{"id":106819,"date":"2013-06-14T13:29:24","date_gmt":"2013-06-14T17:29:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/?p=106819"},"modified":"2013-06-14T13:36:05","modified_gmt":"2013-06-14T17:36:05","slug":"is-a-global-war-on-christianity-newsworthy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/2013\/06\/is-a-global-war-on-christianity-newsworthy\/","title":{"rendered":"Got news? Is a global ‘war on Christianity’ newsworthy?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Would it be newsworthy if a U.S. Senator claimed in a public address that American taxpayer dollars are being used in a war against Christian believers in \u2014 to pick one key region \u2014 the Holy Land?<\/p>\n

Apparently not, since Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) made that claim yesterday at the Faith and Freedom Conference and the media has all but ignored it. As James Hohmann of Politico<\/em> reports<\/a>: <\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a war on Christianity, not just from liberal elites here at home, but worldwide,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd your government, or more correctly, you, the taxpayer, are funding it.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Although it was noticed by a handful of the D.C.-based, politically oriented sites, few mainstream outlets picked up on the story (a mention by CBS News<\/a> and the AP<\/a> are the only ones I could find). <\/p>\n

Why the silence?<\/p>\n

Imagine if a senator \u2014 a potential candidate for president, in fact \u2014 had claimed we were funding a war on Islam, or Hinduism, or Judaism. Would that not be a front-page story? Why then the difference when it comes to Christianity?<\/p>\n

Part of the reason, I suspect, is because few journalists understood what Sen. Paul is even talking about. The socially conservative Christians at the conference knew what he meant, but that is because they read alternative media sources. Religious media outlets mention persecution of Christians around the globe nearly every week, though such stories rarely find their way into mainstream news stories. Even when, earlier this month, the Vatican claimed that 100,000 Christians are killed annually<\/a> because of their faith, no major media seemed interested enough to do a follow-up on the assertion. <\/p>\n

Perhaps some journalists thought that by reporting on Sen. Paul\u2019s statement they would be required to explain the context. But they needn\u2019t have worried about that. Here, for example, is the entire mention by the Associated Press in their 900+ word article titled, \u201cGOP leader says \u2018a war on Christianity\u2019 is funded by taxpayers<\/a>\u201d:<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul told the group that there is a \u201cwar on Christianity, not just from liberal elites here at home, but worldwide.\u201d He argued that American should not send foreign aid to countries across the Middle East that persecute Christians.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Am I missing something? Is Sen. Paul\u2019s statement so uncontroversial that it\u2019s not really newsworthy? Is the \u201cwar on Christianity\u201d such a well-understood phenomenon that it doesn\u2019t need elaboration?<\/p>\n

In politics we often hear about \u201cdog whistles\u201d and \u201ccode words\u201d \u2014 political messaging that uses language that appears to mean one thing to the general population but has a different or more specific resonance for a targeted subgroup. Most of the time the claims about code words are products of some opposing pundit\u2019s imagination. In this case, though, Paul really is<\/em> using dog whistle language to a convey a message. <\/p>\n

Those who only read mainstream media will not be able to understand since they likely never hear about the global \u201cwar on Christianity,\u201d even when the topic is discussed in major government reports, in Vatican statements and in documents from human rights groups.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Would it be newsworthy if a U.S. Senator claimed in a public address that American taxpayer dollars are being used in a war against Christian believers in \u2014 to pick one key region \u2014 the Holy Land? Apparently not, since Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) made that claim yesterday at the Faith and Freedom Conference and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1213,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,60,7,63,18,3,12,4,24,19],"tags":[1735,1801,15470,1800,1022,230,15474],"class_list":["post-106819","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-evangelicals","category-got-news","category-journalism","category-middle-east","category-people","category-politics","category-religion","category-social-issues","category-world","category-world-religions","tag-christianity","tag-global-religion","tag-middle-east","tag-rand-paul","tag-religious-persecution","tag-syria","tag-vatican"],"yoast_head":"\nGot news? 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