A new poll says that three out of four Americans grade the country’s moral climate at a “C” or below. Meanwhile, Fox Sports has rejected an ad saying that “Jesus hates Obama” and another poll says that Alabamans did not like what their governor said about non-Christians not being “his brother or sister” even if they don’t necessarily disagree with him.
The poll by Public Religion Research Institute and Religion News Service “found that Americans cite partisan noise from cable, talk radio, blogs and the Tea Party as the main stumbling blocks to working across partisan lines.”
At the same time, two-thirds of Americans say the nation’s harsh political rhetoric bears little or no responsibility for the shooting spree in Tucson, Ariz., that killed six and left a Democratic congresswoman gravely injured.
And despite popular assumptions that faith can fuel bitter polarization between Americans, just one in seven respondents say religious leaders from the left or right are major obstacle to changing the tone in Washington.
“People are distinguishing between the political extremes and religious extremes, and they see the problem with politics, not necessarily with religion,” said James Calvin Davis, religion professor at Middlebury College and author of “In Defense of Civility: How Religion Can Unite America on Seven Moral Issues that Divide Us….”
…Davis said America’s political rhetoric isn’t necessarily worse than ever before—just louder.
“We should be careful not to long for an earlier day when things were more civil,” he concluded. “Incivility is a deep-seated American tradition. … It’s just that the incivility is arguably more rampant these days because we have … these megaphones that allow the uncivil voices in our culture to be even louder.”
Fox Sports Media has apparently rejected an ad that was to run during the next Super Bowl from an online store called “Jesus hates Obama.” CNN reports that Richard Belfry started selling his “Jesus hates Obama” merchandise in 2009. He told CNN:
“Do I really believe (that) Jesus really hates Obama? No, but I do believe in freedom… as in the freedom to poke fun at the Obama administration when I don’t agree with their policies.”
A spokesman for Fox, which will broadcast the Super Bowl on February 6, would not say whether the network rejected the ad.
“If an advertiser wishes to submit an ad for consideration, we will review it and determine if it’s appropriate for air,” said Lou D’Ermilio, a spokesman for Fox Sports Media Group. “However, we do not provide information about the materials that may or may not have been submitted, nor do we discuss our broadcast standard polices.”
The Jesus Hates Obama website said in its release that it had received an e-mail message from Fox’s vice president for broadcast standards and practices that said its commercial was “deemed not acceptable to air on FOX during the 2011 Super Bowl.”
In Alabama, Governor Robert Bentley apologized for remarks he made on Monday, and many in Alabama apparently think he could have found a nicer way to say what he did. Bob Johnson, writing for the Washington Post, says:
You can spot a Baptist church from almost any hilltop in Alabama, so it’s not hard to find people who agreed with their new governor this week when he said only Christians are his brothers and sisters.
Even so, some of his brothers and sisters thought he could have found a nicer way to say it.
It’s unlikely that Republican Gov. Robert Bentley will suffer politically from his inauguration day remarks, which he made from a church pulpit at a Martin Luther King Jr. holiday service Monday.
“I don’t think he was too smart to say that,” 72-year-old Ron Brooks said as he was getting his hair cut at a barber shop in Wetumpka, a suburban town about 20 miles north of Montgomery. But Brooks, a retired employee of a defense contractor, said he’s “inclined to agree” with Bentley’s statement….
…Keith Nicholls, a pollster at the University of South Alabama, said in his polls of Alabama residents, often as many as 70 percent identify themselves as “born-again Christians.”
Bentley’s comments Monday shocked and offended some nonbelievers and member of other faiths and stoked criticism from across the country. The governor apologized Wednesday for the remarks after meeting with leaders of Alabama’s Jewish community.
A lifelong Baptist who works at a two-pump gas station in rural Rock Creek, Angel Byram said Thursday she understands what Bentley meant with his original comments.
“I get what he was saying. It didn’t bother me,” said Byram, who was selling a soft drink and headache powders to a coal miner at the small store on Warrior River Road.
“But being in a public office like that (Bentley) should have thought of others,” she said. “If I wasn’t Baptist and didn’t believe that way I would have been offended.”
CNN says that Rabbi Jonathan Miller of Temple Emanu-El in Birmingham, Alabama, fired off a letter to Governor Bentley on Tuesday but is “completely satisfied”
Reached Wednesday afternoon on his cell phone, Miller said his concern had dissipated. He was in his car, traveling back from Montgomery, where he’d just met with Bentley.
“He’s looking to fix the thing,” Miller said after the 75-minute meeting, which included about half a dozen concerned community leaders, including those of other faiths. “He was apologetic. He’s clearly looking to reconcile himself. He said today, ‘All of us have put out words we wish we could take back.’”