WashPost Columnist: Christians Spew the Most ‘Hateful Internet Speech’
Everyone is exactly who he or she says on the internet – at least according to one Washington Post writer. That conclusion is her rationale to say Christians are awful people.
Sally Quinn, Washington Post columnist and OnFaith founder, claimed that, “When it Comes to Hateful Internet Speech, Christians Are the Worst.” In her July 17 article, Quinn examined a white-supremacist site and comments on her articles to conclude that Christian “haters” “need a place to unleash their dark sides.”
For her introduction, Quinn pointed at white-supremacist Stormfront to note how the site targeted others: 39 percent Jews, 33 percent blacks, 13 percent Hispanics, 11 percent Muslims and 3 percent other. “This led me to surmise that many of the haters are white Christians,” she said. The perfect example! Find a fringe hate site and blame it on Christians. She clearly didn't spend any time at left-wing sites.
When she founded OnFaith eight years ago, Quinn lamented how, “the first hate emails I received were horrible.” She explained: “I can’t tell you how many people wrote in to say that I was a whore and a slut and so much worse that I can’t even write it here. And these all came from Christians.”
“If they are anonymous,” she argued, “they can be the worst versions of themselves.” Or, you know, imposters. Quinn didn’t concede that.
Although almost anyone can be a “Christian,” according to a previous comment by Quinn. As one of the “five lessons” she learned as an editor, she once listed “God is what you or I or anyone else says God is.”
But she did search for an answer. “I talked to Christian theologians, pastors, and scholars because I truly didn’t understand where all this Christian hatred was coming from.” She concluded, “Perhaps they have bought into the popular notion that Christians are the new religious victims in this country.” Just a "notion," mind you.
She continued, “Maybe they feel guilty about their own sins. Maybe they are afraid of going to hell. Maybe they are frustrated because they have to actually act like Christians in real life and need a place to unleash their dark sides.”
As a result, she found “a big difference between being Christian and following the teachings of Jesus.” “In fact, sometimes those two things can be polar opposites, she stressed, because “our Christian haters clearly paid little attention to Jesus.”
Although she admitted receiving “atheist hate mail” of “more intellectual persuasion,” she has never received “any personal hate mail from a Jew, a Muslim, a Hindu, a Buddhist, a pagan, an agnostic, or a humanist.”
Quinn overflows with Christian charity herself – from blaming Christians for a military culture of sexual assault to claiming Pope Francis “could possibly have been involved in a scandal.”
— Katie Yoder is Staff Writer, Joe and Betty Anderlik Fellow in Culture and Media at the Media Research Center. Follow Katie Yoder on Twitter.
