While my antipathy for religious fundamentalists both foreign and domestic is, I suspect, pretty obvious, what gets less airtime is then fact that I don’t actually have a problem with religion–examples of people who are given strength and purpose and compassion and belonging by their faith are all around me.
But, let’s face it, it’s the wingnuts who get most of the airtime in the mainstream media. Fortunately, we have PBS.
“NOW with Bill Moyers”:http://www.pbs.org/now/ April 30 show included a segment discussing the large number of Christian pro-choice organizations who showed up at the March for Women’s Lives.
bq.. MOYERS: You no doubt read or heard something about that huge March for Women’s Lives in Washington last weekend.
A single photograph captured it for me. Hundreds of thousands of people, spread across the mall in the heart of the nation’s capitol marching for choice. We took a closer look, and found something that the press all but ignored. Many of these people were there on faith. Our report is produced by Naomi Spinrad.
MOYERS: They came from all over the country to join the largest demonstration for a woman’s right to choose ever held in the nation’s capital.
Despite the sheer size of the crowd, this day was more than a matter of numbers. For thousands of these people, coming here was a pilgrimage. They came as an act of faith, a witness to deeply held beliefs about religion and conscience.
On the fringes of the march were their old adversaries from the religious right, who say the Bible teaches that abortion is murder. The mainstream media often seem to think theirs are the only religious opinions that count.
p. Yeah, it’s the first I’d heard of ’em, too. But it makes me happy to know that they’re out there–and sad that you don’t hear more about them; I guess reporting on moderation and conscience doesn’t sell enough clothes detergent, or whatever.
