Religion Dispatches
…of history to fit his right-wing extremist worldview. During his time as a Fox News host, RD has covered the many varieties of Beck’s extremist views on religion. Indeed RD even provided fodder for Beck: at Christmastime, he mocked one of my posts on his radio show in which I took him to task for trying to hijack the Christmas movie It’s a Wonderful Life. Beck won’t be going away completely. According to the release, Beck will be developing other…
Read More
…slation,” Ferrell walks us through the complex and bedeviled history of a truly Modern English-language Bible. We all know how Martin Luther’s revolutionary reform of the Catholic church was embedded in two fundamental practices: translation of the Bible into the German vernacular, and thus putting the Book back into the People’s hands. That dangerous and unsettling principle, “the priesthood of all believers,” requires first and foremost a Bible…
Read More…in Jesus’ name and celebrates Christmas. “Obviously” not a Christian, says Fox News. Earhardt’s underhanded comment came during a segment focused on the ever-more likely prospect of a presidential run by Texas Governor Rick Perry. Does Perry have the same fundraising power as Romney, the panel wondered. “The Christian Coalition, I think he could get a lot of money coming from that base, because Romney,” Earhardt chattered, “obviously not being a C…
Read More
…“Spirited Debate”—or as Buzzfeed put it, “The Most Embarrassing Interview Fox News Has Ever Done.” If you haven’t had the chance to see it, or if you aren’t able to watch it now (below, right), here’s what happened, briefly. The interviewer, Lauren Green, purportedly embarrasses herself by primarily asking Aslan not about the substance of his new book, Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth, but why he, a Muslim, could and would write a…
Read More…ing a minority religion look foolish. No one should be surprised to find a Fox News franchise aiming for ratings by appealing to the coarsest, least-informed impulses of the American public, or by setting up and exploiting well-intentioned people and organizations. (Just ask Shirley Sherrod, or Van Jones.) That’s always been a Fox signature tactic. Still, it’s worth asking: Is it the policy of the Fox News conglomerate to promote public ridicule…
Read More…lesbian kiss scene in the first episode of the new season of Dr. Who. The BBC Worldwide’s London-based compliance team made the cut to conform with laws against same-sex relations and broadcast content in Asian countries such as Muslim majority Malaysia and Indonesia. Viewers in South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and Singapore also watched the same censored version…. Jeanne Leong, director of communications at BBC Worldwide Asia, said as an internatio…
Read More…ew this, they had some theories about why their guy didn’t come in first. “Fox News skips him,” said Lynn Lewis, a Team Huck volunteer from Northern Virginia. After Huckabee won the Iowa caucuses in 2008, “McCain and Thompson kneecapped him [in South Carolina], claimed he wasn’t a fiscal conservative.” Then, Lewis maintained, when the candidates moved on to Florida, “Fox News reported that Huckabee wasn’t campaigning there.” Sean Hannity, she cont…
Read More…er sessions are an official function of the CMSA. *This claim, originally attributed to Patrick Poole, was actually made by FoxNews.com “sources.”…
Read More…o the retired pope Benedict to “step forward and preach the unadulterated truth.” The truth, he added, is that homosexuality is wrong, and taking a so-called non-judgmental approach to it can only encourage its growth. “There is something worse than murdering a child,” Levin said. “Because, as the Talmud says, when you kill someone physically you don’t touch them spiritually. But when you lead a person into heinous sin, you kill them spiritually i…
Read More…Associate Editor Hussein Rashid appeared on the BBC show Beyond Belief on Oct. 4, 2010, to discuss the history and place of Islam in America. Other panelists include Robert Salaam of The American Muslim and Daniel Pipes. About half the show focuses on the Park51 controversy and responding to Pam Gellar’s incitement against New Yorkers’ right to self-determination. …
Read More