Anti-Religious Bias

Ten years ago, Mel Gibson unveiled his massively successful movie The Passion of The Christ. It came out on Ash Wednesday (February 25, 2004), but is often re-viewed on Good Friday. It had a worldwide box-office gross of over $611 million. In our Special Report on religion coverage that year, we explored how the TV networks attacked Gibson's movie as extreme, divisive, and potentially harmful…

Promising a look at the "seedy side of sainthood," Daily Beast Vatican correspondent Barbie Latza Nadeau hyped the concerns of "critics [who] say the two popes were pushed through to sainthood without a thorough vetting." Latza Nadeau's story comes 10 days before the canonization of Popes John XXIII and John Paul II and, perhaps more importantly, on Holy Thursday, arguably a stick in the eye…

Conan O'Brien apparently couldn't resist making a pedophile priest joke on his TBS program on Wednesday, after Pope Francis took two school boys on a ride around St. Peter's Square during his weekly audience: "The Pope let two 11-year-old boys ride in the Popemobile with him...Afterwards, the Vatican told the Pope, that's not the kind of publicity we're looking for today. What the hell is that…

This week holds some critical dates. April 15 haunts most Americans as a tax deadline. April 18 and 20 this year commemorate the pinnacle in Holy Week — Good Friday and Easter. But April 13 still stands as an important day that eludes most Americans. It's the birthday of Thomas Jefferson. We patriots love to quote the Founding Fathers, especially when they support our theses. And Jefferson…

NPR's Terry Gross anticipated the Christian holy day of Easter on Monday's Fresh Air by boosting "popular" author Bart Ehrman's latest book, where the agnostic scholar asserted that "Jesus himself didn't call himself God and didn't consider himself God, and that none of his disciples had any inkling at all that he was God." During the segment, Gross wondered if "Christians made the claim that…

In an interview with Fox News host Bill O'Reilly on Thursday's NBC Today, co-host Matt Lauer fretted over the Killing Jesus author wanting the historical life of Christ to be taught in schools: "[In] public schools these days, you go sit in one of those classes and you're surrounded by kids of four or five, six different faiths. Why should they sit there and listen to the story of Jesus Christ…

There’s a certain delicious irony in the global warming industry – the one that’s always screaming about climate change “deniers” not “believing in science” – trying to make a religious appeal to Christians. The Huffington Post on April 5 published “Climate Change Threats To ‘The Least of These’ Compel Evangelical Christians to Act,” in which writer Lynne Peeples interviewed Katharine Hayhoe…

It’s Opening Day week and all things are new again. Except the fact that liberals won’t let us just be happy watching our sports. That’s not new. In fact, as anyone who’s read Roger Kahn’s “The Boys of Summer” knows, determined liberals have been trying to suck the joy out of the sporting endeavor for decades. But it does seem that the space carved out for the care-free enjoyment of our…

Fox News reported a few weeks ago about how the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo., removed a Bible verse from a cadet's personal whiteboard. I am personally so disappointed that the branch of service that I served in to protect our freedoms is now trying to suppress them. When one walks the dorm halls of the Air Force Academy, one immediately notices the hundreds of whiteboards…

NPR’s quiz show “Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me” is known for its unabashed liberalism so it should come as no surprise that the program would mock the Christian crafts store Hobby Lobby in the wake of their Supreme Court case. The episode, which aired on Saturday March 29, featured guest host Mike Pesca, sports reporter for NPR, who joked that “Hobby Lobby was originally named Granny’s Prophylactic…

In the process of defending Darren Aronofsky's Noah as a film which "make[s] us think about how the biblical story might still speak to us today," Yale University Old Testament professor Joel Baden suggests in a Sunday, March 30 Daily Beast article -- "'Noah': The Bible vs. the Blockbuster" --  that he considers the Almighty the villain of the biblical story (emphasis mine):

Oh the irony. On CNN March 30, openly gay ESPN journalist LZ Granderson asked  “Will Christians condemn persecution of gays?” in an article that’s whole point seemed to be a condemnation of Christians’ views on homosexualty. While Granderson asks why Christians don’t condemn gay persecution (they do), it’s funny how the gay community is never asked to defend the open persecution and slaughter…

Given how many young people say they get all or most of their news from Jon Stewart and “The Daily Show,” it’s too bad Stewart’s not more scrupulous about the truth of his comedy. Case in point: A six-minute segment Wednesday night in which Stewart mocked the family-owned Christian business Hobby Lobby, calling it “Jesus Christ Superstore.” In the segment, Stewart misrepresented the case,…

Appearing on Monday’s PoliticsNation, MSNBC’s Krystal Ball spat on the religious liberty that Hobby Lobby is presently fighting to defend before the U.S. Supreme Court. The co-host of The Cycle refused to believe that the Hobby Lobby case is about religious liberty, insisting it is actually about “whether your employer can decide what kind of health care you're going to have access to.” She…