In case anyone still thought Newsweek has much at all to do with “news,” rather than everything to do with liberal politics, its society and religion editor went on a gay radio show to receive praise for an article [1] interpreting the Bible as gay-marriage friendly.
Appearing as a guest on the Human Rights Campaign's XM Sirius Radio show, “The Agenda with Joe Solmonese,” Dec. 11 Lisa Miller also discussed the “right-wing uproar” in reaction to her Dec. 15 Newsweek cover story.
That cover story, as the Culture & Media Institute has reported [2], twisted scriptural passages into a tortured argument for gay marriage. Newsweek was unabashed about the article's agenda, proclaiming in its subhead, “Opponents of gay marriage often cite Scripture. But what the Bible teaches about love argues for the other side.”
The Human Rights Campaign (HRC), which calls itself “the largest national lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender civil rights organization,” has been trumpeting the Newsweek piece, saying it debunks “popular myths about the Bible's stance on marriage.” HRC has been urging supporters to e-mail their approval [3] of the article and their support for the magazine to Newsweek's Editor Jon Meacham.
With no apparent sense of irony, the form e-mail states in part, “It's so important that the Bible not be continually used as a weapon against loving, committed LGBT couples who simply want … to find that special person and build a life together.”
On the HRC radio show, Miller said that Newsweek had been “bombarded with critical e-mails. There was an e-mail campaign launched early this week and you know our publisher got something like 20,000 e-mails the first day.” Beyond e-mails, “there is not an outlet on the Christian Right that hasn't blogged against me, Newsweek, the editors of the magazine,” Miller said. “The Religious Right is very organized.”
It has to be. It doesn't have a national newsweekly to advance its agenda.