The article in last week's Sunday Telegraph by Jonathan Wynne-Jones (Christians ask if force is needed to protect their religious values) is a case-study in bad journalism. It's the sort of piece that lecturers would give to their first year 'A' Level students to identify the sensational, the specious, and the not-too-subtle exercise in dissimulation. I say this for three reasons.
Firstly, Mr. Wynne-Jones begins his piece by saying that Christians have raised 'the prospect of a civil unrest and even "violent revolution" to protect religious freedoms. And he ratchets up the sensationalism by suggesting that "the report will cause particular alarm to government ministers as it reveals disquiet among the country's Christian population". Let's be honest -what Government minister will fall for this line if they bother to read the relevant five pages of the 'Faith and Nation' report that deals with "Christians and Civil Disobedience"?
There are a number of challenging and controversial recommendations in the report (and to expect otherwise is naive) that the Government and others will do well to take note of. But to suggest, or to intimate that the Government should be alarmed by some violent Christian "revolution" as Wynne-Jones does is at best a distraction, at worst it is sinister.
This leads me to my second point. And it's to do with Wynne-Jones' use of language and the association with Islamic extremism. The caption for the pictures with the article reads: 'Fight the Good Fight.' It features Lord Mawhinney and the Rt Rev Peter Foster, Bishop of Chester (members of the independent Commission). Nothing especially sinister in that, you might say. However, when it is juxtaposed with protesters (presumably Muslims) carrying placards saying, "Behead Those Who Insult Islam" or "Europe, You'll Come Crawling When Mujahideen Come Roaring!!!", the intended message is politically elementary. But Wynne-Jones implies that these Christians, even respected Lords and Bishops are, like those placard-carrying Muslim extremists, perceived to be a menace to society, threatening to subvert our laws, political and constitutional culture.
And in case fair-minded readers wanted to ignore the pictorial juxtaposition of these menacing Christians and Muslims, they were snookered by Wynne-Jones' brand of journalistic speciousness by being told that the "menacing language of the report" produced by Lord Mawhinney and Bishop Foster "echoes comments made by Muslim fanatics". Well, we've had the demonisation of Muslims; now it's time to demonise the Christians.
Sunday Telegraph readers may want to get their own back (and I need to be careful here with what I say) by reading the report!
