The New Exchange » Feeling Victimmy

Goose · 7/08/2015 4:25 am

Fox News anchor: I didn't know it was criminal to be a Christian

Gretchen Carlson

Editor's note: The following is an excerpt from Gretchen Carlson's new book, "Getting Real."
It was while doing "Fox & Friends" that I got a reputation for being a culture warrior. Bill O'Reilly started inviting me to come on "The O'Reilly Factor" for a regular culture warrior segment. I really cared about this stuff. Fox was the first place I'd worked where it was okay to talk openly about your faith on the air. Of course, I understand that when you're doing news reporting and anchoring, it's not appropriate. But at Fox I had a different kind of forum, so I went for it.

Where our culture is headed is an enduring topic of interest for many people, and I think they appreciate it that I take the topic on -- even when they don't agree with me. For example, I've received plenty of flak for talking about the war on Christmas, often being described as "freaking out" and "going ballistic," as if I were some demented Christian warrior. One website published this pearl: "If Bill O'Reilly is the commander-in-chief of the War on Christmas, Gretchen Carlson is the head of the women's auxiliary." The thing is, it's not a joke to me. I can't think of a single other religion whose holy day is treated like a joke.

It all came to a head over the Festivus controversy. Festivus is a fake holiday, invented by the hit show "Seinfeld" in 1997. It was a funny bit on the comedy, and I laughed along with the rest of the world. But then it got real. Some people subsequently began to celebrate the holiday as an alternative to the Christian celebration, and one of them wrote a book called "Festivus: The Holiday for the Rest of Us."

I was asking a question that needed to be asked: Do we think so little of our religious symbols and rituals that we would give equal weight to a beer can sculpture based on an old sitcom? I still think it’s a good question.

In 2008, when I heard that a group was petitioning the governor of Washington State to erect a Festivus pole as part of the Christmas display, I thought it was the stupidest thing I'd ever heard. When I brought it up on "Fox & Friends," Steve and Brian tried to laugh it off as silly, but I was dead serious. I thought it was mocking Christianity, and I said so. (And by the way, a lot of people think that on Fox we have producers talking to us through our earpieces telling us what to say. We don’t. That protest was all me.) “I can’t believe you guys are defending this,” I said to my laughing colleagues. “I’m all for humor, and I’m all for telling jokes, but this is an insult to Christianity.” I said I thought it was an outrage that my kids would have to grow up in a culture that forced them to grope their way past a Festivus pole to see a Nativity scene—on Christmas!

Festivus just wouldn’t die. The worst episode came in 2013, when a group erected a Festivus pole that consisted of six feet of beer cans next to a religious display that included a Nativity scene, a menorah, and other religious symbols at the Florida state capitol. Again I spoke out, appealing very straightforwardly to American values and common sense. I was asking a question that needed to be asked: Do we think so little of our religious symbols and rituals that we would give equal weight to a beer can sculpture based on an old sitcom? I still think it’s a good question.

I was gratified when the American Spectator magazine published an article by Jeffrey Lord titled “Gretchen Carlson Is Right.” Lord wrote, “Ms. Carlson’s outrage was right on target. She is exactly right to look into the cameras and call for a stand-alone display of that crèche. She understands perfectly what it represents, and that without the reverence and respect of those values we are all in serious trouble.” Amen!

My reputation as a culture warrior was one reason I got a role in the movie "Persecuted," which was released in 2014. The film is a thriller that focuses on two rights in America that are sometimes taken for granted: freedom of religion and freedom of speech.

The main character is an evangelist who is framed for a crime he didn't commit and persecuted for holding firm to his religious beliefs.

In the movie I play Diana Lucas, a journalist who asks tough ques tions. It was fun doing the movie, but the topic also meant a lot to me.

Every day in the news business, I report on stories just like this. Christians or people of other faiths are persecuted simply for standing up for something they believe. The intolerance seems crazy, but it's happening a lot more than you might think. The question "Persecuted" makes you ask is: Could the fictional movie plot ever happen here?

By the way, doing that movie was an example of how important it is to take on new challenges. I really stepped outside my comfort zone with "Persecuted." Actors have often told me they had a hard time imagining doing live TV and ad-libbing on the fly. Well, I had the opposite struggle on the movie set. It was very hard to sit still for fifty takes.

From "Getting Real" by Gretchen Carlson, published on June 16, 2015 by Viking, an imprint of Penguin Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC.

Copyright by Gretchen Carlson, 2015.

Goose · 7/08/2015 4:50 am

Oh Gretchen, you outlaw, bad girl, you!

In the course of peddling her new book Gretchen Carlson penned this regrettable essay. In it, she joins a long line of conservative writers playing into a siege mentality that many Christians feel.

