Michael Livingston is upset. He's upset with you, me, Ann Coulter, all the minor Coulteresque ghouls of the nation, and the media -- especially the media (I think).
In a Washington Post/Newsweek piece titled "Most Christians to Left of Far Right," Livingston, president of the National Council of Churches, pounces on pretty much everyone for paying attention to the villainous Ms. Coulter -- an opinion piece previewed with infinite whimsy and paradox on the WP's front page with the alternate title, "Stop Looking at Her."
Research, you see, ominously "shows the younger generation, ages 16-29, views Christianity as judgmental, hypocritical, old-fashioned and too political," writes Livingston, even though "most Christians believe in an authentic, inclusive and welcoming gospel."
Why then the unfavorable perception of Christianity by the young? Because, says Livingston, of fascistic harpies like Ann Coulter, who, masquerading as a fountain of the One True Faith, "has dismissed most of the Bible and the words of Jesus defending the poor, the widow, the prisoner -- the least among us -- and spewed her venom that has little or nothing to do with orthodox Christianity."
Of the latter, there is no doubt. But with that, the blame-laying then gets a little fuzzy. For after citing Coulter's most recent imbecility regarding Christians as "perfected Jews," Livingston shifts gears a bit, noting "there used to be a time when such words of hatred and intolerance were not given any public platform in the mainstream media. No longer."
The author doesn't explicitly lecture the media to dismantle the platform, but he does dance all around the admonition. "Now we have newspapers and news channels giving extended coverage to those perverting the gospel with attitudes alien to its reconciling heart," writes Livingston; and, sadly, "Ms. Coulter and her ilk are the ones to whom the media gives most of its attention."
I may be unfairly accusing Mr. Livingston of advocating media self-censorship, but if that indeed is what he yearns for, or suggests, then he has erred in turning history and its lessons on their head.
The Ann Coulters of this country -- the warped dominionists, the whacko militarists, the preposterous theocrats and reactionary Gilded Agers-- have always been with us, in numbers and spirit. For years they labored in isolation, in their right-wing bunkers and hallelujah havens, incestuously breeding their philosophies of hate, liberal-scapegoatism and authoritarianism. In time, they raised money, established their unthinkable think tanks and propaganda centers, chose their office-seeking candidates, and thus dispensed in judicious portions their simplistic and seductive themes. And all to the welcome reception of many non-ideological folks who failed to appreciate the depths of lunacy with which they were politically aligning.
By the late 1970s the amassing Coulterite legions began to score electoral points; and, as we now horrifyingly know, things would slime downhill from there. But, they originally caught progressives off guard, and largely because the media weren't paying attention. When the media noticed them at all, they dismissed them as the loons they were -- so they multiplied in darkness.
Had the media dug and exposed from the beginning -- had they, that is, directly broadcast and printed the views and motivations of the ideological originators, and not just those of their polished, political mouthpieces -- things might well have been different.
So you keep on spewing, Ann Coulter. You keep right on saying all the detestable things you perhaps even believe, so that the average American can see the buffoonish and ugly face of the religio-political underside. And you, dear media, keep right on allowing her and her kind plenty of airtime and space with which to hang themselves.
As Mr. Livingston himself concedes, while seemingly missing the why, "There are some signs that the toxic message of the extreme right of American Christians may be faltering."
That's the beauty of media exposure. In time, it tends to devour the offensively unhinged.
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