A Catholic advocacy group is calling on MSNBC to apologize after the network’s host made disparaging remarks about Christians while covering the results of the Iowa caucuses.
Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, wrote a letter to MSNBC President Rashida Jones and Comcast President Michael Cavanagh on Wednesday. Donohue’s letter comes two days after MSNBC opinion host Joy Reid complained on air that Iowa is “overrepresented by white Christians” as the Iowa caucuses that kicked off the 2024 presidential nomination season were set to begin.
Additionally, Reid recalled a conversation she had with Robby Jones of the Public Religion Research Institute, a polling company, before the Iowa caucus vote: “He told me the following: Iowa is approximately 61% white Christian. The country as a whole is about 41% white Christian. And in Iowa, we’re talking about white evangelical Christians.
Reid added that when she asked Jones what white evangelical Christians gained by supporting former President Donald Trump, who ultimately won the caucuses with 51% of the overall vote and 53% of the white evangelical vote, the researcher responded: “They consider themselves the rightful heirs of this country, and Trump has promised to give it back to them. »
The MSNBC host opined that “all the things we think about, about eligibility, about…what people play…none of that matters when you believe that God gave you this country, that it is yours and that anyone who is not a white, conservative Christian is a fraudulent American” and a “less real American.”
Responding to Reid’s analysis, Donohue wrote: “If it were said that atheists believe that anyone who is not a believer is a fraudulent American, there would be repercussions. »
Donohue also mentioned comments made by Tara Setmayer of the anti-Trump advocacy group The Lincoln Project on MSNBC Tuesday, in which she called Christians a “death cult” and particularly pointed the finger at evangelical Christians: “No only they failed America, but they failed Christianity.”
Once again, Donohue suggested double standards, expressing concern that the political commentator received no backlash because she directed her comments at Christians rather than another group: “If a guest or host on MSNBC said that Muslims are a “death cult,” there would be repercussions. If it were said that Jews have failed America and Judaism, there would be repercussions. »
“Why have there been no repercussions regarding anti-Christian remarks made by MSNBC guests and hosts? ” He asked. “Intolerance against any demographic should never get airtime on television. »
Donohue concluded the letter by calling on the head of the cable news channel as well as the head of the network’s parent company to provide “a response to this serious problem.” He began the letter by asking for a “vigorous network response” to the comments.
Monday’s prime-time lineup wasn’t the first time Reid used his platform on MSNBC to denigrate Christians. Following the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan by President Joe Biden and the fall of the country to the Taliban, Reid addressed X to suggest that “what we continue to learn, forget and relearn, whether in Afghanistan or here in the United States, is that religious extremism, supported to use violence to impose a particular belief system as governing law, is incredibly dangerous. » .”
In another article on Americans: “It’s real life. The Handmaid’s Tale. A real warning for the United States, where our own religious far right dreams of a theocracy that would impose a particular type of Christianity, drive women out of the workforce and devote them solely to childbirth, and control all policy.
Ryan Foley is a journalist at the Christian Post. He can be reached at: ryan.foley@christianpost.com
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