When is the Right going to learn?

I recently saw a video featuring a conservative gentleman lambasting the folks on "The View" for saying that Vice-President Pence believes that God talks to him and that Mr. Pence speaks in tongues.

He said that every Christian believes in following the teachings of the Bible (which is, of course, not what they were referring to) and asks where this "speaking in tongues" business comes from. He equates the statement made on the show that hate speech against Islam helps the militants recruit young people with worry about "hurting the feelings" of terrorists. He also shows clips in which the women on the show display indignation at the fact that so many people equate militant Islam and Islamic terrorism with Islam proper and disapprovingly quotes a verse from the Koran which says, in effect, that when it comes to Allah's judgment those who do not believe in Islam are gonna have a hard time.

What drives me up the wall about the video is that in the midst of a lot of nonsense he's arguing a valid and very important point and that he blows it.

The argument that this guy was trying to make about anti-Christian bigotry in the media and in the culture generally is not only valid but vital. It absolutely must be made. The double standard of the cultural Left is beyond belief. They will say things about Christians and religious people in general which they themselves would label as bigotry if said about anyone else. But precisely because it's such an important point it is inexcusable to make it in a way so sloppy and inaccurate that those it should be shaming can easily brush it off instead.

The Left can get away with this, and often does. They control the media. They get to define the terms of the debate, and they usually- not just often- define them dishonestly. When the other side doesn't have the ability to effectively correct misrepresentations of their position, you can get away with such nonsense. But when it's your side whose voice is drowned out by that of the other side, you'd better be pretty careful to be accurate in describing what you're criticizing. You're going to have enough of a problem being heard even then. But when you make it pathetically easy for the opposition to dismiss what you say as a straw man- even when it's a legitimate and important point that you're making- you do yourself no favors.

There is no question that a profound anti-Christian bias exists in the media, although I suspect that it arises more from ignorance than from malice. But beyond that, this guy is out to lunch. Pence is a Pentecostal who really does speak in tongues and who really does believe that God communicates with him directly rather than only through the read and proclaimed Word, and he makes no bones about it. Those are distinctive features of Pentecostal Christianity, and those, rather than applying what Jesus teaches in the Bible, are what the ladies on The View were talking about.

That doesn't make mocking him for his beliefs OK. I agree that in doing so the panelists on The View were way out of line and that the point the gentleman makes is essentially valid. But Christians and conservatives actually help them discredit the Faith when we misrepresent what others say. Mocking the faith of others is never OK, but it's important when calling people out for doing so to be accurate about what you're calling out.

Hate speech against Islam in general certainly isn't the origin of Islamic terrorism, but it doesn't help the problem, either. It does, for some odd reason, make Muslims feel- well, hated, whether they're radical terrorists or patriotic Americans. And hate speech against Islam, in general, is what the ladies of The View ladies are talking about. They are not talking about saying negative things about radical Islam, but about unspecific attacks on the entire religion which offend countless loyal Americans who are just as opposed to radical Islam as we are.

There are many far more violent things in the Koran than what this guy quoted. But the New Testament has some pretty harsh things to say about those who reject Christ, too. All in all, this is a very ineffective and sloppy attempt to make an extremely valid and important argument. It's easily brushed aside because of its inaccuracies even though the point it's trying to make is both valid and legitimate.

And the right does entirely too much of such stuff.