Among those in the radical Christian right, there is a mind set that the evil, librul mainstream media is bigoted towards Christians. Reinforcing their sense of victimization is their strongly held belief that the anti-Christian media would never treat Muslims with the same way. This is a common sentiment on any Christian "outrage" thread on Fox Nation and other right wing blogs. So it's not surprising that Fox News, the flagship "news" network for persecuted Christians and a venue for some serious Muslim bashing, would provide a platform for the meme of the media "double standard." Monday night, while promoting Christian "outrage" over last Saturday's SNL skit, in which a kick ass risen Jesus deals some death blows on the Romans, seminary drop out Sean Hannity also whined that the anti-Christian SNL would never disrespect Islam. Not surprisingly, he was validated by Fox Radio's very own "fundamentalist barking dog" Todd Starnes who is on a mission from God to expose those nasty Jesus hating, Mohammed loving heathens.

Hannity was full of righteous Christian anger about the "controversial" SNL skit which, caused "major outrage." Of course the "major" outrage was among the usual suspects in the extremist Christian right; but, hey, that's Fox News' major demographic, so I get the pander. The graphic behind Hannity's low foreheaded cranium was a great big Christian cross (very popular image on Fox) next to the logo for NBC with the Fox fact (not a Cavuto question mark) "Crossing the Line." He described the skit as a "trailer for a fake movie" in which Jesus "goes on a killing rampage." (The kind of thing that Fox Nation "Christians" wish Jesus would do to Muslims and liberals!) 

Hannity, whose thinly veiled racism and hatred of Obama don't seem to be in accordance with the teachings of Jesus, asserted that this was "disgusting" and "offensive" especially because it's Lent. He mentioned that the skit, "DJesus Uncrossed," was based on the movie "Django Unchained." He didn't mention that it was done because the SNL host, Christopher Waltz, was in the movie which featured a man getting revenge on those who wronged him - like the Romans did to Jesus. After a video clip of the SNL skit, he went straight to the patented "Christian" whine about how this kind of thing would never be done about Mohammed. (Uh, because Mohammed's story doesn't include rising from the dead and thus, the skit wouldn't be as clever?)  

Hannity's asked Fox culture clubber and observer of gay pride thongs and chaps Todd Starnes if this is a "double standard." Starnes who, when not ferreting out assaults on Christianity must be ingesting large amounts of Southern fried everything, claimed that Jesus "wants to be your lord and savior" and not "blow you to kingdom come." He asserted that this skit "is the worst example of anti-Christian bigotry on network television." Hannity reinforced the message by saying that Starnes "tapped into" the double standard. He wanted to know if the SNL writers would "go after" Islam. Julie Roginsky reminded Hannity that SNL is a comedy show. Not content with her answer he asked Starnes why Islam isn't targeted. Starnes accused SNL writers of being "cowards" because they won't put out a trailed, "Jihad Undetonated."  (Starnes thinks that would be funny?)

Starnes continued to rant about media bias. Hannity cited the 1999 Virgin Mary dung painting and Andres Serrano's 1987 "Piss Christ" photo. Both of these things were in private galleries and not on national TV. Hannity, in whining about "double standards" brought up the violent Muslim reactions to media depictions of Islam and Mohammed. He accused SNL of not having courage for the backlash and wanted to know why it's acceptable to only go after Christians. After proclaiming that "it's open season on Christians in this country," Starnes, on a network that just bashed Wiccans, said that there's a sentiment that "it's OK to bash Christians."

Hannity asked what the response would have been if SNL did this to Mohammed. Starnes histrionically predicted that there would have been riots and the president - ready for it - would have called NBC. Hannity summed it up: "In other words, they can only offend one religion and not the other and they wouldn't have the courage to equally go after all religions so they're pretty gutless over there. They pick the one they can get away with." Starnes claimed that he has "a trail of evidence" to prove Hannity's point. When Roginsky advised them to lighten up, Hannity said he would be OK with the skit if everybody was "fair game." (So comedy has to be "fair & balanced" - like Fox!?)

So rather than actually discuss how this skit might be offensive, Hannity, in setting up a straw man argument, advanced the meme of Christian victimization by a media that supposedly shows preference to Islam. Jesus H Christ!!!! 

And BTW, a kick ass Second Coming, end times Jesus is standard fare for many in the religious right.