Liberals Apply Double Standard When it Comes to Religion

THE RECORD, APRIL 27, 2005
by GREGORY J. RUMMO

LIBERALS HAVE been apoplectic over Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist's recent videotaped address to a rally sponsored by the Family Research Council, a Christian group. They've dragged out the old shibboleth of "separation of church and state," claiming that an elected official has no business mixing his religious and political views. Some newspapers have gone as far as warning their readers that they should worry, as though a theocracy is threatening to replace the Constitution.

History is replete with references to our Christian heritage. A stroll through the nation's capital reveals biblical references everywhere carved into the buildings. The Ten Commandments adorn the halls where the Supreme Court meets. Congress still begins each session with prayer. Judges preside in courtrooms under the words "In God we trust." The nation's oldest universities all started as Christian colleges. And last time I checked, hospitals were named after saints, not renowned atheists.

But the real rub here is not ignoring America's quintessential Christian heritage. It's ignoring the hypocrisy of liberals and Democrats by applying a double standard.

When a liberal speaks to a Christian group, no one in the mainstream media bats an eyelash. But when a conservative addresses a Christian audience - oh, no - we cannot have that.

One of the biggest critics of Frist has been John Kerry. Speaking from the Senate floor a week ago, Kerry said, "Forces outside the mainstream now seem to effortlessly push Republican leaders toward conduct that the American people really don't want in their elected leaders, inserting the government into our private lives, injecting religion into debates about public policy where it doesn't apply... Will Republican senators let their silence endorse Senator Frist's appeal to religious division, or will they put principle ahead of partisanship and refuse to follow him across that line? Are we really willing to allow the Senate to fall in line with the majority leader when he invokes faith, faith, all of our faiths over here?..."

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Yet, during the 2004 campaign, the same media that is now decrying Frist's comments had no problem with Kerry invoking faith when he frequently spoke in ways that could be characterized as campaigning from church pulpits. Last November, the Cincinnati Enquirer reported that Kerry had stumped from the pulpit of Shiloh Baptist Church. His remarks, reported in several newspapers, were characterized as a mixture of "raw-meat political message with lessons from the Bible, to chide the social and economic policies of his opponent, President George W. Bush."

Other appearances at churches were reported in The Boston Globe and USA Today.

Kerry isn't the only one to get a pass from the mainstream media when it comes to mixing religion and politics. An article from "Human Events" last September reported, "Bill Clinton bashed President Bush in a speech delivered from the pulpit of a prominent Manhattan church on the Sunday before the Republican National Convention began. Yet, Americans United for Separation of Church and State does not view Clinton's pulpit-based diatribe a violation of tax laws."

For further enlightenment, the reader may wish to Google the following phrase, "________, speaking from the church... " Fill in the blank with your favorite liberal's name to generate loads of additional examples.

This all raises the question: When liberals speak to Christians, are their comments largely ignored by the mainstream media because no one takes a liberal’s faith seriously?

The cover story from the Dec. 8, 2003, U.S. News & World Report about the rise of evangelicals in America offers another explanation: "Many outside the tradition [of evangelical Christianity] still tend to reduce evangelicals, and particularly prominent leaders and televangelists, to a conveniently dismissible stereotype: Bible-thumping, intolerant know-nothings." This despite the fact that "when researchers focus on ordinary evangelicals... they find more diversity, complexity and ambivalence than conventional wisdom would lead us to expect."

Because many "outside the tradition" are found in places such as academia, newsrooms and the mainstream media in general, evangelicals almost never receive positive coverage in the news.

Jesus would remind us, "If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you." n

 Gregory J. Rummo is an author and columnist. His two books, "The View from the Grass Roots," and “The View from the Grass Roots—Another Look,” are available from Amazon.com or the author's website, GregRummo.com.