NBC's Law & Order Stereotypes Christians As Violent

FT. LAUDERDALE, Florida, Jan.11 /Christian Newswire/ --This week an episode of Law & Order on NBC, which regularly adopts real life events and blurs the line between fiction and fact, portrayed a leader in a college Christian ministry as being guilty of making death threats against a professor because the Christian was anti-homosexual. The lead detective calls Christians "Bible thumpers."

"There is a relentless attempt on the part of the media to stereotype Christians as being violent," said Dr. Gary Cass, Chairman and CEO of the Christian Anti-Defamation Commission. "Apparently NBC producers need sensitivity training. It seems they can't distinguish between peaceful Christians and violent gang members. It is outrageous to defame the thousands of conscientious Christians who faithfully minister to hurting students on today's college campuses.

"To allow their protagonists to derisively portray Christians as unenlightened, violent and out-of-step is galling," said Cass. "Dick Wolf, the show's executive producer, is not aware that eighty-five percent of Americans identify themselves as Christian. He is the one who is out of step. NBC would never insult other religious faiths in this way. I have never heard devout Jews or Muslims or Hindus and Buddhists insulted because they believe their scriptures or writings."

Over the years, Law & Order has dramatized many high-profile cases dealing with abortion, euthanasia, malfeasance by church officials and other controversial topics. Every time one of these cases is spotlighted, people of faith are portrayed as unenlightened buffoons. The CADC will continue to monitor and expose this bigotry and encourages all people who oppose anti-Christian bigotry to contact NBC and tell them to stop the Christian bashing.

The Christian Anti-Defamation Commission is a non-profit organization devoted to protecting the rights of Christians to confidently live their faith. Dr. Gary Cass has degrees from Westminster Theological Seminary. He previously served as Executive Director of the Center for Reclaiming America for Christ, an outreach of Coral Ridge Ministries founded by the late Dr. D. James Kennedy.

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Republican Political Correctness: Question Mormonism And You're A Bigot

From Paul Edward's article on Townhall.com:

MSNBC political analyst Lawrence O’Donnell was recently cross examined by syndicated radio host and blogger Hugh Hewitt regarding statements O’Donnell made about Mormonism as a panelist on The McLaughlin Group. Here’s part of what O’Donnell said on McLaughlin:

On “Big Love” the HBO series, that has been a real headache for Romney. Here’s the problem. He dare not discuss his religion. And he fools people like Pat Buchanan who should know better. This was the worst speech, the worst political speech of my lifetime, because this man stood there and said to you, “this is the faith of my fathers.” And you, and none of these commentators who liked this speech, realize that the faith of his father is a racist faith. As of 1978, it was an officially racist faith. And for political convenience, in 1978, it switched, and it said okay, black people can be in this Church. He believes, if he believes the faith of his fathers, that black people are black, because in Heaven, they turned away from God in this demented, scientology-like notion of what was going on in Heaven before the Creation of the Earth.

Hugh Hewitt accuses O’Donnell of anti-Mormon bigotry for those words....

[clipped]

...It is now becoming apparent that Governor Romney’s strategy for defending against legitimate questions about his Mormon faith is to cry “bigotry.” Governor Huckabee recently asked a writer for the New York Times magazine if Mormons didn’t believe that Jesus and Satan were brothers (a comment, by the way, that Huckabee has since apologized for). When the Associated Press picked up on the initial story, accusations of bigotry germinated in the blogosphere and spread like a virus through media, both old and new. Hugh Hewitt implied that by asking such a question Governor Huckabee might be a closet anti-Semite or an anti-Catholic bigot. But a simple visit to www.lds.org—an official LDS website—will readily show that the answer implied in Governor Huckabee’s question is the answer given by the LDS church! Is the LDS church bigoted against itself?

Every God-fearing American ought to be familiar with the teachings of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. A man who holds to those teachings certainly is not disqualified from holding the office of president on that basis alone. But conservative evangelical Christians, who hold to the faith once for all delivered to the saints and who desire to defend that faith, are reasonable to ask themselves what a Mormon in the White House would do to elevate the profile of a false religion that presents itself as a form of Christianity. Dr. Albert Mohler recently wrote:

As an evangelical Christian theologian, I must clarify that Mormonism is in no way consistent with orthodox Christianity. It borrows Christian themes and texts, but its most basic beliefs directly contradict the central teachings of Christianity.

Mormonism holds that God is an exalted man, with a physical body. Christianity teaches that God is Spirit. Mormonism denies the historic Christian understandings of the Trinity, the person and work of Christ, and the doctrine of salvation. Christianity promises salvation through Christ’s atonement and the sinner’s justification by faith. Mormonism promises deification. Christianity calls for personal faith in Jesus Christ. Mormonism calls for obedience to its own teachings as the path to exaltation. Mormonism replaces belief in the sole authority of the Bible with other writings, including the Book of Mormon. This list is only a brief summary of the vast chasm that separates Christianity from Mormonism. Put simply, Mormonism is not just another form of Christianity. It is a rejection of historic Christianity.

I presume that Hugh Hewitt does not believe Albert Mohler is a bigot. The question for Hugh Hewitt and other Romney defenders is whether it’s helpful for the body politic (or for Romney) to be so quick and so absolute in leveling the charge of bigotry at those who feel obligated to at least clarify their religious convictions before stating their convictions as they relate to the presidential politics of 2008.

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