All Comments (24)

marvelous-the king of electric kool aid pipes in with one of his mad hallucinations-

if a muslim printed such a hateful fantasy- theyd get a knock on their door for sure-

but this baked brain can conjecture the destruction of a whole people without a single cry of dissent

i rest my case here-

what is this numbnut was screaming his psychotic visions calling for the destruction of all jews?

or christians?

there would be no end to the outcries

but call for the destruction of muslims?

ominous and complicit silence

shawn b- youre xenophoia crept through in your statement there-
and you rather proved the point-

no one said the word terrorist shawn-

it was arab-

so your mind has been trained to substitute the word arab and replace it with terrorist?

and you came to this conclusion independent of any outside influence?

i rest my case, which i didnt even make.

Victoria...I don't think the terrorists need any help from the media in being "demonized". They're doing a pretty good job themselves.

Actually, James Whalen's church is protestant, also. It in no way resembles the early church just after Christs crucifixion, up to approx 300 AD. The true church does not embrace facets of the Babylonian Mystery Religions, as catholocism does. While Constantine, et. al. where pushing hot cross buns, our Lord and Savior, years prior, was teaching His disciples far different things to do in remembrance of Him. Read the book.

Imagine going thru life with a name like:Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite
I mean, come on, give me a break. Susan, it's not too late. Change your name or become a Roman catholic.
When I finish reading Susan's tnoughts and the comments of all those weirdo Protestant,
and other ding bats, I thank God I am an old fashioned Irish Catholic of the true church.
I will pray for you Susan and your hoople respondants.

Keep the faith

Jimmy

here is a compelling clip of the american medias demonization of arabs from an entertainment perspective- its only 5 minutes long and an interesting piece-

http://www.videoplayerweb.com/video/reel-bad-arabs:-how-hollywood-vilifies-a-people/Ko_N4BcaIPY/

Eric -
Eric – I agree – ignorance is a big problem and quite a complex problem as well. It’s not just that people aren’t interested or don’t pay attention, it’s that people are fed all kinds of information, in some cases from very ill-informed sources - and expected to believe it. Many people learn about the religion they may profess for the rest of their lives only when they’re kids in Sunday school. Unlike other things your learn, there can be many answers to religious questions – depending on whom you talk to. Gaining an adult perspective on religion involves not just learning more, but UNLEARNING what you thought you knew – unraveling myth and tradition. And why did you think you knew what you knew? Not because you’re ignorant – no, because your Sunday school teacher told you a zillion years ago, then the minister reinforces it on Sunday mornings, then if you go to a bookstore you can find just about any point of view you want. People can make up whatever they want about religion and spout off about it and they often do – it’s all about “faith” after all and your own “beliefs” and your personal relationship with God.

By the way, Jesus was not a Christian. He was a Jew. Christianity didn’t coalesce as a religion until a while after he died. When Jesus referred to the scriptures, he was talking about the Hebrew scriptures (Old testament). The New testament hadn’t been written yet, of course. The first Gospel was written about 40 years later. The first followers of Jesus were Jewish.

hey adrian, the grim reaper called, he wants his hat back

All this is just rather depressing. Not too long ago a Professor at Boston University did a study and showed that Americans are unbelievably ignorant about religion. Most of the comments I've read here confirm that study. Is the media biased, and/or "fair" to "religion"? Much of the media is as ignorant as are Americans as such. Since at least Pope Gregory the Great, images have served as the "books of the unlearned". They still are. Professor Thistlethwaite is a scholar and the anti-intellectual trend in this country is still perhaps the biggest obstacle to its betterment, progress, or whatever other word you might use to describe it. This is not to say that she is "right". The point was to ask an individual in a prominent position who is an "expert" her views on the question. Stick your head in the sand, or sail into outer space, but neither perspective contributes an iota to the debate. The problem is the gross ignorance and lack of understanding in general of "things religious". It is not, necessarily, the media's "fault". The media always "warps". Mel Gibson's "Passion of Chrsit" was warped, but was it more warped than "Troy"? I think both are travesties of ignorance. We need a new Nietzsche: "God is dead, and we have killed him" and "there has only been one Christian, and he died on the cross." Thank you Susan for initiating the debate. It is just so sad to see the level on which it has been carried out.

Reverend:
I can admire that you turned your cheek when you wrote your article. Judging by the responses I would wonder what sort of programs would I write to satisfy the gist of thinking displayed in those responses. Open? thought challenging? non judgemental?
Hardly, The predominant media driven philosophy is a hard to soft left of centre mantra. That philosophy is anti-religious and betrays the one thing lefties feel they portray and that is a Christian ethic called tolerance.
Look at the program 'West Wing' any doubts at the political message and the basic political philosophy presented?
Being either a believer or religious demands that we remain silent to the overwelming portrayal of atheism present in the media. The vast majority of people in North America are anti- abortion but like being religious do so in silence.

i love the way some of you athiests and religion haters call this nut case a middle of the road writer. it reminds me of what you leftists call a balanced debate, that would have a communist, socialist and new world democrat - that is balanced to you and if someone actually had a conservative voice on the panel - well that would be too far to the right for you leftists. only your opinion is reasonable and in the center and everyone else is radical, and this nut case writer is just as bad.

I seriously doubt if holywood suddenly adopted "acceptable" images that any amerikans would suddenly become more compassionate, more intelligent and less greedy.

I really do.

All we ever see on tv and in the movies are glamorously thin models and actors. go to the mall and you see a bunch of fatsos in fleece. someone is not getting the "message" if you ask me. I know, you didn't.

