ABC Lumps 'Christian Right' With 9-11 Terrorists as Driving People to Atheism

NewsBusters ^ | Mark Finkelstein

[governsleastgovernsbest]

Editor's Note: ABC News broadcast the item equating Christians with 9-11 terrorists in being responsible for driving people to atheism. Mark Finkelstein wrote the article at NewsBusters CRITICIZING ABC. Please address your comments accordingly.

ABC may have set a loathsome new MSM low in insulting traditional Christians. On today's "Good Morning America," the network lumped the "Christan right" with the 9-11 Islamic terrorists as driving people to atheism.

Keying off an atheists convention being held this weekend, GMA ran a segment on the "Rise in Atheism." Seeking to explain the phenomenon, as images rolled first of the WTC in flames and then of a man placidly holding a sign that simply read "One Nation Under God" and of a display at a demonstration of the Ten Commandments, ABC's Liz Marlantes stated:

Some are reacting to religious extremism, like the Islamic fundamentalism behind the terrorist attacks of 9-11, but also the rise of the Christian right in the U.S.

So there it is. To ABC, traditional Christians are as responsible for making people doubt God as the 9-11 terrorists. People peacefully exercising their First Amendment rights by displaying the Ten Commandments or a sign containing an excerpt from the Pledge of Allegiance as faith-shattering as terrorists who murder thousands by flying airplanes into buildings.

Does MSM anti-Christian bias get any worse than this? ABC owes an apology.

NOTE: In making the case that atheism is growing, Marantes mentioned that "Congress now has its first self-proclaimed atheist." But while displaying his image [shown here], ABC didn't in any way identify him. He is Pete Stark (D-Calif.)

 

Contact Mark at mark@gunhill.net

[SoldierMedic]

Really showing those Christian beliefs that will get you into heaven but not me.

[muawiyah]

The judge didn't have sufficient information to make such a statement. Besides, the first human beings in North America came from Europe ~ but before Europeans turned "white" (according to all the latest research).

The Bible makes no such claim. In fact, the Bible doesn't even tell us that continents existed~!,

A judge who misuses religion to pursue judicial excess ~ not a new story. Some of these guys really miss the good old days when there was more use of the death penalty.

[muawiyah]

BTW, two colors only ~ black and red.

That's all the pigment types we have. All the rest involves percentages of pigment in any given area of skin.

You can tell the guys with the red pigment ~ they have green eyes!

[LukeL]

Paul said in the endtimes good will be called evil and evil callled good and that Christians would be hated.

[muawiyah]

YOu didn’t get “fisting”? How prudish.

[RobbyS]

ABC also forgot that the free exercise of religion does not depend on the right of free speech but on the second “clause” of the First Amendment. The rights protected are analogous to those protected in the first article of magna carta.

[muawiyah]

Look, the point was for you to quit worrying about what I might believe, or not believe, AND KEEP YOUR HANDS OFF MY WALLET.

You claimed you would but you did not offer a trustworthy surity.

Now you are reduced to PREACHING to me.

Can never trust these people who worry about others pushing religion down their throats ~ they're all too ready to do that themselves!

[muawiyah]

So leave!

It's a free country ~ you get sick of organized religion, join unorganized religion, join no religion, wander around in a daze on Sundays, or Saturdays, or Wednesdays, or maybe Thursdays.

The fact that you or any one else is "sick of religion" is absolutely irrelevant.

[muawiyah]

THat’s one batch of meanings. Since societies without Christians do the same thing definitions that point toward that particular brand of religion are not quite on the mark.

[sgtyork]

Inter-racial marriages were outlawed for many years due to religious reasoning.

That was 50 years ago and the odious rationales were exclusively religious.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

If my wife were to be raped, some are seeking to make sure she could not obtain Plan B.

Complex arguement but you are aware that majority of pro-lifers accept abortion in the case of rape, incest, etc...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
If I was in a coma, I’d be kept that way, even if I had no hope of recovery

With the parties that worship death, you could someday be in a condition that is not life ending and they will want to end it because your life is not ‘worth living’. I can’t find the link, but there was a woman who wrote in opinion journal about a hospital staff who offered to end feeding her comatose father, who went on to recover. I have had a similar experience.

This is not theoretical....

According to a Council of Europe report on Euthanasia in 2003

“A number of quantitative studies of the rate and major characteristics of these practices have been conducted in 1990, 1995 and 2001. These have demonstrated a disturbingly high incidence of euthanasia being carried out without the patient’s explicit request and an equally disturbing failure by medical professionals to report euthanasia cases to the proper regulatory authority.”(Emphasis added)

As originally contemplated, doctor assisted suicide was supposed to be a rare event to ease the unrelenting pain and suffering of a person who was not going to get better.

What its become is a way to knock off granny before she becomes a financial burden on the family or to allow the kids to get their hands on granny’s estate before illness eats up the inheritance.

You are a medic, do you really want to live in a society where the first medical impulse is to pull the plug?

[muawiyah]

Well, then, I looked at them and noticed that presently we have a law on the books that says you can kill babies. Presumably, using your standards implicit in your argument by analogy, that law arises out of someone’s religious traditions and should therefore be abolished.

[muawiyah]

Frankly you do not get off the circle of life all that easy. Man has but one life ~ and it never ends ~ unless you pass on to eternal damnation and then we don’t really know what happens since no one has come back from that.

[SoldierMedic]

You are a medic, do you really want to live in a society where the first medical impulse is to pull the plug?

No, but than again I don't want to live in a society where the dying needlessly suffer because others feel that they can tell them what is moral and what is immoral. A man dying of cancer must spend his last days in extreme pain, or in a stupor due to the pain medications, because somebody says it would be immoral to let him die? The alternative isn't really living.

[sgtyork]

That was 50 years ago and the odious rationales were exclusively religious.

Oops.

Make that

were Not exclusively religious.

Also, what force in society ended Jim Crow and other manifestation’s of racial tension? It wasn’t atheism.

Reverand Martin Luther King
Reverand Ralph Abernathy

[TASMANIANRED]

Christians don’t drive people to atheism.. They drive themselves..

[SoldierMedic]

I didn’t say all laws were created by Religious convictions, just some laws are created with the interest of forcing your religious views of morality on others.

[muawiyah]

Be sure you kill yourself on your own. Don’t ask me for help. Don’t try to trick my doctor into it either.

[GiovannaNicoletta]

Bingo.

[muawiyah]

"religious views of morality" led the Supreme Court to approve baby-killing.

Good reason to abandon the religious traditions to which they belonged. Recently I've noticed that the Episcopal church is cracking up big time, so maybe that was just a portent.

Bet you don't believe in portents, right?

[SoldierMedic]

Don’t worry, I won’t ask you for your help, and I’m pretty sure I could trick your doctor into doing it, but because he’s many states away, I don’t see the point in trying.