Biased and Unfair Fox Network

Brit Hume, appearing on a program with the Fox Network this past Sunday, did the unspeakable. He not only proved, once again, that the programming of the Fox network is not fair and unbiased but he showed the world how the extreme right in America are biased, perhaps even discriminatory, against any beliefs that do not align with Christianity. So much for the First Amendment.

While speaking about the unsavory news concerning Tiger Woods' personal life, Hume said; "He's said to be a Buddhist. I don't think that faith offers the kind of forgiveness and redemption that is offered by the Christian faith, so my message to Tiger would be, 'Tiger, turn to the Christian faith and you can make a total recovery and be a great example to the world.'"

Hume set less than a stellar example by making the attempt on national television to belittle Buddhism in favor of Christianity. Fox has been swearing for years, ever since George W. Bush took office, that they did not present a bias to their audience but what do you call it when the beliefs of many are ridiculed as insufficient in order to promote an Evangelical point of view?

When Bill O'Reilly asked if he thought his remarks were proselytizing, Hume replied: "I was really meaning to say in those comments yesterday more about Christianity than anything else," downplaying what he said about Buddhism. "Jesus Christ is something that Tiger Woods greatly needs."

For those who do not quite understand what O'Reilly was asking, you should know that Brit Hume's answer should have been a resounding "yes". That would have been the answer if Hume would have been honest, both with himself and the audience that was watching.

The definition of proselytizing is the act of attempting to convert people to another opinion and, particularly, another religion.

The words that came out of Brit Hume's mouth were, indeed, what he denied doing. What background or research does Hume have that gives him a reasonable comparison about the Buddhist beliefs? Has he ever subscribed to Buddhism? Does he have any close friends or family that are Buddhist? Has he ever studied Buddhism at all? How could he possibly know that the Buddhist religion could not offer a person what they need in order to be healed and make a "total recovery"?

The premise of the Inquisition was to convert the masses to Christianity. If someone refused to be converted, they were tortured and ultimately killed. The lead up to the Inquisition built up over time and eventually came to be because one group believed that their religion was superior to all others until finally they took it to extreme measures. Is America leading up to our own religious purging? We have allowed the extremist Evangelicals on the far right to influence to much of our society for almost a decade and, in case no one is watching, our policies affected by this extreme viewpoint are not helping.

It is frightening to hear over and over again that America has a growing sect of people who are actually trying to usher in the "second coming" of Jesus. I never believed that our once great country could have so many of these extremist dwelling amongst us but over the past several years I have been accosted by several of them. These are people that are hell bent on doing everything humanly possible to convince our government and Israel to wipe out any Arab that gets in the way of Israel taking over the "Promised Land". Promised to who? The Israelis? Not in this life. We are expected to believe that all of us that do not have the same "cookie cutter" beliefs are to be wiped of the planet for a minority that believe in a tale from a book? We are supposed to just roll over and allow the extermination and/or assimilation of all those who believe differently? This "second coming" group of believers, along with the so called "Zionistic Christians" make me wonder how much more time will pass before we have a second Inquisition. That is how it started the first time.

There is nothing wrong with the theory of Christianity. Taken in the correct context, it can offer a person faith, hope, and a sense of security. Christianity, used in the wrong pretense, leads to nothing more than discrimination, arrogance and devastation.

Will the United States allow religious zealots to continue their current campaign of distraction? If you think about it, many of our policies since the late 90s have been influenced by religion in such a way that the intended outcome has been steered toward special interests, as in policies that hurt our standing with much of the Middle East while allowing Israel to go unchecked. It seems to be acceptable for Israelis to commit terrorism but any other nation, with the exception of the U.S., is hit with excessive condemnation.

Only the nations around the world who hold religious views similar to the United States have autonomy in what they do and the rest find dissatisfaction from the U.S when they attempt some things that we do flagrantly (ie. election fraud, etc). U.S. policies should be based on merit and, perhaps, need, but policies based on religious views, outlook or similarity need to be dumped while policies that are fair get put into place.

The Fox Network became an extremist pedestal while Bush was in office and it appears that it is very comfortable in that position. The network can not find real journalists withy integrity to work for them so they fill their ranks with extreme right wing people that pretend to be journalists. That is not news. That is not balanced. It is, by no means fair.

I will raise my voice against a Republican, a Democrat or anyone who I see as being detrimental to my country. I am not Christian and very proud of that fact. I have many dear friends that are Christian, some Muslim, Buddhist, Agnostic and other beliefs. I support their right to their beliefs as they do mine and none of us make any attempt to be superior...because none of us are.

The next time I am harassed for being a Pagan or fired because of it, I will try to remember how Brit Hume is persecuted for his beliefs as he has claimed since Sunday's foot in mouth incident. Somehow when I think of religious persecution I do not think of people like Brit Hume, instead I think of those persecuted BY people like Brit Hume.

I will try not to think of how extremists like him used to burn people like me on a stake.