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Archive: January 10, 2010 - January 16, 2010
Robertson's ignorance of Haiti, and ours
The hemisphere's first black republic chose freedom over bondage. Now it's the world's turn to choose Haiti.
By Susan K. Smith | January 14, 2010; 4:29 PM ET | Comments (6)
Ignorance of Christianity no virtue
When it comes to religion, I fear that a good-hearted ignorance prevails in many newsrooms. Reporters don't know what they don't know and so repeat errors.
By John Mark Reynolds | January 14, 2010; 1:02 PM ET | Comments (231)
Christian majority's special responsibility
The Christian faith is the largest faith community in the U.S. (and world) by a strong majority, which means that we Christians have to take special pains not to use our advantages inappropriately.
By Brian D. McLaren | January 14, 2010; 12:30 PM ET | Comments (6)
Bias against the uninformed and pious
Their interpretation of people's negative responses to their uninformed and pious conclusions are not from an anti-Christian bias, but because their remarks reveal how uninformed both of them are about the Christian faith as well as the psychology of human behavior.
By John Shelby Spong | January 14, 2010; 12:26 PM ET | Comments (43)
Moses, leadership and trust
Leaders are not trusted because they make a promise and deliver once but because they are able to do so again and again.
By Erica Brown | January 14, 2010; 11:52 AM ET | Comments (0)
Haiti and human decency
The Chinese, the Americans, the Cubans, the French, the Germans and others all have aircraft sitting side-by-side on the tarmac in Haiti. Whatever differences there are among these countries, the sheer magnitude of the catastrophe in Haiti dwarfs them.
By Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite | January 14, 2010; 8:33 AM ET | Comments (34)
Judging the unfinished product
Critics of Christian behavior are judging the unfinished product (Christians).
By Gardner Calvin Taylor | January 13, 2010; 5:35 PM ET | Comments (2)
Discussing politics and religion at the dinner table
There's an old saying that you should never discuss politics or religion at dinner parties. I disagree.
By Sally Quinn | January 13, 2010; 2:47 PM ET | Comments (2)
Marketplace religion peddlers can't cry foul
If you do exercise your right to peddle your faith in the marketplace of ideas, you cannot cry foul when somebody criticizes you or refuses to buy what you are selling.
By J. Brent Walker | January 13, 2010; 1:31 PM ET | Comments (4)
Jesus will continue to be scandalous
"God" will continue to be challenged by prideful hearts, my own of which is chief; and Jesus will continue to be scandalous, because in an ever-increasing humanistic society, there is no room for good news of unmerited grace, mercy, freedom, and affection.
By Matt Maher | January 13, 2010; 12:23 PM ET | Comments (7)
Media should provide forum for all, not favor for some
I often do Bill O'Reilly's show and enjoy being able to give my point of view, even though sometimes I have been taken to task by someone on that network. That's the whole point of the media. To present fair and balanced views of those who hold opposite positions. As in every profession, some in the media are Christians, some are of other faiths. Some have no faith at all. To say there is a media bias against any religion is just plain wrong.
By Sally Quinn | January 13, 2010; 11:46 AM ET | Comments (10)
Hume biased, not media
Brit Hume used the airways to proffer a latest version of Christian exceptionalism, and Fox News became an apt vehicle to allow millions to hear the basic dogma of evangelical Christianity: there is only one Truth, and only Jesus Christ can take you there. Left unsaid--"everyone else is doomed to hell."
By Aseem Shukla | January 13, 2010; 9:57 AM ET | Comments (6)
The anti-Christian elite
The constant bombardment of anti-Christian negative imagery attempts to persuade the American populous that this community stands against change, embodies intolerance and poses a danger to a possible John Lennon utopia. Yet, I am convinced the vast majority of Americans can discriminate between truth and propaganda.
By Samuel Rodriguez | January 13, 2010; 3:09 AM ET | Comments (18)
Hume out of line
Maybe one day I will understand why evangelicals insist upon whining so much. The world is not against evangelicals. People just do not like to be judged, as so many evangelicals do, as being "less than" those who believe a certain way.
By Susan K. Smith | January 12, 2010; 4:44 PM ET | Comments (4)
Bias against Christianity is real, wrong, and understandable
Hume's critics would do well to acknowledge that their objections were based on issues far larger than his honest suggestion about using the gifts of a tradition he loves. And Mr. Hume would do well to acknowledge that while his critics are being unfair and overly sensitive in their response to his comments, they are not crazy to have concerns about them.
By Brad Hirschfield | January 12, 2010; 12:36 PM ET | Comments (102)
Brit Hume's choice
Hume made the kind of choice American society affords, even encourages one to make, and later encouraged another person in crisis to make a similar choice. In a way he is right to ask: what is so surprising about that?
By Greg M. Epstein | January 12, 2010; 11:48 AM ET | Comments (2)
Avatar's ecological and political faith
The movie is extraordinary, not only because of its technology, but for its spiritually rooted progressive politics.
By Arthur Waskow | January 12, 2010; 10:31 AM ET | Comments (3)
Bias against pomposity
You can tell how biased the media is against Christianity by the number of broadcasters who ridicule it and speak openly about how their lives improved after becoming atheists. Well, there's Bill Maher. And then there's Bill Maher.
By Herb Silverman | January 12, 2010; 9:57 AM ET | Comments (10)
'Woe to you, when all men speak well of you!'
