A great opinion piece appeared in The LaCrosse Tribune by a local college professor wondering where the media’s been on the religious freedom rallies.
Dead Stroud is a Catholic convert who teaches at a local college. He also seems to write occasionally for their opinion section as he has a number of pieces up there. Check it out. It’s great. I especially love how he uses the editorial page of the paper to blast their ignoring this important issue.
I guess some kudos should go to the newspaper for printing this. Let’s hope that it wakes them up to their bias. Here’s Stroud’s piece:
On June 8, about 200 Catholics and other Christians gathered in front of the La Crosse post office office to rally for the freedom to practice religion — guaranteed in the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution — and in opposition to the federal mandate that forces Catholic institutions and individuals to violate our conscience.
We joined some 60,000 others in 164 cities across the country on Stand Up for Religious Freedom day. Unfortunately, the Tribune ignored the event.
I fear we made two mistakes:
We were demonstrating in support of the Catholic Church and our bishops.
We were demonstrating against Obama’s mandate.Had we been there in opposition to the Catholic Church and had we been in favor of the mandate, we may have made the paper. But perhaps I am wrong and it was simply an oversight.
Perhaps the Tribune will send a reporter to the Valhalla Hall on the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse campus at 7 p.m. Tuesday, June 26, to hear a presentation by Hannah C. Smith (a non-Catholic and a lawyer) on the “Unprecedented Threats to American Religious Freedom.”
I can’t promise that it will be anti-Catholic and pro-Obama, so the media may sit this one out, too. This would not really be “serving the region since 1904” as the Tribune claims to do. I hope I’m wrong, but time will tell.
June 20, 2012 at 4:52 pm
I think Stroud's probably right.
I've never understood that tendency in the media. I won't even go so far as to say it's an anti-religion conspiracy.
I don't know whether they don't know how to handle religion, or whether they are working from an (incorrect) assumption that the average person isn't a believer, but MSM don't seem to understand the role of religion in the culture…
June 20, 2012 at 5:10 pm
One would also think they would realize that if the government takes away Freedom of Religion, the two other Freedoms outlined in the First Amendment will also be taken away. That pesky Freedom of Speech thing being lost might have an impact on a Newspaper's business.
June 20, 2012 at 5:13 pm
By the way, the man's first name is Dean. Dead Stroud makes for an interesting twist.
June 20, 2012 at 9:43 pm
Oh, my. Have you seen the comments? It's very discouraging.