Is it a complete waste of time to read it? Perhaps. The essay is over the top in its whineyness. Carlson is insufferable in her smug self congratulation for staying the course before criticism. But, I think that the essay gives insight into the mindset of a small but significant group of Americans who believe that they are under siege.

What immediately becomes obvious to the critical eye is hyperbole and conflation.
Carlson entitles the essay "I didn't know it was criminal to be Christian."
Then she goes on to offer zero examples of Christianity being criminalized in this country.
Gretchen offers instead the history of her rather odd obsession with the mythical holiday Festivus, and her failed crusade to have a pole banned. Some people disagreed wth her. Some rolled their eyes or even laughed.
Not exactly the Spanish Inquisition now, is it?

Note to Gretchen; it's not persecution when you lose the power to tell other people how to live.
The Constitution does not protect you from criticism, or even derision.

Isn't that what it all comes down to, the loss of power to inject your religious beliefs into politics and the law. The use of religion to tell others what to do?

I have great respect for religion, and am on my own journey of faith. I am Catholic, so I will use the Church as my example. I think that religions are free, and should remain free to define their own structure of beliefs and behaviors that define their Faith. For example, the Catholic Church should NOT be compelled to accept same sex unions as the sacrament of marriage. The Church should NOT be forced to conduct these ceremonies, and should have the power to defrock any priests who do. A religion should not have its tenets determined by the state.
Now, those outside your faith may find your beliefs odd, or laughable, but thems the breaks. Dialogue between faiths has always had its uncomfortable moments. Whaddaya gonna do?

We are a country of many faiths and no faith. 249 million Americans are nonCatholics. I don't believe that they should define my faith. AND, I also believe that the 69 million Catholics in the US should also refrain from using the law to tell the rest of you how to live.
My Church is free to determine what constitutes acceptable behavior by it's members, but not by others.
For example, we can refuse to recognize same sex unions as a marriage among our Church members, but it is the law of the land. Catholic hospitals and universities employ thousands of non Catholics. They are going to need to offer medical benefits for same sex spouses in accordance with the law. Look on the bright side, it won't include birth control.

Many conservative Christians also seem to believe that the criticism of their faith is somehow out of bounds, or even constitutes persecution. Not so. I am loath to criticize the faith of another,,,,, so long as he grants the legitimacy of other beliefs. But, when one uses HIS faith to determine the laws that we all must live by, questioning, even ridicule is absolutely fair game.

Now what about my freedom to exercise my religion? Ah yes, the great cake or pizza for the gay wedding question. I do not believe that the preparation or sale of products is the exercise of religion. I know of NO biblical basis that justifies the refusal to do business with gays or other "sinners". Baking a cake, and selling it to someone to serve at their reception is NOT encouraging or participating in that marriage anymore than it would be to sell gasoline to people who happen to be traveling to a same sex wedding. It's simply commerce within a free society.

Tarnation · 7/08/2015 6:20 am

Well stated, Goose.

TheLagerLad · 7/08/2015 6:54 am

When you hire prom queens as journalists, you get prom queen jourmalism.

florentine · 7/08/2015 7:15 am

Yes, Feigned outrage, hyperbole and drama queen hysterics gets tiresome.

Rongone · 7/08/2015 1:13 pm

Don Henley said it better than I could ever express my assessment of the fox "news" Stepford correspondents:

Don Henley – Dirty Laundry Lyrics

I make my living off the evening news
Just give me something-something I can use
People love it when you lose,
They love dirty laundry

Well, I coulda been an actor, but I wound up here
I just have to look good, I don't have to be clear
Come and whisper in my ear
Give us dirty laundry

Kick 'em when they're up
Kick 'em when they're down
Kick 'em when they're up
Kick 'em when they're down
Kick 'em when they're up
Kick 'em when they're down
Kick 'em when they're up
Kick 'em all around

We got the bubble-headed-bleach-blond who
Comes on at five
She can tell you 'bout the plane crash with a gleam
In her eye
It's interesting when people die
Give us dirty laundry

Can we film the operation?
Is the head dead yet?
You know, the boys in the newsroom got a
Running bet
Get the widow on the set!
We need dirty laundry

You don't really need to find out what's going on
You don't really want to know just how far it's gone
Just leave well enough alone
Eat your dirty laundry

Kick 'em when they're up
Kick 'em when they're down
Kick 'em when they're up
Kick 'em when they're down

Kick 'em when they're up
Kick 'em when they're down
Kick 'em when they're stiff
Kick 'em all around

Dirty little secrets
Dirty little lies
We got our dirty little fingers in everybody's pie
We love to cut you down to size
We love dirty laundry

We can do "The Innuendo"
We can dance and sing
When it's said and done we haven't told you a thing
We all know that crap is king
Give us dirty laundry!

Songwriters: HENLEY, DON/KORTCHMAR, DANNY

Last edited by Rongone (7/08/2015 1:14 pm)

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