You look ridiculous and you make Christians look ridiculous, too. You feed into all the stereotypes lefties have of Christians.
Thanks for your consideration.
Sincerely,
Sharon
tmatt over at GetReligion says basically the same thing. I just provided a link for it. Terry Mattingly (tmatt) explains it this way:
In other words, we have reached the point where some journalists are happy to see Robertson's face on television screens, because every time he opens his mouth he reinforces their stereotype of a conservative Christian. And they may sincerely believe that he remains a powerful leader among American evangelicals, someone who provides an appropriate "conservative" voice during coverage of controversial events.
If this is true, then why is it so hard to find mainstream evangelicals and traditional Catholics who defend Robertson? Outside of a cable TV niche, where are his legions? In short, I'm convinced it is time for journalists to drop Robertson from their lists of "usual suspects." That he ceases to be someone they turn to for quotes from "evangelical leaders." He is a straw man.
There's some discussion in the comments at GetReligion on the fact that Robertson still runs a very large organization and there are many, many people who watch The 700 Club (I confess to seeing part of it whenever I watch Who's Line Is It Anyway?, but I digress).
Even though there are people who watch Robertson's show or listen to him, that's not really why journalists (and bloggers) pick up what he says.
As my GetReligion.org colleague Douglas LeBlanc put it, after the Hugo Chavez affair: "Reporters recognize a good coffee-spewing remark when they see one, and I will not fault them for jumping on this one." Amen.
But you really do have to wonder how much more journalists (and bloggers) are missing by focusing on Pat Robertson or a lone nut who attacks a soap star with a Bible.
I suppose (at least, in the bloggers case) the reason is that they aren't interested in real stories about real Christians, but are only interested in anecdotes that reinforce their preconceived notions. But what about journalists? Is it too much to expect them to look for real stories as opposed to this sort of stuff?
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