For those Christians who worry they see signs of hostility to their beliefs, well, what's the issue? Didn't Jesus explicitly warn you that might just happen?
By Gustav Niebuhr | January 12, 2010; 9:42 AM ET | Comments (4)
No persecution
I have experienced criticism for my beliefs as a Christian and sometimes mean-spirited forms of retaliation from critics, but never persecution. Persecution of Christians is not present in our beloved nation.
By Welton Gaddy | January 12, 2010; 9:33 AM ET | Comments (6)
Hume was right and proper
Suppose, on the other hand, that Oprah had publicly recommended that Tiger join a New Age group in order to achieve an inner harmony that would restore his relationships. I doubt that there would have been an outcry.
By Richard Mouw | January 12, 2010; 9:10 AM ET | Comments (68)
Religious no longer a protected class
Religious leaders and apologists should accept that since their institutions are so influential in American life, we have the right to hold their every move up to the light. If they detect that the media are giving them a harder time today than in the past, that is because the bias that protected religion from scrutiny is beginning to dissolve. High time.
By Daniel C. Dennett | January 12, 2010; 8:57 AM ET | Comments (47)
Media bias begins at Fox
If Hume is really concerned about media bias with regard to religion, he need look no farther than Fox news. Should Fox coverage of Islam, the bias and provocative statements of Sean Hannity and Bill O'Reilly and their programs, be attributed to their politics "or widespread media bias against Islam"?
By John Esposito | January 12, 2010; 8:54 AM ET | Comments (9)
Bad media Karma?
Things like bad media don't just happen to people according to Buddhists. No, the law of moral causation means Palin and Hume need to look to their own past misdeeds to figure out why they may get bad press. From the perspective of the Christian faith, the closest parallel to Karma is the teaching that "you reap what you sow." In other words, those who sow pious criticism and religious shaming may get some back in return.
By Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite | January 11, 2010; 8:21 PM ET | Comments (9)
Bias against religious differences
The issue is not Christianity per se, but religions and religious commitments that seem different or challenging.
By Mathew N. Schmalz | January 11, 2010; 8:18 PM ET | Comments (3)
Too high a price
No, in order to have freedom of speech and religious freedom, one must be willing to endure speech that one considers highly offensive or even blasphemous.
By Richard Land | January 11, 2010; 6:02 PM ET | Comments (0)
A journalist is not a pastor
A journalist who promotes one religion over another is like a pastor, rabbi or imam who endorses a political candidate from the pulpit -- by conflating the Bill of Rights with Articles of Faith, damage is done to the integrity of both sets of values..
By Jack Moline | January 11, 2010; 4:45 PM ET | Comments (3)
Christians are being persecuted, but not here
Those of us who try to keep an eye on and have a heart for suffering Christians have to log horror stories weekly. What, then, do we make of commentator Brit Hume and others complaining of persecutions inflicted on them and fellow Christians in the United States?
By Martin Marty | January 11, 2010; 3:53 PM ET | Comments (8)
Evangelizing is what evangelical Christians do
I'm not at all sure why the liberal left is always so shocked that evangelical Christians want other people to become Christians.
By Lisa Miller | January 11, 2010; 3:26 PM ET | Comments (5)
Brit Hume and the right to stupid speech
Hume said what he said because Christianity, despite America's growing religious pluralism (including an increase in the number of Americans who reject all religion), still occupies a privileged position in the United States. He said what he said because he could get away with it. At least on FOX.
By Susan Jacoby | January 11, 2010; 2:34 PM ET | Comments (349)
U.S. overreacting to underpants bomber?
It's high time that the U.S. government stopped alienating its Muslim population and instead worked with it to combat threats at home and abroad.
By Muqtedar Khan | January 11, 2010; 12:32 PM ET | Comments (1)
Merry Orthodox Christmas
For Christians in the Holy Land, the life of faith is not a decoration to an existence of other accomplishments. The life of faith is a journey into union with the One who is our Life and our Hope, our Light and our true Wisdom.
By His Beatitude, Patriarch Theofilos III | January 11, 2010; 11:24 AM ET | Comments (0)
Rescuing 'jihad' from the terrorists
Osama Bin Laden and al-Qaeda hijacked the word 'jihad' from the Muslim community and turned something meant to be a positive spiritual struggle or striving for self improvement into something ugly, dark and fear inspiring.
By Salman Ahmad | January 11, 2010; 10:05 AM ET | Comments (45)
Muslim pluralism problems
Recent attacks against Coptic Christians in Egypt and firebomb attacks on churches in Malaysia have raised major concerns about deteriorating rights and security for religious minorities in Muslim countries.
By John Esposito | January 11, 2010; 9:47 AM ET | Comments (71)
Welcome back to medieval times
If this anti-blasphemy law is not overturned Ireland can no longer claim to be a participant in the modern world. The existence of this law also reveals the low status now enjoyed by traditional forms of religion that needs to be examined and raised to consciousness.
By John Shelby Spong | January 11, 2010; 9:13 AM ET | Comments (6)
Hurray for the First Amendment
If the law of the land grants the right of civil union to gays and lesbians, is it too great a leap to think that those who refuse to conduct civil unions or speak against it because of religious reasons make also one day be fined and imprisoned?
By Vashti Murphy McKenzie | January 11, 2010; 12:11 AM ET | Comments (85)
