Columns

If liberals refuse to get over Watergate and Abu Ghraib, then no, we are not over Newsweek.  

As we all know, Newsweek became the laughingstock of the establishment media last month after Newsweek writers Michael Isikoff and John Barry published a false report of a Guantanamo GI who, while attempting to interrogate Muslim inmates, “flushed a holy book (the Qu’ran) down the toilet” which led scores of fire-breathing Muslims to stage violent protests in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Malaysia, Indonesia and other countries, replete with casualties, burnt American flags, destruction to U.S. and U.N. government buildings, et cetera.  

To be fair, Newsweek did indeed retract the story, but what was not retracted was the 16 deaths and 100-plus injuries it incited. Who warrants the most mockery in this situation is not necessarily the Newsweek reporters who apparently have unbearable trouble keeping their anti-Americanism and anti-militarism to themselves, but the hysterical Islamic idiots who so blindly accepted the reports and resorted to mass brutality to vent their religious insecurities.  

Now recently, the Communist Party USA released a statement denouncing Christianity as a religion of oppression, accusing Christians of being responsible for slavery, genocide, the Holocaust, the “sufferings and executions and ‘passion’ of untold millions and tens of millions” as well as “the murderous oppression, down through the centuries, aided and abetted and in some cases directly caused by Christianity.” Liberals seem to have a hard time mentioning Christianity without automatically attributing it to the ugliest atrocities known to mankind, yet they are quick to assure us all that Islam is a completely blameless “religion of peace.” 

The Communist Party USA performed its own version of Holy Book denigration by referring to the Bible as “a book full of what can charitably be described as a hodge-podge of remarkably violent legends, tall tales and tribal history” which “contradicts itself all over the place.” 

They were certainly correct in calling Christianity a violent religion, which was best demonstrated by the collective Christian reaction to the Party’s Bible-degradation that included myriad violent uprisings across Middle America involving crowds marching through streets chanting “Death to the Communists” and destruction to the homes of suspected social liberals. Oh, wait a minute, that didn’t happen. 

That does not discount, however, the violent Christian-led massacres against law enforcement officials in Saudi Arabia which were a response to the process by which Saudi customs confiscate Bibles carried by visitors to the country, shred them up and subject the visitors to 40 lashes and sometimes execution. Oh, that’s right, there were no massacres. 

But there were, of course, the violent Christian protests outside the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne, Australia, in reaction to the museum’s display of Andres Serrano’s “Piss Christ”—a photograph of a crucifix submerged in urine. The Christian protesters attacked and killed several police officers, wreaked havoc in the museum, chanting “Death to Andres Serrano” and—whoops! That didn’t happen either. 

Perhaps it’s time for the religion of oppression practitioners to give the religion of peace fundamentalists a lesson on how to start acting like men. 

Christian Hartsock is a screenwriter, videographer and political columnist and a graduate of Piedmont High School.