fter Fox News' Brit Hume came under harsh media criticism for suggesting that sex scandal-plagued Tiger Woods should convert from Buddhism to Christianity to find forgiveness, evangelical groups are accusing newspaper and TV commentators of being anti-Christian. But some religious scholars say evangelicals should ask themselves whether the bad press is just payback for their own "pious criticism" of others. Does the media hate Christians — or have evangelicals provoked hatred?

Stop whining — U.S. Christians aren't persecuted: There are plenty of "horror stories" about Christians who really are persecuted, says Martin Marty in The Washington Post. Churches bombed in Malaysia; Coptic Christians shot in Egypt; Christians killed in some provinces of India. But Christians in the U.S. can pray freely, in private or in public, so they should stop whining; it doesn't help the cause of people who really are persecuted.
"Christians are being persecuted, but not here"

Of course the media is hostile to Christianity: The "firestorm" over Brit Hume's remarks came as no surprise, says the Christian Coalition of America. A few years ago nobody would have blinked at Hume's expression of his faith. "Unfortunately, such hatefulness by the left-wing media is now commonplace and is threatening religious freedom in America."
"Media's hostility to Christianity"

The Christian right certainly has a friend in Fox News: One media outlet — Fox News — has no problem with faith bashing, says Simon S. Maloy of Media Matters for America. From the overtly Christian Fox point of view, "other faiths are dangerous, inadequate, or funny." So just look at the debate over Brit Hume's remarks as a "fitting coda to Fox News' annual winter exercise in manufactured outrage...the increasingly ridiculous 'War on Christmas.'"
"Fox News' shameless Christian crusade"

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