Right-Wing Media Outraged Norway Attacker Accurately Labeled A Christian

[TomCADem]

Source: Media Matters

Ingraham: "The Idea That In Any Way He Represents" Christians " Is Ridiculous And Absurd." On the July 27 edition of Fox News' Fox & Friends, co-host Brian Kilmeade asked Fox News contributor Laura Ingraham if she was "surprised" that the media "quickly label" Breivik a "Christian." Ingraham replied that Breivik didn't represent "any mainstream or even fringe sentiment in the Christian community." From Fox & Friends.

* * *
O'Reilly Promo: "Why Is The Liberal Press Playing Up The Christian Angle?" A promo for Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor which aired during the July 26 broadcast of Fox News' Happening Now asked: "What's the motive? Why is the liberal press playing up the Christian angle in the Norway shooter case?" Fox News, Happening Now, 7/26/11 via Media Matters

O'Reilly: Coverage Of Breivik's Christian Faith Is "A Movement ... To Diminish And Marginalize" Christianity. On the July 25 edition of Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor, host Bill O'Reilly claimed that identifying Breivik as a Christian "is intentional and people should know. Americans ... should know that there is a movement in the American media to diminish and marginalize the Christian philosophy." Fox News, The O'Reilly Factor, 7/25/11 via Media Matters

O'Reilly: "Liberal Media Have Branded" Breivik "A Christian, Even Though There Is ... No Evidence." On The O'Reilly Factor, O'Reilly claimed: "The New York Times and other liberal media have branded the Norwegian mass murderer Anders Breivik a Christian, even though there is absolutely no evidence the man is a follower of Jesus Christ." O'Reilly later claimed: "There is no evidence this man was a member of a church. No evidence that he followed the teachings of Jesus Christ. As you know, they're nonviolent. OK? No evidence that he had anything to do with the Christian faith. Yet, they call him a Christian because he says he is? Come on." Fox News, The O'Reilly Factor, 7/26/11 via Media Matters.

Read more: http://mediamatters.org/research/201107270015

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Excellent piece of reporting by Media Matters catching the right wing media outlet trying to kill any description of the Norway terrorist as a Christian or a right winger even though his Manifesto is heavy in Crusader imagery and references to the need to protect Christianity from Muslim infidels.

http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/europe/07/24/norway.manifesto.highlights/

[wtmusic]

1. He'd have to kill a lot more to be Dubya's kind of Christian. nt

[tularetom]

2. How do we know Bill O'Reilly is a christian? Because he says he is?

There is no evidence that he follows the teachings of jesus christ.

[Fearless]

10. +1

[jberryhill]

12. We have no evidence that Bill O'Reilly is a practicing Christian

What church does he attend?

Is he a member?

[AlbertCat]

3. Yet, they call him a Christian because he says he is?

Then he is. Looking at Rick Perry's big prayer-in clearly shows that all that is required is to claim you are a Christian and maybe quote some chapter and verse.... and you're in.... with BIG MONEY TOO!

Like I said in another thread, The "good" Christians need to get in gear and do something about their "bad" Christian brethren. Both are getting their ideas from the same book. I am a gay atheist. I have no voice or power in America and elsewhere. Is it up to me to get him to follow the teachings of Jesus Christ? I don't think so. Christians need to rein in their own crazies and stop just disowning them.

[duhneece]

4. Christian terrorist, Christian terrorist

Anders was a Christian terrorist in the same way binLaden was a Muslim terrorist. Neither one reflects the peaceloving, compassionate perspective of their religion.
I want the term 'Christian terrorist' to be heard as often as we had to hear 'Muslim terrorist.'
Christian terrorist, Christian terrorist...I have a long way to go.

[personman]

19. +1, 'til we hear "Christian-extremist" as often as Muslim-extremist.

Give fundamentalist-Christians another reason for paranoid delusions of persecution. Maybe these persecutorial people could use a little of their own medicine.

I say that in the hope they might learn something about what it's like to be persecuted against, but they wouldn't. They'd use it as an excuse to persecute more "others."

It actually reminds me of the much publicized walkout on The View, where Bill O'Reilly stated that we were attacked by Muslims on 9/11. My first thought was something along the lines of "I wonder if Timothy McVeigh and Bill O'Reilly are both Irish-Catholics? Would he have stood by and tolerated someone saying that Irish-Catholics blew-up the federal building?"

[marions ghost]

5. Are criminals who commit crimes all non-Christian?

"If he did what he has alleged to have done, Anders Breivik is a Christian terrorist," Boston University religion scholar Stephen Prothero wrote on CNN.com.

