T
TeresTala
Guest
This from today’s St. Paul Pioneer Press:
On rainbow sashes and the Quran, media get it wrong
JOE SOUCHERAY
The people who wore rainbow sashes to the Cathedral of St. Paul on Sunday were denied Communion. The archbishop, Harry Flynn, following the instructions of his superiors in America and in Rome, made it clear that the wearing of the sashes was a protest against doctrinal teaching and therefore Communion would be denied and that, furthermore, Communion was not the time to stage a protest.
And what were the sashes if not a protest? Of course it was a protest. The people who wore the sashes could have received Communion by not wearing the sashes. Or they could shop around and find another religion to join, or possibly another church. I guess a couple of churches in Minneapolis looked the other way on the sashes.
Now, maybe not surprisingly, this was a big story around the world. Yes, around the world. You could have read this story in the Billings, Mont., Gazette or in a newspaper in New Zealand. It made all the Web sites. It occurred to me that the implication clearly intended was that the Catholic Church had some kind of nerve refusing Communion to the people who wore sashes to church.
In other words, and however vaguely, the media, institutionally, took the position that the sash wearers were somehow victimized in backward St. Paul by the church’s failure to accommodate them, even though the church could not accommodate them because the church has rules.
At the same time Newsweek magazine was busy retracting a story that reported that agents of the U.S. military at Guantanamo Bay had dunked the Quran into a toilet. That was the story. In the act of interrogating prisoners at Guantanamo Bay the Quran was allegedly disrespected. It turns out that this cannot be verified and that Newsweek has no evidence of such desecration.
For my money that should put Newsweek out of business, but it won’t. Newsweek and others of its ilk will ride into the sunset on the backs of anonymous sources. The implication intended in this story was that agents representing the United States had the nerve to show disrespect to a sacred book that is the official rule of God to Muslims. And that they did so knowing full well that showing disrespect to the Quran was such a serious offense that it can call for penalty of death in certain parts of the world. The Newsweek story led to riots in Afghanistan and Pakistan that caused the deaths of 15 people.
It reads this way: The American media — institutionally, mind you, acting as a collective — goes to bat for the people who knowingly break the rules of Catholic teaching but admonishes Americans who supposedly showed disrespect to the Quran, the Islamic rule book, if you will.
Which did not happen.
If, institutionally, the American media had the same values for the teachings of the Catholic Church, Sunday’s protest in St. Paul would not have been covered, or would not have received the amount of coverage that it did, or would have been covered in an entirely different way, with a different tone.
No disrespect should be shown to the Quran and it is with relief that we learn that Newsweek can’t demonstrate that such a thing happened. And because that is true, the Catholic Church should also be allowed to have its rules without them being challenged and without the hectoring of an institution that acts on behalf of those who find the rules disagreeable.
In both cases the rules are the rules.
But Newsweek and others of its ilk are definitely riding into the sunset. Their days are numbered. Americans are catching on to these increasingly not very subtle treatments of the news.
On rainbow sashes and the Quran, media get it wrong
JOE SOUCHERAY
The people who wore rainbow sashes to the Cathedral of St. Paul on Sunday were denied Communion. The archbishop, Harry Flynn, following the instructions of his superiors in America and in Rome, made it clear that the wearing of the sashes was a protest against doctrinal teaching and therefore Communion would be denied and that, furthermore, Communion was not the time to stage a protest.
And what were the sashes if not a protest? Of course it was a protest. The people who wore the sashes could have received Communion by not wearing the sashes. Or they could shop around and find another religion to join, or possibly another church. I guess a couple of churches in Minneapolis looked the other way on the sashes.
Now, maybe not surprisingly, this was a big story around the world. Yes, around the world. You could have read this story in the Billings, Mont., Gazette or in a newspaper in New Zealand. It made all the Web sites. It occurred to me that the implication clearly intended was that the Catholic Church had some kind of nerve refusing Communion to the people who wore sashes to church.
In other words, and however vaguely, the media, institutionally, took the position that the sash wearers were somehow victimized in backward St. Paul by the church’s failure to accommodate them, even though the church could not accommodate them because the church has rules.
At the same time Newsweek magazine was busy retracting a story that reported that agents of the U.S. military at Guantanamo Bay had dunked the Quran into a toilet. That was the story. In the act of interrogating prisoners at Guantanamo Bay the Quran was allegedly disrespected. It turns out that this cannot be verified and that Newsweek has no evidence of such desecration.
For my money that should put Newsweek out of business, but it won’t. Newsweek and others of its ilk will ride into the sunset on the backs of anonymous sources. The implication intended in this story was that agents representing the United States had the nerve to show disrespect to a sacred book that is the official rule of God to Muslims. And that they did so knowing full well that showing disrespect to the Quran was such a serious offense that it can call for penalty of death in certain parts of the world. The Newsweek story led to riots in Afghanistan and Pakistan that caused the deaths of 15 people.
It reads this way: The American media — institutionally, mind you, acting as a collective — goes to bat for the people who knowingly break the rules of Catholic teaching but admonishes Americans who supposedly showed disrespect to the Quran, the Islamic rule book, if you will.
Which did not happen.
If, institutionally, the American media had the same values for the teachings of the Catholic Church, Sunday’s protest in St. Paul would not have been covered, or would not have received the amount of coverage that it did, or would have been covered in an entirely different way, with a different tone.
No disrespect should be shown to the Quran and it is with relief that we learn that Newsweek can’t demonstrate that such a thing happened. And because that is true, the Catholic Church should also be allowed to have its rules without them being challenged and without the hectoring of an institution that acts on behalf of those who find the rules disagreeable.
In both cases the rules are the rules.
But Newsweek and others of its ilk are definitely riding into the sunset. Their days are numbered. Americans are catching on to these increasingly not very subtle treatments of the news.