Last time we checked in on the Washington Post's "On Faith," a silly group religion blog run by the reliably embarrassing Sally Quinn, it had just run a piece arguing that Barack Obama had only himself to blame for the fact that many old white people think he's a Muslim. That post, along with blatantly bigoted entries from other contributors, led me to believe that "On Faith" would run any old nonsense. But apparently not!
According to Pajamas Media, the Post spiked an "On Faith" contribution from Baptist minister Willis E. Elliott. The post, which Pajamas Media runs in full, makes the argument that Christianity is good and Islam is bad. Because that's a really useful and important thing for grown-ups to argue about in newspapers. Islam sucks! (I have some great pitches for the Post. America: Better than France! "Washington Post's 'On Race' blog: White people are better than Asians.")
Elliott makes his case in listicle form, like Martin Luther, or Cracked.com. Item one: Christians are quiet and respectful but Muslims are mean and violent:
Blasphemy (irreverent speech or action against a deity or religious person/belief/object) is currently in the news only when Muslims become violent, or threaten violence, when they feel offended: when we Christians feel offended, almost never do we become violent, and almost always we suffer the disrespect in silence.
Tell it to the Westboro Baptist Church, or the monster who assassinated George Tiller! Wait, sorry, it's unfair to tarnish all Christians by blaming their religion for the extremism of kooks. It is only fair to do that to Muslims.
There are a lot of jaw-dropping assertions in this awful piece ("Muslims don’t know how to behave when they are not in power," "Muslims are now more aggressive blasphemers against Christianity," etc.) but my favorite bit is this little story:
Americans don’t have to go to Muslim lands to hear our religion blasphemed by Muslims. In a Christian church in Portland, OR, I heard an imam (an immigrant from Yemen) say to the post-worship assemblage, "God has no son." (Not, "We Muslims believe that God has no son.") When I yelled, "Blasphemy!" the assemblage was shocked to silence and he was so unnerved that he initiated a handshake with me seven times before he left the church.
What a really awesome minister this guy is, bravely screaming "blasphemy" at a Muslim, then writing about it for the Washington Post.
The Post probably rejected this piece because it was so stupid and insulting -- which made it the perfect amount of stupid and insulting for conservative blogs -- but then it ran a new submission from Elliott the day after Pajamas Media published this spiked diatribe. The new one is about how America is better than China, and it is also presented in list form.
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