Email Labels Christian Ministries as “Domestic Hate Groups"

[JumboBurton]

Concerning "the past decade," it appears that the relentless assault on Christianity by the religion-haters (except for the Religion of Peace) has succeeded with a certain Mr. Shinigami.

...Gee, I wonder why that is?



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westboro_Baptist_Church

Oh right.

[bob_rx2000]

There is an old aphorism in the news business that "if it bleeds, it leads", meaning that sensational news will always push other news off the front pages. Since the vast majority of people don't really pay attention to the details, they get their impressions from those few lead stories and headlines. Since the advent of CNN and the 24-by-7 news cycle, there is heightened pressure to fill the time with sensational news, and of course, the bias of the editors at the various news outlets is going to creep into what is selected. This has all rolled up into "news" that features the extreme positions on every issue, and ignores for the most part the more central positions held by most of us.

If the A$$hats at Westboro Baptist are where you get your ideas about Christianity in contemporary America, well, you're going to have a skewed view, especially if all the information you get is what is presented by the lamestream TV news. I notice that the essentially balanced message of love and acceptance in my church somehow is being missed by those who report on religion. While I'm a somewhat fallen (ie irregularly attending) Lutheran, one of my sisters and her family have decided that an evangelical church fits them. I also don't hear much in the news about what this group does, either with mission work in the poor mountain communities in southwestern PA / WV, or on mission trips to Central America. How is that? Possibly it is because helping a poor family put a roof that doesn't leak on their house isn't very interesting or "newsworthy" unless a mush-mouth ex-President / peanut farmer is involved?

[raycyrx]

Concerning "the past decade," it appears that the relentless assault on Christianity by the religion-haters (except for the Religion of Peace) has succeeded with a certain Mr. Shinigami.

...Gee, I wonder why that is?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westboro_Baptist_Church

Oh right.

From your link:

It is headed by Fred Phelps and consists primarily of members of his large family;[5] in 2011, the church stated that it had about 40 members.

[JumboBurton]

There is an old aphorism in the news business that "if it bleeds, it leads", meaning that sensational news will always push other news off the front pages. Since the vast majority of people don't really pay attention to the details, they get their impressions from those few lead stories and headlines. Since the advent of CNN and the 24-by-7 news cycle, there is heightened pressure to fill the time with sensational news, and of course, the bias of the editors at the various news outlets is going to creep into what is selected. This has all rolled up into "news" that features the extreme positions on every issue, and ignores for the most part the more central positions held by most of us.

If the A$$hats at Westboro Baptist are where you get your ideas about Christianity in contemporary America, well, you're going to have a skewed view, especially if all the information you get is what is presented by the lamestream TV news. I notice that the essentially balanced message of love and acceptance in my church somehow is being missed by those who report on religion. While I'm a somewhat fallen (ie irregularly attending) Lutheran, one of my sisters and her family have decided that an evangelical church fits them. I also don't hear much in the news about what this group does, either with mission work in the poor mountain communities in southwestern PA / WV, or on mission trips to Central America. How is that? Possibly it is because helping a poor family put a roof that doesn't leak on their house isn't very interesting or "newsworthy" unless a mush-mouth ex-President / peanut farmer is involved?

This is the burden of the media: if they report on "slow" news everyone is unimpressed and complains about how bad their reporters are, if they report on contentious news everyone lambastes them for their insensitive approach to reporting. Blame the media all you want but in some ways the audience themselves is guilty; journalists/news outlets can't function without revenue... and what are people more likely to tune into? I'm not justifying biased news, but think about how businesses function and realize your expectations for ideal reporting/news is not as realistic as you think.

Yes I know religion (and Christianity especially) has done a lot of good for the world, education, charity, healthcare, etc. Westboro Baptist exposes some of the problems when people take it literally and too far. And they're not the only ones... there are dozens of other sects who are less provocative but still hold equally hate-filled views, all throughout America and all throughout the world.

[Kingsman]

Jumbo: re. "dozens of other sects". Your argument would be stronger with more specifics. By the way, I hope you're not referring to Islam which is a Religion of Peace.

[BobbyBeetleMishawaka]

If we keep repeating it long enough it might come true: "Islam is a religion of peace."

I think someone might get a sizable grant to study a comparison between the women who marry prisoners (especially those with life terms or on death row) and those who marry fundamentalist Muslim immigrants. My hunch is that there may be numerous similarities between the two groups.