The level of Fox News Christian hypocrisy is stunning. While they feel it's just fine and dandy to bash those who are don't believe in Fox's version of Christianity, they get their nice, white Christian panties in a bunch over a Newsweek article which calls out Christians for their hypocrisy in cherry picking bible verses in order to suit right wing ideology. Tuesday's Fox & Friends got their patented persecuted Christian vibe on with yet another whine about how nasty Newsweek, OMG, "bashed" the Bible. Thursday's Fox & Friends rang in the New Year with a continuation of that whine!
Jesus BFF, Ainsley Earhardt (who endorses "benign Christianity" in public schools) continued where another Jesus BFF, Elisabeth Hasselbeck left off. Sounding mighty pissed, she began the patented "Fight for Faith" segment: "Listen to this, Newsweek Magazine latest issue is, it's a piece bashing the bible." She showed the blasphemous Newsweek cover which, OMG, said that the Bible "is so misunderstood, it's a sin." As did Hasselbeck, she read the first paragraph. As did Hasselbeck she omitted the sentence, "they appeal to God to save America from their political opponents, mostly Democrats." She introduced her guest, radical right winger and professional Christian Erick Erickson who "took Newsweek to task in his Twitter." Erickson is so Christian that, during Wendy Davis' failed campaign for Texas governor, he smeared her with the term, "abortion Barbie."
The chyron framed, as Fox Fact, "Christianity Under Attack, Newsweeks Biblical Hit Piece," as Erickson whine about how the author, LOL, wasn't fair & balanced. Without providing specifics, he claimed that Kurt Eichenwald got his facts wrong. (Oh, the irony!) He whined about how, during their Twitter exchange, Eichenwald accused Erickson, as a critic of the government, of violating Romans 13 which seems to say that Christians need to obey authority. The chyron established more Fox Fact: "Anti-Bible Bias."
Earhardt seemed incredulous that Eichenwald refers to Christians as "God's frauds" and "cafeteria Christians" and asked Erickson to explain why. Rather than get into why God's peeps would be so insulted, Erickson got into an exegesis of the different New Testament Nativity narratives. The chyron underscored the persecuted Christian meme: "Faith Under Fire." He cited irony in how Newsweek has had publishing problems yet "is lashing out" at the Bible which is the most popular book evah.
Still sounding mighty pissed, Earhardt read Eichenwald's quote about how what we read, in the Bible, is the end result of many translations. Not surprisingly, Erickson vouched for the veracity of the translations which, he claimed, "haven't impacted the meaning." Erickson informed us that he is now attending a Christian seminary which answers all the evil questions raised in the article so that proves it. He added that Eichenwald should have talked to those who have these answers.
Earhardt wanted to know "how Christians face those who don't believe in God." (Uh, attack them on Fox News?) There was rich irony in her question of "how you have honest conversations with them." (Uh, you attack them on Fox News?) Erickson blithered about how "some people just don't want to know" and try to "undermine the faith." He accused the Newsweek article of having been written to "buttress those who have turned against the church." His "lesson to pastors" and congregants was to "understand the facts of your faith." He concluded with his fact that "there are easy answers" to questions about Christianity.
Fox & Friends - Easy Answers Indeed!
For me, this was the most telling part of Earhardt’s and Erickson’s conversation. While I am rather dumbfounded that Earhardt wouldn’t actually know why so many Christians are seen as frauds and/or of the cafeteria variety, Erickson had to be uncomfortable that she asked this. The fraud/cafeteria argument is one of the points made in Eichenwald’s article but Erickson did not want to go there. Instead he played a bit of misdirection by telling Earhardt/the viewers to “look over here” which allowed Erickson to run away from the subject of fraud/cafeteria Christians.
Eichenwald’s piece is fair game for dissection and criticism. But the fact that Erikson clearly did not want to discuss this particular area of the article just shows what a coward he is and that he simply does not want to make the FOX “news” viewer base look in the mirror when it comes to their own alleged Christian beliefs vs. their behavior (and that of the FOX “news” talking heads too).
When I was living off-campus at a University in Central Florida during the ’60s, we were visited by Jehovah Witness “missionaries” at about 10 am on a Sunday morning (good time to hunt down infidels). Two of my house-mates who had committed the Bible to memory in order to participate in church-run summer camps, teamed up to provide verse after verse to “explore” (their word) the deeper meaning of the verses quoted by our uninvited visitors. I still recall their saying, time after time:
“Ahhhhh, yes. Uh, * (name redacted)*, that reminds me of (chapter and verse).” Turning to our visitors: “Uh, could you please refresh my memory by turning to that part of the Bible?”
After about an hour of trying in vain to account for the undeniable contradictions, our visitors fled and there were no further visits from the local JW chapter.