Todd Starnes is getting more exposure over at Fox News. Officially the “host of Fox News & Commentary,” and “heard on hundreds of radio stations,” Starnes is Fox News’ shill for the religious right and anti-gay hate groups. The titles of his articles — opinion pieces that Right Wing Watch says have earned him the title of “serial fabricator” — give a hint of his focus.
A recent sampling:
Do gay rights trump religious rights? Supreme Court won’t hear photog’s case
Mozilla chief learns, if you don’t support gay marriage, you don’t deserve a job
Why does Air Force Academy encourage atheism, prosecute Christianity?
First-grader told to stop talking about Bible
So it should come as no surprise that Starnes now is attacking the City of New York, and by extension, its new progressive mayor Bill de Blasio, with yesterday’s column: “Why is New York City bullying Christians?”
A federal appeals panel has ruled that New York City has a right to ban churches from holding worship services in school buildings. In essence, it means Christians have officially become second-class citizens in the nation’s largest city.
Clearly, Starnes has no grasp of the First Amendment and doesn’t understand separation of church and state. He should, especially as a Christian warrior.
The public-school based churches operate at taxpayer expense and actually cost the city money, open them to liability and lawsuits, but the greatest problem is they present our public schools as houses of worship consecrated by the state. That alone should scare any person of faith — or of none.
“This case is about a group of about 160 religious congregations that were dominating public schools across New York City Sunday after Sunday, year after year,” the ACLU of New York said in a statement on the decision. “When a school is converted to a church in this way, it sends a powerful message to students and the community at large that the government favors that particular church. Children who are not part of the favored congregation feel diminished, and both the church members and the community stop seeing the distinction between the church and the school. That hurts kids, that hurts people who aren’t members of the church, and that hurts one of our nation’s most cherished principles.”
Starnes, whose imagination clearly is epic, writes of a dystopian future.
“Left unchallenged, this ruling could have a chilling effect on religious freedom,” he claims. “What’s next? Will Christians be banned from reading their Bible in Central Park? Will congregations be forced to obtain liquor licenses for communion?”
Um, no, that’s just dumb.
But let’s get back to the central premise of Starnes’ op-ed:
New York City is “bullying Christians,” and “Christians have officially become second-class citizens in the nation’s largest city,” Starnes says. Perhaps it’s all fodder for his latest upcoming book, God Less America: Real Stories From the Front Lines of the Attack on Traditional Values.
Really? How? And why is it this only applies to Christians? As Fox News’ religion reporter, doesn’t Starnes have a responsibility to care about people of different faiths? Are there Jewish congregations who worship in NYC schools? Do people who follow the Islamic faith worship in New York City schools as part of this program? Why is to only “Christians [who] have officially become second-class citizens in the nation’s largest city”? Why doesn’t Starnes care about other people of other faiths?
Please, Mr. Starnes, can you explain all this? Because I haven’t a clue what the hell you’re talking about.
Image via Twitter
Previously:
Father Of Child Told To Not Pray Just Happens To Be Publishing Fox News Religion Reporter’s Book
Fox News: Grammys Wedding Of Gay And Straight Couples Was ‘Intolerance, Bigotry And Hatred’
Georgia School: ‘Vicious’ Fox News ‘Christmas Card Censorship’ Report ‘Terrorized’ Us