The Media's War On "War On The Christians" Conference (Don Feder Alert)

Frontpagemag.com ^ | 03/31/06 | Don Feder

[goldstategop]

Last week (March 27-28), Vision America convened a War On Christians conference in Washington, D.C. It was the first to address escalating attacks on Christians from Hollywood, the news media, academia, the courts, and activist groups like the ACLU and Anti-Defamation League.

Speakers included scholars, authors, clergy (among them an Orthodox rabbi), lawyers and members of Congress. Delegates came from as far away as South Africa. I was the conference coordinator, as well as a speaker on two panels ("Jews Confront the War On Christians" and "Hollywood: Christians Through a Distorted Lens").

You will be shocked – shocked! – to learn that the mainstream media did its best to trivialize and marginalize the conference: to present a thoughtful examination of the rising tide of anti-Christian bias and persecution as the work of hysterical, paranoid whack-jobs who are manufacturing a crisis to generate donations and mobilize Republican votes.

An alleged news story in The Washington Post, (March 29th) by Alan Cooperman, was headlined "’War’ on Christians Is Alleged." Try to imagine the Post covering the 2005 conference Examining the Real Agenda of the Religious Far Right and headlining its story "Coming ‘Theocracy’ Alleged."

Cooperman misidentified Dr. Rick Scarborough, president of Vision America (the conference host) as a "radio commentator." You know, one of those guys who screams at you over the airwaves. In fact, besides being the head of a growing national movement, Scarborough is a Baptist minister, an author and an acclaimed speaker.

Cooperman included extensive quotes attacking the conference – SOP for reportage on conservative events. A professor of social ethics charged that the meeting was "a spoiled brat response by Christians who have always enjoyed the privileges of a majority position." A mainline Protestant cleric claimed that by calling attention to the war on Christians in the U.S., the conference "disrespects the experience of people who have been jailed and died because of their faith." This theme dominated news "coverage" – Christians are so powerful that it’s absurd to claim they’re persecuted. Thus, a commentary in USA Today (March 28th) by Tom Krattenmaker (who called the conference’s theme "overblown" and reckless): "We are in the second term of the most faith-friendly, explicitly Christian presidency in many a decade….Hollywood is producing more Christian-friendly movies [like The DaVinci Code? – DF ] while Christian news media, Christian music, Christian novels and other forms of Christian pop culture continue making their strong mark on society." I’m only surprised Krattenmaker didn’t cite the presence of "In God We Trust" on our currency to refute claims of Christian persecution.

Apparently, a majority of Americans are equally hysterical, reckless and disrespectful of real persecution. According to a FOX News poll taken in December 2005, 59 percent of the American people agreed with conference organizers that "Christianity is under attack" in the U.S. today.

In reality, you have to be dogmatic, blind and biased – which pretty much describes the mainstream media – to miss the obvious here.

V for Vendetta is the most explicitly anti-Christian movie to date. It’s set in a Britain, 20 years in the future, ruled by a murderous regime of Christian fanatics. (Would Warner Brothers distribute a film about Britain becoming an Islamic republic?) V for Vendetta was the number one box-office draw in its first week of release, and number two in its second, with a cumulative gross revenue of over $46 million.

The latest literary hatchet-job by Kevin Phillips (American Theocracy) claims our civilization will be undone by (among other things) a "milieu of radicalized (and much too influential) religion." With the faithful fighting to keep "One Nation Under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance (and the teaching of Creationism recently banned by a federal judge lest students be inspired to meditate on the "G" word), Phillips’ charge that religion is much too influential in America should provoke peals of uproarious laughter. "American Theocracy" just made it on The New York Times Bestsellers list – further evidence of the formidable power of radicalized religion.

In California, an employer can be fined $150,000 (that’s not a typo) for firing a man who comes to work in a dress. Believe it or not, the law wasn’t intended to target secular humanists.

Hewlett-Packard fired a Christian for posting near his cubicle a sign with Bible verses relating to the prohibition of men lying with men. This was in response to a celebrate sexual-diversity sign posted by the company. Hewlett-Packard does not celebrate diversity of opinion.

At colleges across the country, Christian groups have lost their accreditation for refusing to accept homosexuals as officers. Thus, at schools founded by Christians and endowed by Christians – Christians are forced to choose between their conscience and the ability to hold meetings on campus.

