Sunday, December 03, 2006

Headlines

Having returned from church a short while ago, I'm reminded of something from early last week. I was at work and I went on break to check my e-mail, and when I used the AOL webmail interface, I noted a couple of news headlines before I proceeded to sign on. One headline read: "Pastor Angers Some Christians: Invites key Democrat to speak at church".

I didn't bother reading the story, but that headline stuck in my craw a bit, because it seems to me that the phrasing thereof simply reinforces the notion that somehow Democrats can't be Christians, or that Christianity is mainly a Republican thing, or whatever. I hate that the word "Christian" is almost always used these days to refer to a particular brand of Christianity that is in no way representative of the whole, i.e., as a shorthand word for "anti-gay, anti-science, Republican".

The headline should have read "Pastor Angers Some Republicans". But I guess that wouldn't have been easy news.

No comments: