Why are Christians demonized in the media?

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It seems like these days, Christians are made out to be demons, "bad guys", villians, etc. on TV and the media.

When I see an article on Yahoo News, peoples' comments seem to be blaming "Christians" for all the world's problems.

I never see people say these things about Islam, Judaism, etc. Christianity seems to be singled out.

Why is that?

Why do Christians act demonically where the media can take notice?

The Evangelical extremists are oft criticized. The main stream Christians are not.

Maybe if the Evangelicals stopped trying to stuff their religion up everyone's nose, the criticism would stop.

ruveyn

Maybe if the Christian churches would actually accomplish something worthy of praise, there would be fewer reports of their more shameful acts.

Actually people will demonize the mainline Christians as well, because of something inappropriate or unpopular done by the Evangelical right.

It all comes back to the Evangelicals doesn't it? If these annoying folk would just be polite and above all QUIET about their religion, few would object to them. But they have an agenda: convert the world. I will be blunt; conversion is Mind F*cking plain and simple. It is not kind, it is not polite and it is downright annoying. My advice to the Evangelicals; stay home or do your thing quietly in a church and stop bothering other people.

ruveyn

Because they can?

I see it happening a lot here on WP, too. There are a few members who seem to think it's their purpose in life to twist every topic into a slam on Christians. Personally, I think it's a sign of their own unresolved personal issues, but if they want to pretend they're actually convincing anyone, they can go ahead.

Guilt by association.

I am Christian so according to many people I must be a very conservative Republican, against gay marriage, for blowing up abortion clinics, for ruining the planet, for criminalizing all other religions, for women submitting to men, and I also must continually push my religion in either a Polyanna "everything is wonderful when Jesus is your friend" way, or in a "you are going to be thrown into the lake of fire to be tormented by demons and democrats for all eternity and when you are I'm going to laugh at you" kind of way.

I'm none of those things.

At all.

Also because our country (the US at least) is becoming more religiously diverse and many of the fundamentalist evangelical Protestants and some SSPX Catholics do not like that and are bigoted and discriminatory towards those of other religions.

We all get painted by the same brush.

The same reason that when you see Southerners on TV we are all either backwards rednecks with bad dental hygeine and no comprehension of grammar and all sleep with our first cousins or siblings, or we are either plantation dwelling debutants and gentlemen who look down our noses at everyone who isn't in our same social group. People who haven't been to the South or know any Southerners tend to see all of us as one type or the other. Painted by the same brush.

Same reason if you tell someone you are autistic they imagine a child who can't speak or feed himself rocking in the corner alone and drooling. It's what the media likes to show.

Normal mainstream Christians aren't news and don't draw ratings.
Normal mainstream Southerners aren't entertaining and don't draw viewers.
Normal mainstream Autistics aren't shocking and don't draw funding.

You'd think that brush would be a bit threadbare by now, wouldn't you?

"Normal Mainstream" seems to be only a smaller, quieter version of "Evangelical". Other than that, there is not much difference.

Do you not see any validity in the criticism of the extreme Evangelicals, these pestiferous nuisances who spend their time shoving their religion up any exposed orifice they can find?

ruveyn

Probably because their religion won't allow them to stick anything else up said orifices?

Tell that to the Catholic altar boys...

Christians hate ret*d holy rollers as much as atheists do, and they are far more vocal about it. The stupid holy rollers have just assumed them all to be atheists or just "not very religious" because many of them are young, educated, opinionated and liberal. Contrary to popular belief, these traits do not appear exclusively in atheists. That long-haired guy defending his right to smoke weed actually thinks God put it there specifically for him to smoke. He really believes it. I've known the freaks. They say, "God created the Earth and everything in it, and he had a purpose for every substance, whether we know it or not. We know that marijuana helps cancer patients, and it helps you feel good if you use it responsibly. Even deadly nightshade helps irritable bowel syndrome if you use it right, and this is because it's something God made. I don't see how any Christian could fail to understand this." But the lunatic holy rollers assume that ANYONE who doesn't buy their puritanical concept of religion--which they then fail to follow!--is just THAT MUCH CLOSER to being "one of those non-believers." It's called "bigotry," which is another reason that Christians hate holy roller fundamentalist idiots as much as the atheists do.

Pointing out that fundamentalism is evil is not in the same category as "demonizing Christianity," and fundamentalism is everyone's problem. It was a problem during the Cold War, when the holy rollers seemed to think that everyone was obligated to be all hot and eager to go after the "godless communists," even if they 1) were pacifists, 2) valued their lives, 3) agreed with the commies, or 4) all of the above. Ever watch Hair? My boyfriend was THERE, and yeah, it was really like that. And recently, this "War on Terrorism" bull crap is really, more than anything else, "The War to Protect the Place where Jesus was Born from the Muslim Towel-Heads," And the Holy Land wouldn't be nearly as much under threat if it weren't for the GOD DAMN HOLY ROLLERS sending messages ESCALATING THE FREAKING CONFLICT, UNNECESSARILY AND STUPIDLY. Fundamentalism is a real-world problem that impacts everybody. It is evil. It destroys everything it touches. It is a cancer.

POINTING OUT THAT FUNDAMENTALISM IS EVIL IS WORLDS APART FROM "demonizing Christianity."

POINTING OUT THAT FUNDAMENTALISM IS EVIL IS WORLDS APART FROM "demonizing Christianity."

POINTING OUT THAT FUNDAMENTALISM IS EVIL IS WORLDS APART FROM "demonizing Christianity."

Because fundamentalism is a cancer that can infest any ideology, including Marxism and veganism.

you're kidding right? no seriously- are you? people might critisice fundies every now and then but every time sh!t happens its the muslims that did it whether there is proof or not. im thinking brevik's terrorist attack on norway. no proof whatsoever that it was an extremist muslim group/individual that did it but thats where people pointed fingers first. here when there is any racial conflict, historically, it is migrants that get the blame. in recent years its muslims. "oh i dont know about letting refugees in, i dont think we need the muslim ones bringing their culture here". they are blamed because supposedly they are sectarian and refuse to assimilate. thats a bullsh!t racist argument to begin with. heck it even goes against government policy of multiculturalism. that and"they all want to impose sharia law on us." um no they bloody dont. stop reading the daily telegraph. and lets not forget jews. some people i know think its totally ok to voice opinions along the lines of "jews are greedy", "jews are sectarian", "jews control the economy therefore the gfc is their fault", "jews are ruling hollywood" and when they do no one bats an eye like its natural to be this racist. do they realise they sound like crazy, racist conspiracy theorists?
christians occupy a position of privilige and it always gives me a laugh to hear people say the mainstream or prevalent thought is alienating them. they are the majority not an isolated minority group being vilified by society. parliament is opened with a prayer, paranoid conservatives rail at the idea of christmas celebrations being taken out of public schools, the idea of our prime minister being an athiest horrified many people, i see many people refusing to awknowledge the fact that there are christian terrorists(how often did you see breivik represented as a terrorist? he was just one lone, crazy, white guy didnt you know? not a real christian). where on that list do you see anything that indicates that most people think christians are the source of all evil?

a humorous(yet serious) example of this is in this delightful christmas article. bless murdoch's papers. i wouldnt use them as toilet paper:
http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/o ... 6221232610

Does it? Do you have any data to back up your claim that Christians are often "demonized" more than other religions and denominations in the media?

Do you have any examples?