Time for a Christian pride month
Let the rage begin.
Amy Fox (LinkedIn)
Okay, I’ve got no problem with Pride month for LGBTQ+ folks. It sprang a few decades ago as a counter to anti-gay prejudices.
Now it strikes me that the culture is shifting to the same kind of prejudice against another group, in no particular order: Catholics, Christians and the faithful of all religions.
I’ll not argue whether that is happening. It’s a fact. People of faith—as they now are called because, well, I don’t know why—see themselves ridiculed and attacked frequently. The religious need to stand tall in the practice of their faith and a moment, day, week or month of pride celebrations should be in order.
Of course, not everyone, for their own reasons, will appreciate a religious pride month, just as not every one appreciates gay pride month. People have diverse opinions.
But the problem is that there is an obligation, we’re reminded daily, that we must always and everywhere salute pride month. Take for example:
The news director of Grand Rapids, Michigan station Wood-TV reminded staff in a memo that two sides ought to be covered. This after extension coverage of Pride Month celebrations in a nonjudgmental if not favorable light.
For that, she was scourged. The station’s staff was upset. News outlets were upset. The station got upset. The station apologized. Fox and another employe were excluded from involvement in covering gay events.
Here how the controversy has been describe in various headlines: She called for “less Pride coverage.” “MICHIGAN – NBC Affiliate Tells Reporters To Ease Up On LGBT Coverage. It Upsets The Haters.” She said Pride coverage was “upsetting the station’s conservative viewers.”
Really? No, not really. Here is another demonstration of the distortion that has become a media pandemic. I looked on line for the full text of the memo, and this was the best I could find:
How many distortions? Let me count the ways. She:
Did not “order”to “ease up” on coverage of Pride events.
Noted that a variety of views exist among their viewers.
Reminded the staff that viewers are entitled to their opinions.
Said that the stories will be “controversial” and “polarizing.”
Pointed out that “you” the journalist, might not agree with other opinions, implying that they have a responsibility to lay aside your biases and report fairly.
How the reporting can twist her words is astonishing. It rejects everything I learned as a decades-long journalist about the profession’s ethics. It stupidly called conservatives “haters,” the kind of stereotyping that we have learned to avoid when it applies to other groups. It rejects the notion that news should be objectively reported.
If causing “upset” were a reason not to report a story, America’s media would disappear. Unless, of course, the only people who’d be upset are conservatives.
And so, to return to my initial point: How do you think the idea of a Religious Pride month would be received in today’s media. Would the staff rise up in uniform condemnation of the idea?
Or would they celebrate the idea that diversity and inclusion—their standard— should be applied, even when it wouldn’t agree with their opinions?
No bets here that they would. They don’t see the hypocrisy when their own standard are thrown back in their teeth.