In the New York City public school system, Moslem crescents and menorahs are displayed during certain holidays, but not Christmas trees or crèches. Incredibly, school officials have decided that the former are non-religious (try telling that to bin Laden) but the latter strictly sectarian.

Recently, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors passed a unanimous resolution attacking the Catholic Church for teaching that children should be placed for adoption with mothers and fathers. The resolution called this "hateful and discriminatory."

Last weekend, the Christian youth group Teen Mania held a two-day revival for 25,000 kids in the city that inspired the moniker San Francisco Democrats. Supervisors labeled this "an act of provocation," while State Assemblyman Mark Leno called it a "fascist mega-pep rally."

Evangelicals have been described as "a clear and present danger to religious liberty in America" (former Labor Secretary Robert Reich), determined to "Christianize all aspects of American Life" (the ADL’s Abraham Foxman), "moral retards" and "an ugly, violent lot" (City University of New York Professor Timothy Shortell), possessed of "the same kind of fundamentalist impulse that we see in Saudi Arabia" (Al Gore), and responsible for moving America "each day closer to a theocracy where a narrow and hateful brand of Christian fundamentalism will rule" (a full-page ad in The New York Times, signed by Jane Fonda, Ed Asner and other Hollywood savants).

And, in Philadelphia not quite two years ago, a group of Christians with Repent America were arrested for holding signs and quietly praying at a city-sponsored gay pride event. Though the Christians obeyed all police orders and were accosted by militants, they were arrested and spent 20 hours in jail. The City of Brotherly Love wanted to prosecute them for a laundry list of felonies, including criminal conspiracy. If convicted, they could have faced up to 47 years in prison. (Fortunately, a reality-based judge ruled the Christians were exercising their First Amendment rights and threw out the case.) No other group in America has seen its free-speech rights attacked in similar fashion.

Granted, the foregoing doesn’t rise to the level of persecution in Afghanistan (where a man was threatened with death for converting to Christianity), Saudi Arabia (where the New Testament is contraband), or China (where the organizers of home churches are imprisoned). And, granted again, unlike Europe, Christianity is thriving in America.

But to say the presidency of George W. Bush proves the potency of conservative Christians is a real stretch.

Bush’s rep as an "explicitly Christian" president is based mostly on the 2000 campaign, wherein he referred to Jesus as his favorite philosopher. Last year, White House "Christmas" cards didn’t even mention by name the holiday celebrated by more than 90 percent of Americans. Bush invokes the Almighty no more than any of his predecessors.

Despite a GOP majority reputed to be the love-slaves of Jerry Falwell, it’s been almost two years since Congress voted a on a federal marriage amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Other than a ban on partial-birth abortion, the political agenda of Christian conservatives has been studiously ignored in our nation’s capital.

The news and entertainment media, public education, higher education, the judiciary and a fair number of corporations and foundations are in the hands of ideologues who despise Bible-believing Christians, and who rarely miss an opportunity to smear them, to foment hatred against them and to circumscribe their activities.

Give the National Socialists credit for candor. In 1920s Germany, if a Jew had said to a Nazi, "You hate me," the goose-steeper would have replied: "You’re right, Jew. And if we ever get a chance, we’ll kill you." He would not have accused his victim of paranoia, hysteria, disrespecting real religious persecution, and making wild allegations for fundraising purposes.

The war on Christians is real. So too is the media’s thoroughly biased coverage of same.

[goldstategop]

There is a real war on Christians in America, misrepresented and dismissed by the biased MSM, that accuses the victims of paranoia, hysteria and making money off non-existent allegations of persecution. Christians are attacked for being fanatics, depicted as power-hungry demagogues, penalized for being intolerant of perverts, punished for opposing homosexuality, forced to enlist homosexuals in their clubs, denied acknowlegment of their religious faith symbols, condemned for upholding the traditional family unit and censured for holding a rally in Sodomitical City By The Bay. All this and more when Congress has not even enacted measures near and dear to the hearts of Christian conservatives. What's the true picture - a powerful theocracy placing the Left under siege or the Left pressing ahead with its campaign to wipe out of every last vestige of the Judeo-Christian heritage in America? While the Nazis were candid about their aim to wipe out the Jews, the enemies of faith in America exaggerate the influence of Christians upon the country while minimizing their role in the secular jihad against that influence. But don't look to the MSM to start reporting the truth in America's culture wars.

