheism 101: What is the difference between atheism and agnosticism?
Atheism 101: Is there moral grounding without God?
Atheism 101: The Purpose of Life
Atheism 101: The Nature of Good and Evil
Atheism 101: Is the Bible the inspired word of God?
Atheism 101: The anti-intellectualism of religion
Atheism 101: Why has Christianity demonized nudity, sex and sexuality?
Atheism 101: How to respond to the lord, liar, lunatic argument?
Atheism 101: Does it take more faith to be an atheist?
Atheism 101: What came before the Universe?
Atheism 101: How to respond to the ex-atheist
Comments
Yep, it's the cult of Christian persecution...
Yeah, fundamentalists really are very astute spin doctors. Love that tree:-)
To bad everyone wants to create their own god when the creator of life is the only one......eternity is only a breath away...good luck for you all here on earth
Yeah, this bizarre persecution complex of the majority is pretty nutty, and atheists have their hands full trying to reason with a wounded pit bull. Good luck with that.
Great cartoons. They really get the point across.
Christians should be treated as every other mentally ill person is treated. Religion is but a symptom of mental disturbance.
I heard about religionnewsblog dot com, which is a christian news website that posts both positive and negative articles on religion. Clearly the mainstream media covers up abuses by churches.
Your article disputed Brit Hume's claim by not presenting any facts. In fact you ranted. Why? Be an Atheist, enjoy life, have and state your opinion,but if you hold yourself up to be a journalist, writer of commentary, or any kind of knowledgeable person then you should act accordingly. I'm sure Brit Hume could come up with many articles or lack thereof.
So what you're saying Jimmy is that Staks is debating Brit Hume's factless claim by not using facts himself?
Did you see the cartoon above? Religious people and groups do demand a level of respect in general that they do not give to nonbelievers or believers in other religions. You even show signs of it when you assume that Hume's claim is fact based but Stak's claims aren't.
Maybe you should really explore the faith that you are speaking out against. What is 1 month of studying up on a religion, unbiasedly, if you could save yourself from ending up in a place that you don't believe exists right now. Sounds like you don't even know what Christianity really teaches, but are making ignorant conclusions because you think in your short life, have come to a complete understand of your life and the universe itself.
okay, you are so funny with your cleverly disguised Pascal's Wager. Surely you know that such a wager is ridiculously stupid, right? Maybe you should spend 1 month unbiasedly studying Buddhism or Scientology. You could have all kinds of bad karma or theatans. You could save yourself from ending up in a place that you don't believe exists right now. Think about it.
Some of the comments in this thread confirm Hume's point. But if your own haters don't cause you discomfort, how about an explicit policy by a university against Christians?
“The loss of power and privilege to those who do not practice the dominant culture’s religion. In the United States, this is institutionalized oppressions toward those who are not Christian.”
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/02/16/university-says-change-definition-c...
They quickly took it down, of course, but the effort was appreciated because it demonstrates to everyone how comfortable they were implementing it in the first place.
Oh, and this article? Be grateful to something that people actually pay you to write such poorly thought out drivel.
Sort of like you poorly thought out comment which doesn't even make sense.
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