Posted by Helen on: 08.20.2007 /
This week CNN is airing a three part series about God’s Warriors. It takes a look at militant adherents of Islam, Judaism and Christianity, covering one of those religions each evening.
Here’s a news release about the series: CNN’s Amanpour looks at God’s Warriors.
CNN has their own site about the series. The Christianity section has three video clips, featuring Jerry Falwell, Greg Boyd and the youth ministry Battle Cry. Greg Boyd is mentioned because he’s a megachurch pastor who has invited controversy by opposing the link between Christianity and politics upheld by Christians like Jerry Falwell (I reviewed Greg Boyd’s book about that topic earlier this year). Battle Cry is an extreme group encouraging Christians to fight back against the war contemporary culture wages against their values. I found the Battle Cry clip on youtube as well as CNN’s site.
I expect the blogosphere will be commenting on this series quite a bit as it airs.
Comment by: Eliza
1 08/20/07 6:53 PM | Comment Link |Seems like it’s being advertised heavily - since even I have seen ads for it, & I try to avoid ads like the plague ;-)
It’s coming up soon - Tues/Wed/Thurs of this week! We don’t get CNN - Helen, will you (&/or others) be watching the series & posting about it here?
Just from the premise, it seems like it could offer something to offend alot of people…!
Comment by: Jim Henderson
2 08/20/07 9:06 PM | Comment Link |I am looking forward to this series since I respect Aramapour and think that Fundamentalism is the one of the most critical problems in the world today.
I still think there is an opportunity to organize a movement that is cross religions and acts against fundamentalism
Comment by: Helen
3 08/21/07 7:58 AM | Comment Link |Eliza, sorry, I don’t get CNN either. We don’t have Cable TV.
Jim or anyone else, if you watch it, please post your feedback about it.
Comment by: David H
4 08/21/07 1:52 PM | Comment Link |I watched the christian segment today (a benefit of working for a newspaper). My guess is it will offend people on all sides. that is generally a good thing journalistically, if everyone is offended to some degree you probably did your job fairly. However, conservative criticism is sure to point out Christina’s obvious liberal bias. I winced on a couple of occasions because she didn’t let the material speak for itself. she had to editorialize, sometimes drawing conclusions I felt were neither fair nor supported by what was presented.
I can write more but don’t know if my thoughts will be prejudicial if stated before this airs.
Comment by: Laura M.
5 08/21/07 5:04 PM | Comment Link |I don’t get cable either so Yes, Yes, Yes, someone here please do a write-up about it.
Comment by: jeanne
6 08/22/07 8:18 AM | Comment Link |Watched the Jewish segment last night and realized that, because of editing and time restrictions, not all of the original clip could be used. Unfortunately, that gives the producers freedom to select what they want, allowing them to promote their own political/religious agenda. Example: a Jewish man was asked if he’d lied and he said that he hadn’t exactly lied, he just “got around it” (the problem). Of all the material that was on hand for the program, how odd that that particular piece was included. It didn’t add relevent information to the segment but had the ability to immediately bias viewers. I’m afraid that, as I watch the Muslim and Christian segments, I’ll be aware of political undercurrants coming from the reporting itself. Unfortunately, this is how we get the news from the our news channels every day.
Comment by: Karen
7 08/22/07 10:51 AM | Comment Link |I watched the first hour of the Jewish segment last night and thought it was quite good. Coming from churches that were very focused on the rapture and second coming, I was very much pro-Zionist and the program brought out that alliance between conservative evangelicals and Jewish Zionists.
I am sure that many Zionists will be up in arms today. The show didn’t pull any punches in terms of criticizing them, and it illuminated very well how literalist, yet conflicting, views of what the bible says is at the heart of the volatile and dangerous Middle East conflict. As long as opposing camps claim to have “god on their side” and remain inflexible because of that theology, we will not negotiate a compromise on this situation, I’m afraid.
I thought that was very relevant and probably the most illuminating piece of history in the program. Of course, anything you view on television, hear on the radio or read in the newspaper is edited - that’s inevitable. However, Amanpour had original documents, a legal scholar who wrote the original legal opinion and the author of a book on the topic of Jewish settlements in the West Bank and other occupied territories violating the Geneva Conventions. I don’t think asking the Zionist whether what he did was lie was biased at all.
She had to give him a chance to respond to all the evidence suggesting that he, and the others, did lie! And when confronted with it, he basically admitted it!
What I thought was very even-handed is that she also interviewed another Israeli man of the same generation who is very much a secular Jew, and does want peace with his neighbors. That was a nice balancing element.
Comment by: Pamela Lyn
8 08/22/07 7:57 PM | Comment Link |If you can not access CNN you can view parts of this series on You/Tube. Here is a link to the first segment “God’s Jewish Warriors”
I am a great admirer of Christiane Armanpour and believe that if anyone can offer a non-basis look at the fundamentalists in all three faiths, she is the one. But I think everyone has to judge this series for themselves.
Comment by: Karen
9 08/23/07 9:09 AM | Comment Link |The Muslim segment was on last night and again I watched the first hour. I’m going to tape both hours of the Christian segment tonight.
The radical Muslims - wow. The hardcore fanaticism and commitment to violence you find there is just really, really frightening. And yet it’s interesting how much the tenor of the language that’s used is not all that different from what I heard in hardcore Christian fundamentalist groups.
Comment by: Karen
10 08/23/07 9:10 AM | Comment Link |It was interesting last night that she mentioned she grew up in Iran and she obviously was conducting some of the interviews with Iranians in Farsi.
Comment by: Pamela Lyn
11 08/23/07 4:55 PM | Comment Link |About Christiane:
Personal Data: Birth - January 12, 1958 in London
Education - From age 11, attended two Roman Catholic all-girls’ schools in Great Britain. Graduated Summa Cum Laude from University of Rhode Island in 1983 with a BA in Journalism.
Family - Married since 1998 to James (Jamie) Rubin, US State Department spokesman under President Clinton; one son, Darius, born in 2000.
Many find it unusual that Amanpour, raised in Islamic Iran, married a man of the Jewish faith tradition.
http://usliberals.about.com/od/thepressandjournalist1/p/Amanpour.htm