Posted on 03/30/2006 5:39:42 PM PST by Mr. Silverback
Was it just me, or has it been Jesus Week in the news?
First, the news was filled with reports that Abdul Rahman, an Afghan man who converted to Christianity 16 years ago, is in mortal danger. Though the Afghan constitution clearly guarantees the right to change one’s faith, some local prosecutor has decided that Sharia law is firmly in place and anyone who denies Islam must be executed.
Forgive my cynical nature, but I found it very interesting that the press gave more coverage to this one man (valuable though he is) than they have to pretty much any issue of Christian persecution (and most human rights issues) in my lifetime. This controversy has already received more coverage than the complicity of Google, Cisco and Yahoo in the oppression of 1.5 billion Chinese people by their government, and if there were news items on the front page every day during the first 20 years of the genocide against Christians in Sudan, I must have missed it. Certainly I have never seen any major media outlet deal with the risks Christian converts face in the Palestinian Authority—stories about “torture” and detention are reserved for facilities run by America’s military.
We live in a time when the mainstream media monolith has a story template, and only what fits that template is heavily reported. It’s true that the environment in Afghanistan matters more than that in most countries because we have troops. Still, because the suffering of my brothers and sisters has mattered so little to them before, I can’t shake the idea that the media only knows this man’s name because they feel his plight might embarrass President Bush. I certainly wish they had paid as much attention to even one of Saddam’s victims. Surely CNN, which is known to have collaborated with Saddam’s government on what stories would be broadcast, could have found a torture victim or two in a country known for the practice.
Later in the week we were treated to the rescue of members of the Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) held hostage in Iraq, though CPT referred to their members as being “released.” I suppose that when you let a hostage go because a commando has his boot on your neck, it could be defined as a “release.”
Though the actual hostages are said to have thanked the American and British troops who rescued them, the organization itself only mentioned the military by saying that our forces are responsible for the situation that would allow the kidnappings in the first place. They also lamented the suffering of the hostage’s families, comparing them to Iraqi detainees who (in CPT’s fantasy world) are grabbed off the street by our forces and stuck in deep dungeons for absolutely no reason at all. A belated statement of thanks eventually was released by the organization, but it primarily thanked the soldiers for securing the hostages without shooting any of the terrorists.
Iraq’s embassy in Canada promptly issued a statement calling them “phoney pacifists” and “willfully ignorant.” They added, “The Christian Peacemaker Teams practises the kind of politics that automatically nominate them as dupes for jihadism and fascism.” Ouch! I guess CPT will have to turn the other cheek.
Jesus told His followers to “Go the extra mile” if asked to schlep the gear of an occupying Roman soldier, but if young men in 2006 risk their lives to bring CPT hostages home to their families, it’s just another talking point.
Speaking of talking points, Hillary Clinton came up with a novel one the other day. Describing provisions in a proposed immigration law that would outlaw assisting illegal immigrants entering the country, she said, "It is certainly not in keeping with my understanding of the Scriptures. This bill would literally criminalize the Good Samaritan and probably even Jesus himself."
Forgive me if I doubt Ms. Clinton’s credentials as a theologian. And because the proposed law only targets those who set out to help people violate immigration law and has nothing to do with whether someone feeds a hungry illegal alien or gives him medical care, forgive me if I reject a Bible lesson wrapped in a cloak of deceitful bloviation. Forgive me if I view an endorsement of lawbreaking on behalf of the Almighty as a bit suspect.
Hey, wait a minute…a leader in the party whose vision of compassion is Cabrini Green wants to talk about taking care of “the least of these?” She wants to put the Jesus stamp on overburdened health and education systems? She wants to oppose efforts to close a porous border in a wartime election year?
Well then, I withdraw my objection. Preach on, Sister Hillary, preach on!
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Silverback's column ping!
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OUTSTANDING
Thanks!
Excellent! Glad you pinned CNN, Google, Cisco and Yahoo for their shameless, overt cooperation with oppression. That ought to be repeated at every opportunity. Good on ya!
Thank you!
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