So the only people qualified to speak on faith in America are old, white guys (and 1 token Muslim)? Un-freakin'-believable!
It makes me so mad that people watched this charade today and thought that it adequately covered the full range of American opinions on this subject. I think Tim Russert did a grave disservice to the audience by excluding the voices of women, minorities, Eastern religions, and other groups. And what about non-religious people? An atheist or agnostic voice would have livened that panel and made for interesting debate.
I'm so disgusted with news/talking heads. Now we only tell people what they expect to hear. Let's not rock the boat and jeopardize our ratings by offering any truly enlightening viewpoints on the subject of religion.
I understand that you can't have a 20-person panel, but I can't help but feel that the panel was constructed to intentionally over-simplify the argument. 4 or 5 Christians, 1 Muslim, and 1 Jew (pulling for the Christians all the way) offering rhetoric we've all heard a million times before--it all seemed pretty pointless. There was no attempt to broaden the discussion to include groups beyond the Christian community, and they probably didn't succeed in swaying a single viewer from the position they held before watching the program.
Every single statement started from the assumption that the United States is a Christian nation. I'm no constitutional scholar, but even I know that a Christian nation is not what the Founding Fathers had in mind. If there had been more diversity on the panel, someone might have taken the time to point that important fact out.
I thought the Muslim panelist, Reza Aslan, was very interesting. I've pissed off many friends and co-workers pointing out the irony of how hard we are trying to stamp out theocracies in the Middle East, and yet those in power in the US are trying their damndest to turn this country into one. (I guess it's ok for us, since the right-wing fundie God is the "right" God). Russert quoted Aslan making a very similar statement, but he didn't follow up on it. I would have been interested to see what the other panelists (especially Richard Land) had to say about that.
Anyway, those are my thoughts on the Meet the Press charade. Sorry there are no links or fancy gray boxes. This is my first diary--so please don't be too mean. (But I'll welcome any constructive criticism!)