Susan, I find it interesting that you discussed the impact of visual imagery without also delving into the impact of soundtracks. Even in movies where the bad guy is practically albino, the accompanying music is often enough to indicate that his character is up to no good. You could give all the actors white hats and good lighting, but if the entrance of "The Arab Terrorist" is accompanied by ominous music the effect is the same as black hats and shadows.

Jacob scares me. He really does.

Television's messages to people is really what she's talking about. The idea is that it has no effect to offer a disclaimer in one section of a program when all the drama and images reflect something to the contrary. Words have meaning, but a picture is still worth a thousand of them, and a moving picture with sound is worth a million.

The most important reason why negative advertising fails to work is that people forget the negative and remember the product or person. So if you buy ads that slam Hyundai automobiles, people will eventually forget the words but remember the cars. The same holds true with all images, not just cars or religions, but also with politicians and, most importantly, with wars too. So when the voice-over is voicing outrage at mismanagement in Iraq, the moving images serve only to remind us and younger Americans that it is the normal job of Americans to invade and occupy.

Watch what is on the television sometime with the sound turned off. I learned to do it in pool hall, but you try this at home even if you're not a professional. The images speak of invasions and great casualties ahead, even though the words sound balanced.

And the heavy casualties in our future help explain the resurgence of religion in our present.

Susan,

You are an anti-Catholic bigot and part of the deceptive mass media that you criticize.

In regards to color schemes, it seems that this is a case of the pot calling the kettle black.

I love how you pick one scene out of 24, when theres been good and bad people on both sides.

24 Portrayed a [white] US president as one of the masterminds behind a plot. And recently (last episode - the Good [Black] President, had to be awakened out of the Coma to stop the bad [White] Vice president from starting nuclear war with the Middle East. In the same episode - a Middle Eastern was the first person suspected in a breech at CTU, and was detained, but was eventually proved to be innocent and was released.

Infact the most consistent villian in 24 has been US Government Officials, and US Corporations.

I could go on and on, but too often people read way too far into television shows and think that if a character is anything but white, the producers are saying that people of that ethnicity are a reflection of that character.

She said that there are the words and then there are the pictures. Much of the Bible itself, the important parts come from not the words but the pictures. They couldn't read the words for the most part.

John, the hallucinator, author of Revelation made out "second death" from the writing and hallucinated it while hallucinating mostly what he saw in the pictures. He clearly had in his posession at the time of big hallucination the "Hebrew" map of the universe and at least one page from the Egyptian "Book of the Dead."

You can see both of those documents at http://www.hoax-buster.org page 1 and then answer the question: where did he, John get the idea of a "second death" and confirm what Ms Thistlethwaite said, pictures are the deciding factor.

Ms.Thistlethwaite,

I enjoyed your article. I also admired how you attempted to remain in the middle, between both the right and the left beliefs.
I also agree that religion will never be given a fair shake in the media. Due to some people wanting it their way, or no way at all. Like you stated, "Whats a fair description for one, is not a fair description to another person." In my opinion, "we as individuals have a serious responsiblity to ourselves, to our children, and to our society as a whole to educate ourselves, not someone else to educate us." Of course we will all listen at some times or another to a so called expert in the field of religion, or whatever other topic. But my responsibility requires me to take a few more steps in that education. Its me that has to find as nuetral research as possible on the topic to attempt to find the truth, or what remains of the truth. The worst thing I can do, and unfortunately years ago I did do, is to listen to only people who hold the same beliefs as myself on any topic. As an example: We have friends who watch only CNN,ABC, CBS, MNBC, etc... They all swear that FOX is the negative and biased channel. All our FOX friends swear that all the other channels are negative and biased on their news coverage. We switch back and forth between all the news channels. They all demonstrate propaganda meant for each of their respective audiences. I can only speak for myself, critical thinking for me comes much easier when I have no vested interest in any religion and or ideology. I think that both religion and politics preach convergent thinking, while the true aim of every person should be divergent thinking.

Dr. Thistlewaite you do know that the Jewish leaders of the day did wear black hats and that almost everyone Jew or otherwise at that time had bad teeth?

That isn't antisemitism. In fact it is one of the few historically accurate things in the "Passion of the Christ". The whole courtyard scenae was an absolute travesty if you're an historian of any merit.

all jews of that time wore black hats and everyone had bad teeth. islamics from the middle east and north africia are dark skinned, not blonds. only good cowboys wore white hats and the bad ones wore black, although there were exceptions. as for fairness in religion well again your tunnel vision hurts you. even one story about a priest doing wrong gets put all over the world and all christians are branded as theifs, child molesters, and any other crazy thing that will sell newspapers or air time. jews are still treated as greedy and oppressors of the poor pals - who just happen to teach their children to hate all jews and that it is a good thing to murder jews - but that part of the story is not covered. and i dont see the press telling anyone that the koran demands that islamics not only hate jews, christians and hindu's and anyone else not islamic, but that they should not have these non islamics as friends or co workers and that ultimately killing anyone who is not islamic and will not covert - well that is demanded by the koran too. maybe your the one in the black hat blondie.

Reverend Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite writes "As we in the United States try to move away from enemy stereotyping in religion toward pluralism and tolerance".

I am afraid she is too optimistic because there is a substantial group of people in the US who reject any move towards pluarlism and tolerance, and some of them write essays for this forum.

"Yet, I think we can all become, and must become, far more visually literate and critical of mass media manipulation through images."

Hmmm... The kind of manipulation the United Church of Christ (your denomination) manufactured in the "Bouncer" television ads that implied that all other churches reject people?

These are good points but I'd be more impressed if you actually asked these questions of your own denomination before preaching to the rest of us.

You are absolutely right. The media most certainly does use a subliminal manipulation of sorts to make us root for one side or another.