JACKSONVILLE, Fl. (BP)–One of the most deplorable aftershocks of Sept. 11 has been the growing and outrageously irresponsible practice of leading journalists to casually equate evangelical Christians with the murderous totalitarian Taliban and their hero, the heinous Osama bin Laden.
Many years ago a Baptist entity head famously accused President Ronald Reagan of “despicable demagoguery” for statements supporting voluntary school prayer. That was an overstatement, to say the least. It is not, however, over-the-top to use that clever phrase about those who attempt to equate evangelicals to the Taliban whose barbaric, inhumane and ruthless rule has been well documented (see, for example, the Jan. 5 Washington Post article, “A Body and Spirit Broken by the Taliban,” describing the torture endured by a loyal Muslim accused of being a Christian.)
The Taliban-equals-the-religious-right argument goes something like this: Osama and the Taliban believe that only their worldview is correct and coerce their subjects to accept it; evangelicals hold to absolute truth, insisting that Jesus is the only means of salvation, for example, and work for laws that reflect their moral values; therefore, there’s not a dime’s worth of difference between Islamic fundamentalist radicals and American evangelicals (“minus the [Taliban’s] bloodlust,” as one Time magazine columnist wrote Dec. 17, 2001).
Unlike the real American Taliban, John Walker Lindh, you have never traitorously taken up arms to kill your fellow Americans. You love your country and are among the first to sing “God Bless America” in a national crisis. You pay your taxes and vote on Election Day. You celebrate the First Amendment’s protections of religious freedom for all Americans, including those who reject biblical Christianity. Nevertheless, you are Taliban, as far as the mainstream media is concerned.
New York Times columnist Anthony Lewis argued recently that people who believe in a measure of “certainty” are “the enemy of decency and humanity in people who are sure they are right, like Osama bin Laden and John Ashcroft” — the evangelical U.S. attorney general who has been bullied by the media for a year. San Francisco Examiner writer Kimberly Blake raged, “The irony is that the Islamic terrorists responsible for the Sept. 11 fatalities are merely clones of America’s own Christian right extremists, sheathed in a different religion.”
Many examples of this rhetorical tactic could be cited, but consider yourself Taliban-like if you hold any of the following convictions:
— You believe the Bible is totally true and historically trustworthy. The British newspaper Guardian equated the great Southern Baptist pulpiteer W.A. Criswell with the Taliban in a Jan. 15 editorial: “As the United States wages war on Taliban fundamentalism, its own Christian fundamentalists have heaped praise on a man who spent 50 highly influential years insisting the Bible is the unerring [W]ord of God and that its historical accuracy is beyond question.”
— Human cloning is unethical and should be banned. A Jan. 17 Washington Post news story about the president’s new bioethics council went to great lengths to pair the Taliban and American religious conservatives — note the rhetorical sleight of hand in the second sentence: “In November, researchers announced that they had made the first human embryo clones, giving immediacy to warnings by religious conservatives and others that science is no longer serving the nation’s moral will. At the same time, the United States was fighting a war to free a faraway nation from the grip of religious conservatives who were denounced for imposing their moral code on others.” Even the ombudsman of The Post agreed the article could be perceived as biased (Jan. 27).
— Like evangelist Franklin Graham, you believe that Islam is an evil religion. A BBC reporter responded to Graham’s statement: “America’s very own version of the Taliban [are] at it again.”
The news media are not alone in this despicable demagoguery. Newsweek reported (Dec. 31, 2001/Jan. 7, 2002) that the Democratic National Committee plans to exploit Taliban-equals-the-religious-right rhetoric of their friends in the national press. Political reporter Howard Fineman called it “an incendiary battle plan” designed to provoke a domestic fight with President Bush.
World magazine’s Gene Edward Veith has rightly condemned this strategy as “religious bigotry. This is genuine religious intolerance. This is secularist extremism” (Jan. 19, 2002).
Christians should not be surprised by assaults against us (Matthew 5:10-12). The occasional rhetorical barb we suffer, we should remember, is nothing compared to the danger endured by some Christians around the world who live under the constant threat of death. Nevertheless, false accusations must be answered.
America’s premier press should know there is no contradiction in the possibility that evangelicals can insist on absolute truth while at the same time defending the right of others to believe otherwise. Baptists, who insist that faith must be personal and cannot be coerced, should be the last to be compared to the likes of the Taliban.
Despicable demagoguery, indeed.
–30–
Related posts:
NPR admits it was ‘inappropriate’ to single out conservative group 6 Indonesian Christians await presidential ruling Christians ‘punished’ in Vietnam’s Central Highlands 
Sudanese Christian’s passion: prayer, action to end homeland’s suffering Oil companies working in Sudan face new congressional pressure Suggested questions to ask lawmakers & media agencies Threats facing church in India escalating, Christian worker says 
China’s repression could spread, ERLC panel warns