(Denny Crane: "I Don't Want To Socialize With A Pinko Liberal Democrat Commie. Say What You Like About Republicans. We Stick To Our Convictions. Even When We Know We're Dead Wrong.")

[Cornpone]

"An alleged news story in The Washington Post, (March 29th) by Alan Cooperman, was headlined "’War’ on Christians Is Alleged." Try to imagine the Post covering the 2005 conference Examining the Real Agenda of the Religious Far Right and headlining its story "Coming ‘Theocracy’ Alleged."

There is an awful lot of 'alleged' allegations here...are there any FACTS?

[HisKingdomWillAbolishSinDeath]

The devil is enraged because he knows his gig as "prince of the power of the air" is almost up. And unlike a lot of ignorant humans, he knows what eternity in the "lake of fire" is going to be like. He has nothing to lose, because he has already been judged, so he is pulling out all the stops.

[Rapscallion]

The war on Christianity is not new at all. It has persisted in the media for decades. But I suspect nothing will have a more destructive impact than the realization that the Catholic Church had been defending and harboring homosexual predators for decades. Christianity in the minds of many now equates to hypocracy and something not worth defending. And in the vacuum this creates, Islam lurks (once again) ready to swarm over the western world. I suspect this is the threat President Bush sees but cannot express, and that we cannot fight militarily.

[TheSpottedOwl]

Give the National Socialists credit for candor. In 1920s Germany, if a Jew had said to a Nazi, "You hate me," the goose-steeper would have replied: "You’re right, Jew. And if we ever get a chance, we’ll kill you." He would not have accused his victim of paranoia, hysteria, disrespecting real religious persecution, and making wild allegations for fundraising purposes.

Christians and Jews need to stick together.

[Energy Alley]

while I am not a religious man, I was at one time fairly sympathetic to christian fundementalists, but as time goes on they just seem more and more like just another obnoxious professional victim group pushing the nations patience.

[Sir Francis Dashwood]

It is a war on Genesis.

It is no coincidence Islamic pagans hate Israel, Jews, Christians and Western Civilization. The entire basis of Western Civilization is Mosaic Law, something both the Neo-Pagan Left and the pagan Islamic thugs cannot abide and wish to destroy.

The very idea that human beings have individual rights not subject to the whims of a monarch, but subject to the laws of Yahweh, is directly from Moses.

Historically, this is proven over and over again with the successive conflicts between the forces of paganism and the Judaic culture. It is being played out here and all over the world today...

Morality and all of its associated concepts are from the belief some higher power defines what is correct in human behavior. Today, “morals” are a religious pagan philosophy of esoteric hobgoblins. Transfiguration is a pantheon of fantasies as the medium of infinitization. Others get derision for having an unwavering Judaic belief in Yahweh or Yeshua, although their critics and enemies will evangelize insertion of phantasmagoric fetishisms into secular law.

Mosaic Law (of which the Ten Commandments is just a part) is the foundation of Western Civilization. Genesis is the primary focus of the Declaration of Independence, from where our Constitutional rights are derived. The Ten Commandments are the foundation of our judicial system.

“We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights…”

Moses wrote Genesis. This is why such people will jump up and down screaming when the Ten Commandments are displayed or the Creationist idea of monogamy from the book of Genesis is introduced.

Genesis also ruins the illogical and non-biological arguments of homosexual monogamy. In a secular sense, homosexuality is an idolatry of perversion. It is in no way an anatomical function of the human organism, but a phantasmagoric creation from within the mentally disturbed human mind, a social psychosis, naked and on full exhibitionist display.

This is the whole crux (pun intended) of their attack on creationism - - they are really frustrated by Genesis, but cannot destroy the axiomatic state of procreant human biology, it does not fit their religious agenda.

[WildHorseCrash]

while I am not a religious man, I was at one time fairly sympathetic to christian fundementalists, but as time goes on they just seem more and more like just another obnoxious professional victim group pushing the nations patience.

Absolutely. And there is, in my opinion, some justification for the characterization of "paranoia" and "hysteria."

[VOA]

Phillips’ charge that religion is much too influential in America should
provoke peals of uproarious laughter.

Phillips wouldn't write a book about how schools are now bending over
for Islamic students.

That might get his head cut off.

Better to mess with all those hateful, murderous Christians.