"Yes, he twisted the Christian tradition in directions most Christians would not countenance. But he rooted his hate and his terrorism in Christian thought and Christian history, particularly the history of the medieval Crusades against Muslims, and current efforts to renew that clash."

"So Christians have a responsibility to speak out forcefully against him, and to look hard at the resources in the Christian tradition that can be used to such murderous ends."
----------

Andrew Sullivan, the popular blogger and Catholic, also expounded on that point, writing that "it is obvious that Christians can commit murder, assault, etc. They do so every day. Because, as Christian orthodoxy tells us, we are all sinners. To say that no Christian can ever commit murder is a sophist's piffle. ... Do the countless criminals who have gone to church or believe in Jesus immediately not count as Christians the minute they commit the crime? Of course not."

Sullivan said Bill O'Reilly's argument "is complete heresy in terms of the most basic Christian orthodoxy."

More at:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/26/anders-breivik-christian-terrorist_n_910379.html

[peace frog]

6. Attention Wingnuts: This guy is allllll yours

You can't hide from this one: YOU OWN HIM. Show some guts and take responsibility for once in your miserable lives.

[slackmaster]

7. I find myself strangely unmoved by this story

I can't make myself care what the right-wing media or anyone else thinks about it.

[bemildred]

8. Priceless. nt

[dbonds]

9. Not allowed to call the Christian Terrorists - Christian Terrorists

[jberryhill]

11. Get it straight, people, if they sing "Onward Christian Soldiers" they are not Christians

This guy was merely a "lone nut".

A "Salvation Army of One" if you will.

[truthisfreedom]

13. Christian extremist, then.

The Muslim extremists who executed the 2001 World Trade Center (and other) attacks called themselves Muslims.

[beac]

14. John stewart had a GREAT piece on this, with many GLARING examples

of Fox'y Christian hypocrisy:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=439&topic_id=1593096&mesg_id=1593096

[Rex]

15. The media, the media!!!

Oh how those in 'the media', bash without cause that white, blonde hair, blue eyed fella when we all know Glenn Beck liked what he did and approved on TVEE for all of us to jawdrop to. THE MEDIA...hmmm, gosh does that mean Foxnews finally admits to not being a news organization. I AM GETTING SO FUCKING TIRED of these assholes acting like 'the media' is something that they are NOT!

Are we that stupid now? Well, Foxnews sheeple must be to buy the - "we hate the media, but ARE the media to our viewers, dude!"

[Dappleganger]

16. This is because the Catholic and Christian churches still haven't 'owned' their own history

of violence. And I say this as a christian.

[gratuitous]

17. So, what about Breivik was specifically Christian?

Because he said he was a Christian? He also claimed in his demented screeds to be a Darwinist. Why not call him a Darwinian Terrorist?

[personman]

18. He may have been referring to social-Darwinism.

We all know Darwin's theory is meant to apply to how the natural world has evolved.

A proponent of social-Darwinism however, is someone who believes "survival of the fittest" is actually good policy for modern human beings.

Part of the reason I despise so-called "free-market capitalism" is that it is essentially economic-Darwinism, or economic-fascism, as Chomsky has called it: the gist of it is, you either conform to this authoritarian system, or you end up living under a bridge starving or dead.

From Wikipedia:

"Social Darwinism is a term used for various late nineteenth century ideologies predicated on the idea of survival of the fittest.<1> It especially refers to notions of struggle for existence being used to justify social policies which make no distinction between those able to support themselves and those unable to support themselves. The most prominent form of such views stressed competition between individuals in laissez-faire capitalism but it is also connected to the ideas of eugenics, scientific racism, imperialism,<2>, Fascism, Nazism and struggle between national or racial groups."

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

In other words, these are absolutely charming fucking people. :sarcasm:

Nah but seriously, just the worst right-wing shit-bags on the planet.

[buckrogers1965]

20. Yes.

Him calling himself a Christian makes him a Christian.

[LeftyMom]

21. Quite a few people on DU were making the same argument.

It sounded stupid coming from them too.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

22. Remember the rule:

There are no right-wing terrorists, domestic or otherwise, just crazy and deranged "lone wolves" whom are completely and totally unaffiliated with and not in any way influenced by Fox News, Glenn Beck, or any other right-wing hate radio hosts!

BUT any left-winger that commits an act of violence is a "terrorist" who is aided, abetted, supported, financed, encouraged, and influenced by liberals, the "liberal media", Democratic National Committee, etc.

:eyes: