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Gospel of godlessness

By Kristen Fyfe
March 23, 2008

Holy Week has offered an opportunity to cue up the media attacks on Christianity and faith.

The first salvo in the annual Easter faith-flagellation fest came last week from Comedy Central on a show called "Root of All Evil." Comedian-prosecutors were tasked with making the case as to which defendant was the "root of all evil." The choices were Oprah and the Catholic Church.

Said the Catholic Church "prosecutor": "Then there's the Virgin Mary. The Virgin Mary. God impregnated Mary. We have a whole religion based on one woman who reeeeeeally stuck to her story."

Sadly, most Christians are not surprised by this kind of invective. The media — entertainment and news — often treat Christianity and faith in God with indifference if not outright hostility.

For atheists it's a different story. In 2007 three books by atheists — Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris and Christopher Hitchens — made the best-seller lists. The news media used this fact to shine the spotlight on atheism and atheists throughout the year. And while there is nothing wrong with reporting a trend, media coverage of the godless and their beliefs was virtually uncritical. Unlike Christianity and Christians, atheism and atheists got a free ride.

At times, the media blatantly promoted atheism. In September, ABC's "Good Morning America Sunday" ran a feature on an atheist convention. ABC proclaimed that atheism was "unleashed," that "more and more" people were becoming atheists, and that the "stigma" of being an atheist "may be fading."

"Apostles of Atheism," a just-released special report from the Media Research Center's Culture and Media Institute, examines the 2007 coverage of atheism by several national news outlets. CMI reviewed all news programs on ABC, CBS and NBC, every 2007 issue of Newsweek, Time and U.S.News & World Report, and four news programs aired on taxpayer-funded National Public Radio ("All Things Considered," "Morning Edition," "Weekend Edition" and "Talk of the Nation").

CMI found 105 stories that either featured atheism or mentioned atheism in the context of reporting on culture, religion and politics.

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