Religion

Pat Robertson & SourceWatch

There's never a quiet day at SourceWatch, our open-source encyclopedia of the people, organizations and issues shaping the public agenda. Some days, articles that have been patiently compiled by our volunteer writers over months, are suddenly in demand.

Pat Robertson
Pat Robertson

A case in point is the article on the founder of the Christian Coalition of America, Pat Robertson, who proposed in a broadcast on his 700 Club program that covert American agents should assassinate Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. "We have the ability to take him out, and I think the time has come that we exercise that ability," Associated Press quoted Robertson stating. Over the last eighteen months a number of regular contributors have compiled a comprehensive listing of online news stories on Robertson spanning the last decade. Others have started profiles on the various organisations Robertson is involved in.

Meanwhile Cindy Sheehan's vigil outside George W. Bush's ranch has put a spotlight on the cost of the war in Iraq. In a column last week for O'Dwyer's PR Daily, Kevin McCauley, contrasted Sheehan's vigil in the Texas heat with Bush remaining "cocooned in Crawford, sticking to the script of appearing only before supporters and people in the Administration."

In the last week over eighty new articles have been started as well as numerous additions to existing pages.

 

Bleeping Jesus

The CBS and NBC television networks are refusing to run a 30-second television ad from the United Church of Christ. The ad states that - like Jesus - the church seeks to welcome all people, regardless of ability, age, race, economic circumstance or sexual orientation. According to a written explanation from CBS, the implied acceptance of gay and lesbian worshippers makes the ad "too controversial." According to the Rev. John H.

No

"No Credibility" With Muslims

Al-Qaeda and radical Islamists are winning the propaganda war against the United States, according to a new report by the Defense Science Board, a high-level Pentagon panel. "American direct intervention in the Muslim World has paradoxically elevated the stature of and support for radical Islamists, while diminishing support for the United States to single-digits in some Arab societies," the report states. "Muslims do not 'hate our freedom,' but rather, they hate our policies. ...

No

Keeping Jesus Off Camera

"Don't expect to see the reverends Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson or Franklin
Graham
at the podium during next week's Republican National Convention,
whose planners hope to keep fire, brimstone and the Christian Right
offstage at Madison Square Garden.
About the only big name Christians making prime-time noise at Madison

No

The Diplomatic Faithful

FaithfulAmerica.org, which describes itself as "an online community of people of faith who want to build a more just and compassionate nation," will run commercials on the al-Jazeera and al-Arabiya Arabic language networks apologizing for the torture of Iraqi detainees by U.S. servicepeople and military contractors.

No

Getting Out the Vote, Religiously

House Republicans "quietly introduced a measure to make it easier for churches to support political candidates, just days after the Bush campaign ... [invited] church members to distribute campaign information at their houses of worship," reports the New York Times. "'Safe Harbor for Churches' ...

No

Saudi Clerics Bash U.S. Funded Channel

Two Saudi clerics have said that Muslims should not watch, work for, or advertise on the new U.S. funded Al-Hurra satellite channel. In a written fatwa, Sheik Ibrahim al-Khudairi said the channel was "founded by America to fight Islam, and to propagate massive decay to Americanise the world." Al-Hurra, which means the free one, is the latest Arabic-language media project run by the Broadcasting Board of Governors. According to U.S. officials, the channel, which will cost U.S.

No

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