Posted on 10/28/2006 7:08:27 PM PDT by infoguy
An October 17, 2006, op-ed by Los Angeles Times columnist Joel "I Don't Support Our Troops" Stein condescendingly slams Christianity as a "death cult."
Writing a lippy account of a Presbyterian service he had recently attended, Stein belches,
"The first thing I noticed about church was how much like PBS it was. The lighting was dim, the speakers talked slowly, the songs were dated, there were a lot of references to reading material and every so often my eye line was interrupted by envelopes asking me to donate money. Also, I kept falling asleep."
And (bold added),
"I'd never realized how much of a death cult Christianity is. When we weren't fixating on how awesome Christ's murder was, we were singing about how terrific it was going to be when we bite it. Chipper up, Christians! There's a lot to live for. They're making more of those 'Narnia' movies."
Cute, eh? Ugh. There's more to Stein's column, but suffice it to say that it is a disrespectful and dismissive slap at Christianity.
A few days after Stein's arrogant column appeared, the Times, surprisingly, published two letters that were critical of the column.
Thank you, Richard Rorex of Apple Valley, California (bold mine):
Joel Stein's column would qualify as hate speech if the subject were anything other than Christianity. Making light of one of the two mandated ordinances of the Christian religion does not show any sense of decency. Considering the furor over the cartoons of Muhammad published in Europe, I do not understand why Christianity is fair game for ridicule.
And thank you, David Schwankle of Riverside, California, whose letter begins, "Even though I'm an atheist, I find myself offended by Stein's glib, juvenile ridicule of a church service."
As NewsBusters reported a couple weeks ago, the Los Angeles Times recently solicited readers for advice on how to improve their newspaper. My very first piece of advice, which I documented in the comments section and at the forum at the Times web site, was for the paper to hire a columnist with a genuine Christian worldview. At NewsBusters, we have documented several instances of anti-Christian and anti-Catholic bias at the Times. Stein's column simply adds to the pile of examples.
The Times seems to care very little about how often their columns offend Christians. If they did care, they would do something significant about it - right away.
Imagine them running congress.
Joel Stein? Jesus loves you anyway. He died on the cross for your sins as well as mine.
I'm not offended that you find my Christianity repulsive. I do, however, pray for your soul...
Please, if you "hear" Him knocking on the door to your heart, please...listen to Him and let him in before it's too late.
Amen.
Jude 1:18 - They said to you, "In the last times there will be scoffers who will follow their own ungodly desires."
Yea, Christians are known for loping off heads, highjacking planes and ramming them into buildings full of people, inciting suicide bombers to blow up innocent people and otherwise creating general chaos in the world. Pleeeeeese.
Christianity a death cult, yeah OK. Let`s put that to the test...Let the LA Times publish a cartoon of Jesus and then one of Mohammed and see what happens.
stein must be a methodist......crystal methodist maybe
Good one.
Maybe some adventurous soul should rent an outdoor projection system, and project that "Mo' Bombhead" cartoon onto the side of the LA Times building, "Batman" style.
Joel Stein- getting in early on the Dhimmi rush.
WTF? Those two things are incompatible.
Joel Stein will find out just how much of a death 'cult' Christianity is when he stands before God not long after he has assumed room temperature.
He might have burst into flames when crossing the threshold of an evangelical Church.
Those in the media have far too many opinions.
That said, I help at least 1/2 of the remaining dozen or so subscribers to the Times drop them over crap like this.
Do us Christians get to riot now because Joel has offended our God and religion?
No? Christians don't do that? Dangit.
Yes! I noticed the same thing. What a buffoon.
"I do not understand why Christianity is fair game for ridicule."
Theo van Gogh could probably shed some light on this question but he is not available for comment.
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