Have you ever seen a little child put his hands over his ears while shouting, “I’m not listening!” That’s what MSNBC’s Ed Schultz did to the Heritage Foundation’s Ryan Anderson on Monday, turning off Anderson’s mic rather than responding to his factual presentation. And in doing so, he painted an eloquent picture of the radical left whose mindset all too often is, “Keep your facts to yourself. We have an agenda to pursue.”
Schultz was not the only leftist who showed a disdain for the facts on The Ed Show.
Responding to Anderson’s contention that a corporation could have a religious faith, Democratic Indiana State Representative Ed Delaney stated emphatically, “The notion that a corporation has a faith is stunning to me. And the only reason they wanted to have a faith is so that they could deny service to people.”
And this is the opinion of an elected official serving the people of Indiana.
What would Rep. Delaney say about B & H Photo and Video, one of the world’s largest photography stores?
Based in Manhattan, they also do a robust business online, and you better believe this corporation has a faith.
It is owned, operated, and largely staffed by Orthodox Jews, and their website currently carries this announcement: “Upcoming Passover Closing: From April 2 at 7:00 PM EDT through April 11, 2015.”
They also close every Friday afternoon and do not reopen until Sunday in order to celebrate the Sabbath.
And Rep. Delaney finds this stunning? And would he dare to argue that the only reason they openly hold to their faith is “so that they could deny service to people”?
I’m sure they serve LGBT customers day and night, along with Muslims, secular Jews, Christians, polytheists and atheists. But you can bet your life they won’t open on the Sabbath regardless of what anyone told them to do.
That’s what you called a faith-based corporation, and there are hundreds, if not thousands, of them across the country. (Has anyone ever heard of Hobby Lobby or Chick-fil-A, both of which close on Sunday? Why, pray tell, do they do that?)
But who cares about facts? Rep. Delaney has an agenda to pursue.
Ed Schultz’s direct interaction with Anderson was even more extreme.
He completely misrepresented the hypothetical question put to Indiana Gov. Mike Pence by George Stephanopoulos, which had to do with a gay couple asking a Christian-owned business to bake them a wedding cake. Instead, Schultz, “If a gay couple walks into a restaurant and I own it, you’re telling me in Indiana if I own that restaurant, I can tell them to get out of here and you don’t think that’s discrimination? That’s not the position of the right wing?”
Of course it’s not the position of the right wing.
Look at the hundreds of articles that conservatives have written on these issues. Listen to the endless interviews we’ve done. Read the scores of relevant books we’ve written.
Not one of us with any credibility or standing has advocated such a ridiculous position, which is why Anderson rightly called Schultz on this. And no one—not Ryan Anderson, not any conservative leader, not Gov. Pence—was telling Schultz that they supported such a bogus position.
No one.
But who cares about the facts?
“Cut his mic,” was Schultz’s response to the challenge. “Cut his mic off. I’m not going to—I gave him a chance. We’ll bring him back if he wants to be courteous.”
Courteous?
Things reached an even more absurd level when Schultz referred to Gov. Pence as a “homophobe” (referring to his senatorial campaign of 2000, in which Pence expressed many mainstream conservative views) and Anderson called that “slander,” which Schultz then justified by saying it was his “opinion.”
So, as long as the slander is your opinion, it’s not slander?
Yet there was more.
In a final moment of media ignominy, rather than apologizing for his behavior, Schultz said to his viewers, “I apologize for the guy from the Heritage Foundation who can’t have a civil conversation. We attempted to do that.”
As the little boy said, “I’m not listening!”
Michael Brown is the author of 25 books, including Can You Be Gay and Christian? and host of the nationally syndicated talk radio show “The Line of Fire.” He is also president of FIRE School of Ministry and director of the Coalition of Conscience.
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