Militant Christians…
7 July 2007 - 22 תמוז 5767 by Huw
I’ve read several news reports on the current Christian Vrs Gays issues in California, thanks to Brodie’s friend, Jeff
The Sacramento Bee has a story here. This post on Jews On First has a lot of links to other stories at the bottom of the page.
A couple of things stand out: the phrase “Slavic Christians” is used over and over. I clicked through originally in fear of finding the same Russian creeps, with their icons, spitting on Gays in Sacramento. No. This is Slavic Protestants, fleeing persecution (from the Orthodox) in their homelands who have come here to share the love.
The other thing that stands out shows a bias in the media. It is what tmatt would call a “ghost”:
If these “Slavic Christians” were Muslims, we’d be hearing things about “Islamic Radicals” and “Islamicists”. Where is the parallel language? Just because these are Christians they get a slide. Even in “liberal” papers such as in Seattle (or here).
The bias is that the media tries, on the one hand, to portray a (valid) picture of divisions between those who follow Mohammed and those who use that religion to foist their politics and hate on others. Yet the media prefers to lump all who use the word “Christian” together.
“Christianist” (a recent term) and “Christer” (a 60s term) and several other negative terms come to mind. I’d like to see these terms used in papers that also use “Islamicist” or other such terms.
These new terms need to be applied correctly, of course, because many conservative Christians are morally opposed to sex outside of heterosexual marriage while not failing to show charity to their friends and neighbours who are same-sex attracted. Several regular and frequent comment-writers on this blog come to mind: I don’t expect ever to be slugged over the head or threatened with a gun by any of the Orthodox, Roman Catholics or conservative Anglicans who read this!
How do we find a way to wrest the good name of our Lord from such loonies, when the media shows its bias by repeatedly lumping us all together? This is why there is not often coverage of the “religious left”: it makes us look good.
Find more by googling, gay sacramento slavic.
