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OpEdNews Op Eds    H2'ed 6/19/15

Fox News: Domestic Terrorist Just Another Liberal

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Larry Wilmore probably said it best - you can't get much clearer on the motive for a massacre like we just saw in Charleston, South Carolina, than listening to the gunman's own words. The domestic terrorist who murdered nine people in cold blood at the historic Emanuel AME Church, (and thankfully, remained unnamedand unglorified by at least Rachel Maddow on her show) could not have been more clear about his motivation for the murders. "I want to kill black people, he said." And, if there was any room for confusion, he allowed at least one survivor to share his message of hate:


"I have to do it," he reportedlysaid as he reloaded his gun five different times. "You rape our women and you're taking over our country and you have to go."


Wilmore noted that Fox chose black messengers for this whitewashing message; but he responded, "Black don't distract."


Of course, Fox News wasn't alone in this distortion. None other than presidential candidate Rich Santorum wasted no time in pilingon:


"[W]e're now seeing assaults on our religious liberty we've never seen before."


And Lindsay Graham playedthe same "Christian persecution" card as well:


"... it's 2015. There are people out there looking for Christians to kill them."


But you really have to hand it to the distortionists at Fox News, and the Religious Right. They are nothing if not efficient. In one fell swoop, by recasting this obvious act of racism as an attack on Christianity, they have not only silenced the voices of the hundred years' racist history of this country; they also managed to point an accusatory finger toward their ideological enemies for bringing about this act of terrorism, by daring to defy the dictates of fundamentalism. After all, it is clear that by "increasing hostility towards Christianity" they are not talking about attacks on black churches. They are talking about a whole host of civil rights and civil liberties struggles that the Religious Right has claimed to be contrary to the message of their version of the Christian Bible. So, women who don't think their bodies should be the property of the state; gays and lesbians who don't want to have to fearloss of their jobs, their families, or their lives for whom they love; religious minorities, such as Jews, and Muslims who don't want to be treated as second-class citizens in their own country; and victims of sexual violence who don't want to be blamed for the crimes against them: you are all on notice. Fox News and the Religious Right hold you, and not racists and their apologists - defenders of the official sanctioning of the Confederate flag included - responsible for this horrific act. If only women, gays, non-Christians and sexual assault victims, and their liberal advocates would learn their place.


Of course, the irony is lost on them. It wasn't all that long ago, that the Bible itself was used to defend slavery - and by extension, racism and segregation. The cycle continues.


(Article changed on June 21, 2015 at 17:19)

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Amy Fried, Ph.D. Social Media Pages: Facebook page url on login Profile not filled in       Twitter page url on login Profile not filled in       Linkedin page url on login Profile not filled in       Instagram page url on login Profile not filled in

Amy Fried applies her Ph.D. in Organizational Behavior to writing and activism on church-state separation, feminism, reproductive rights, corruption, media and veganism.

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