Media antagonism to religion

Submitted by Fay Voshell (United States), Apr 1, 2009 at 10:38

The problem with those reporting on religion is not desultory reporting.

The fact of the matter is that most of the media is adamantly opposed to religion in general except when religion or religious institutions support left liberal agendas. Any traditionally conservative religious body is perceived as an enemy unless cordoned off into a harmless, politcally emasculated religious preserve like the Amish communities. [Let no one think I am attacking the Amish, whom I admire regardless of their a-political stance.]

For example, the media penchant for leftward initiatives in religious institutions means that a liberal main line denomination, such as the Presbyterian Church USA, will receive friendly reporting when it decides to divest its portfolio of holdings of Israeli companies.

It also means that the destructive actions of Islamists will be viewed sympathetically--or at the very least, viewed with an empathetic lens. That is because the left, the inheritor of the legacy of the French Revolution in all its permutations, is generally in favor of destroying the prevailing order so that new things continually spring up. The infatuation with violence and destruction, now most often called "change," is combined with the idea that any societal organization--religious or not--which holds grievances against the West is automatically legitimate because it is a victim of Western aggression.

The result: Soft reporting for Islamist groups and attack mode for traditionally conservative religious organizations such as the Roman Catholic Church and evangelicals. The latter two are among the last accepted targets of discrimination and prejudice--prejudice perpetrated and encouraged by the media (and Hollywood), whose ignorance on the subject of theology and religion is generally appalling, and whose attitude toward conservative believers often resembles that of the Parisian mob toward the aristocracy and the Church.

Fay Voshell

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