More rightwing rantings on NPR

Media Matters reports on NPR's religion reporter and her rightward slant. Further proof Public Broadcasting is going down the wrong path.

In a May 5 report about religious conservatives who believe that separation of church and state is inconsistent with the principles espoused by the country's founders, National Public Radio (NPR) religion correspondent Barbara Bradley Hagerty concluded by intoning: "While many Americans may travel a middle road, they are caught in the crossfire between those who believe that asserting Christian values is the greatest hope for America's future and those who see it as a threat."

Hagerty appeared to have learned nothing from her own report, on Morning Edition, which illustrated that many believe that a clear delineation between church and state is a Christian value. Hagerty's conclusion is particularly baffling given her preceding interview with a congregant at a Northern Virginia Baptist church whose "Christian values" seemed to include that very principle. The congregant, Kathy Baskin, denounced the posting of the Ten Commandments in government buildings, describing such public displays of particular religious principles as "a metaphor of feeling excluded and alienated from my own public institutions." She added, "I guess I think that does do harm to a citizen."

Indeed, Hagerty played a clip of Baskin's minister praying that the church would continue to "walk with Christ," even as Hagerty noted that not all Christians agree with religious conservatives who advocate tearing down the constitutional wall between church and state. The clear implication of the clip is that "walking with Christ" can mean believing it's wrong to insist that public institutions walk along with you.

Do go read the whole thing.