In an essay for the New York Post, columnist Salena Zito claims it’s not okay to mock people for their faith.
She’s specifically commenting on how The View‘s Joy Behar recently suggested on the show that, if you believe God talks back to you (as Mike Pence does), you ought to see a doctor.
[Pastor Tim] McGregor finds this intolerance and lack of empathy from celebrities and the media both startling and predictable. “It is as though in popular culture being a person of faith has gone from being a virtue to a liability,” he said.
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This empathy gap often isolates people of faith as they are depicted as being odd, unhinged, outside the norm — or “clinging to their religion,” as Barack Obama once said on the campaign trail.
It’s not intolerance to suggest voices in your head aren’t real, nor is it intolerant to mock ideas that have no basis in reality. Remember: Christians believe people who don’t accept the resurrection of Jesus are doomed to an eternity of torture. Is that considered intolerant, too? Zito never answers that.
Instead, she claims that mocking religion is “no different from mocking someone because of their race, gender or sexual persuasion.” She’s wrong. You don’t choose your race, gender, or sexual orientation.
But you sure as hell decide what delusions you accept. If you want to believe Jesus can literally transform into a cracker, or that you’ll reside on your own planet one day, or that you’ll be reincarnated after you die, don’t be surprised when people who take evidence and reason seriously mock your irrational thinking.
That’s not elitism, as Zito says. That’s just common sense.
And when a politician who’s supposed to be acting on behalf of all Americans puts more faith in his faith than the intelligence community and experts at his disposal, it’s especially important that we call out the absurdity of what’s happening.
Faith is not a virtue. It never was. It’s a crutch that gives people false hope. In the case of this administration, promoting Christianity is a tool to get evangelicals to look the other way while they drown in scandals of their own making. We don’t need to complain about Joy Behar. We need more people to follow in her footsteps.
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