This past Monday Pat Robertson offered his Christian Broadcast Network audience a conspiracy theory, as a legitimate response, to Fox News contributor Eric Bolling’s suspension from the network for allegedly sending unsolicited nude photos to at least three female coworkers. Robertson said:
If you wanted to destroy the Fox News, you really
wanted to destroy them, what would you do? Well you would send some salacious
material, ostensibly from one of their popular co-hosts or hosts and you’d send
it out and then get it publicized and then you have some woman complain that
she had gotten this salacious material from this particular co-host.
Sadly, there
are Evangelicals who will accept Pat Robertson’s theory as fact. The ungodly union
between the reactionary wing of the Evangelical movement and the conservative
media has produced an analytical paralysis in the minds of those who only receive
information from sources inside their bubble. This paralysis obscures rational thought
and hinders dialogue. It’s easier to believe conservative media outlets are the
victims of a sinister liberal plot than to address the misogyny and patriarchy
that seem to be constitutive parts of their political and religious dogma.
Eric Bolling’s
suspension comes a month after Charles Payne’s suspension pending the findings
of his sexual harassment allegations. In April of this year Bill O'Reilly was
fired from the network after it was revealed that he and 20th
Century Fox had been settling sexual harassment cases since 2004. In July of last year, the recently deceased, Roger
Ailes was forced to resign as CEO of Fox News amid his sexual harassment scandal
involving female employees at the network.
None of this
history matters. A closed mind rarely sees patterns. These sexual allegations
are not viewed as a sign of a toxic atmosphere. The “good guy” is a victim of
an illegitimate media. This is the kind of thinking that allows people to look
at videos of unarmed people shot by police and disconnect what they are seeing
from any historical context.
The allegiance
some Evangelicals have pledged to the conservative media is so strong that it
ignores, tolerates and even defends sexual assault. The "Access
Hollywood" audio of Donald Trump admitting to sexually assaulting women
didn't faze this crowd. Bill Clinton’s 20-year-old consensual affair with
Monica Lewinsky is more offensive to many of them than Donald Trump hanging
around the dressing rooms of young women or his willingness to just, “Grab ’em
by the p___y.”
There are religious
and secular people who, foolishly, believe these Evangelicals can be reached with
better arguments. These good folks are prisoners of their own hope and optimism.
There is a hatred at the core of this kind of Christianity. Pat Robertson was
talking to people who spent eight years believing every nonsensical story about
FEMA camps, gun grabs, Sharia law and a host of other lies fed to them by the
conservative media.
In America,
our hatred is often hidden behind the Bible or wrapped in a flag. More than 80%
of our fellow citizens identify with some denomination of Christianity,
yet the rhetoric disseminated from Christian television, social media, too many
pulpits and from our elected officials doesn't comport with the
gospel of Jesus. Pointing this out is useless. There are Evangelicals who
believe the media is fake news, science is a form of secular opinion and universities
produce more snowflakes than data. This isn’t hypocrisy. It’s a pernicious
worldview that can’t be penetrated with a better argument. The church and the truth
are collateral damage.
