Yesterday, Todd Starnes' article, about how a courageous high school salutatorian praised Jesus despite school prohibitions to do so, appeared on both the Fox News website and Fox News Insider where it was placed under a photo of Starnes, his face aglow with smug, Christian sanctimony. As this kind of Christian courage, in the face of ongoing persecution by satanic secular forces, is standard Fox boilerplate, I speculated that it wouldn't be long before this story would be part of Fox & Friends. Turns out that less than 24 hours later, my powers of prognostication (OMG, am I a prophet?!) came true. This morning (drum roll please), this profile in Christian courage story was featured by Jesus BFF and Fox friend Elisabeth Hasselbeck. Ain't no party like a persecuted Christian party, and Fox & Friends knows how to bring it!
Courageous Christian high school graduations speakers are no strangers to Fox & Friends. Last year, by Gretchen Carlson praised Roy Costner IV for his Lord's Prayer graduation speech said in defiance of school policy. Today's show was more of the same. Hasselbeck introduced the story as part of the patented Fox & Friends "Fight for Faith" series. She reported that a high school salutatorian "fought back" against efforts to censor his graduation speech. She played part of the speech given by Brooks Hamby who has become hero on Christian and right wing blogs. Hamby spoke about how three drafts of his speech had been denied "on account of my desire to share my personal thoughts and inspiration, my Christian faith..." In pushing one of the persecuted Christian right's most revered memes, the chyron read, as Fox Fact, "Limited liberty, HS student's religious speech banned." Hasselbeck welcomed the "brave" Hamby and his lawyer
Haselbeck waxed orgasmic about Hamby's speech which she downloaded and is saving for her children to watch. She scrunched up her eyes as she told the audience who poor Brooks had been told, three times, that he "couldn't include faith." Christian soldier Brooks told his sad story about how the evil school authorities told him that "any references to God or Jesus or prayer" was verboten and if he mentioned those things, his mic would be pulled. In response to Hamby's story about how three of his proposed speeches were rejected, Hasselbeck said "some would call those threats against your freedom of speech religion." The chyron advanced the propaganda as Fox Fact: "Censoring Christianity, school tries to ban student's grad speech." She encouraged him to speak about the speech he delivered.
Hamby spoke about how he wanted to "stand up for his freedom of speech and freedom of religion." The Fox chyron celebrated Hamby's decision: "Standing strong, Hamby unafraid to share Christian beliefs." After Hamby said that the reaction was "overwhelmingly positive," Hasselbeck cited all the "views" that the You Tube video has received, and said "well done."
Her question, about whether there will be legal ramifications to this, afforded Hamby's lawyer to bloviate about how it is "a sad reality" that this "hostility" is happening with frequency. He directed viewers to the website of his employer, Liberty Institute, a group that specializes in Christians who are being persecuted by the gay/liberal agenda and which, as such, finds warm affirmation on Fox. He asserted that schools should "listen" to these fine young Christians rather than censor them. Hasselbeck congratulated Hamby for standing his ground and being "a salt of the earth kind of guy" which refers to a section of Hamby's speech in which he uses Matthew 5, metaphor about "salt of the earth." The chyron provided some final praise: "Rebel role model, many thanked Hamby for his courage."
Hamby closed his speech with a request for the "god of the Bible" to bless everyone which suggests that if you worship another god or aren't one of those covered by the god of the Bible, you're shit out of luck. Which is pretty much how Fox & Friends roles. Ya think!
And BTW, do you think Hasselbeck would be congratulating a student who, in defiance of conservative Christian school authorities, gave a graduation speech about LGBT rights?
