Media and Religion today

To the extent that it's almost unheard of for moderates in any religion to actually take a stance against their co-religionist extremists, the voice of the moderates is irrelevant. When push comes to shove, so-called "moderates" almost always take the side of their extremist peers rather than deal with the discomfort of siding with outsiders against elements of their own religion.

The information is all around us. How often is Pat Robertson condemned for making extreme statements? Sure, it happens a little bit. Mostly he shoots his mouth off and no one cares.But he's still on TV. ABC still runs his program. Millions of Christian moderates in America, and they let this guy speak for him? Remember that Christians have pulled hundreds of TV shows off the air when they felt they threatened their faith. Pat Robertson's somehow unstoppable? Nonsense. The public voices of Christianity in this country have always been extremist ideologues. William Jennings Bryan. Cotton Mather. Gerald Winrod. Johnathan Edwards. Ralph Reed. And moderates refuse to squeak. Look, I don't disagree with you that the attention goes to the extremists. But that's not because the media favors extremists; it's because religious moderates refuse to offer any competing voice, for fear of creating a schism within their own religion, or for fear of appearing to side with outside forces against their own religious peers.

Of course, even with all that strife, there's one thing that unites Jews, Christians, and Muslims: hating gays. Rabbi: ‘Holy Land, not Homo Land’

quote:

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The international gay pride parade is set to take place in Jerusalem next month, much to the ire of groups that had, up until now, little to unite them.

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Orthodox Jews, Moslems and Christians have banded together to try to prevent this convergence of gays and lesbians from all over the world for a week of activities in Israel’s capital.

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Believers in Jerusalem have held several citywide prayer meetings regarding the parade, while rabbis and Moslem sheikhs held a mutual news conference decrying the event, including Levin and Arab party Knesset Member Ibrahim Sarsur. At least 45 parliament members signed a petition against the parade.

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“This is the holy land, not the homo land,” Rabbi Yehuda Levin, a moral activist from America, who came to Israel to stir a charge against the parade, told Israel Today. “The militants are as dangerous as Hamas. And they’re every bit as dangerous as Nazis to religious people.”

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And, hey, if you read the comments, you can see Tal's buddies expressing their solidarity with their Jihadist brethren on this issue.I don't see any fundamental problem with the facts as Tal is presenting them, at least in part. It's absolutely true that jihadist groups are indoctrinating children to hate and to kill. Of course, his implication that it's just Muslim jhadists that are doing it is absolutely false:Seriously, though. "Not the homo land." That gets me every time. It would be absolutely freakin' hilarious if not for the fact that, as an atheist who can see no moral problem with homosexuality, all three of these convergent religions are equally adamant that I be "turned or burned", as I think they put it.