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Last month we all had to endure the Reverend Al Sharpton's highly publicized visit to Salt Lake City. He was here to learn more about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints after his bigoted remarks about Mitt Romney.
He is quoted as saying, "As for the one Mormon running for office, those who really believe in God will defeat him anyways, so don't worry about that. That's a temporary situation."
Sharpton is just one liberal on the list of many who have taken to interrogating Mitt Romney regarding his religion. As a member of a political party that sets such a high store on being politically correct, Sharpton helped expose the hypocrisy and double standard that exists in America today.
Romney isn't the only Christian who has had to endure the insidious probing by the media and political far-left. John Kerry was followed by journalists weekly to Mass during the presidential elections of '04. The media wouldn't dare have the effrontery to follow a candidate to a Mosque every week.
Romney is, at the moment, the most visible target of the mainstream media's outright hostility and disdain toward Christianity. There is no way that the media would have the nerve to press Romney on his religion if he were a Muslim. They would be too afraid of appearing intolerant.
I am tired of the special treatment the media gives to other candidates, such as Barak Obama, because they are too afraid of offending someone. Information questioning the background and Muslim upbringing Obama received by his Muslim stepfather while in Indonesia was reported on by Insight Magazine. Instead of verifying the facts with Obama's campaign, CNN instead sent journalists to disprove the theory that the school Obama attended was not a Madrassa teaching a Wahhabi doctrine that denies the rights of non-Muslims, as it was rumored to be.
In his autobiography, The Audacity of Hope, Obama confirms that while in Jakarta, he attended a "predominantly Muslim school." Although Insight Magazine is sticking to its story, certain facts have been reported as less extreme than originally thought.
My point is, the media didn't have the guts to ask Obama anything regarding his potential link to the Muslim faith for fear of seeming prejudiced, but they feel entirely comfortable joining in on the outright bigotry displayed by so many concerning the LDS Church members and others of the Christian faith.
They are more than happy to report on the public's false view that the LDS faith is a cult, but I guarantee they would never utter a single derogatory word about radical Islam.
Another example of the liberal media's inability to demonstrate any shred of comparable reporting was when Brian Williams sat down with and interviewed Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian president. If the media were really concerned with ascertaining how much a person's faith will affect the course he or she takes in politics, Ahmadinejad would have been a perfect individual to ask. As someone who is trying to develop nuclear energy and has been quoted as saying that "Israel needs to be wiped off the map," perhaps it would have been beneficial to ask what he thinks his role in that would be, and how that would fit with certain prophesies in the Koran. Instead, Williams let him dance around the questions, and he did not ask him any questions regarding the Islamic faith.
In contrast, Sridhar Pappu, a former correspondent for The Atlantic Monthly, had the audacity to first ask Romney, "How Mormon are you?"
Romney responded with: "You know, the principles and values taught to me by faith are values I aspire to live by. (They) are as American as motherhood and apple pie. My faith believes in family, believes in Jesus Christ. It believes in serving one's neighbor and one's community."
However, that question was not enough. Pappu then was impudent enough to pose the question: "Do you wear the temple garments?"
How is anything affected by whether Romney wears garments or not? I don't see anyone asking Obama or Ahmadinejad if they wear a kufi.
When wind of Romney's bid for the presidency came out, polls were conducted asking if people would vote for a Mormon. Not just that question, but phrased as, "Would you be more or less likely to vote for Romney if you knew he was a Mormon and if you knew Mormons practice polygamy?" Where were all the journalists trying to verify facts and conducting polls asking if one would be more or less likely to vote for a Muslim and attaching outdated stigmas regarding that faith?
The fact is Obama didn't have to come out and answer any hard questions about faith--CNN sent out a squad for him. He didn't have to fight the press when intrusive questions were raised by outside sources.
Let's have some intellectual honesty. If members of one faith are going to be imposed upon for personal information, then it only makes sense to apply the same treatment across the board.
