Norm notes the hypocrisy involved in the recent great collective sniggering and/or gnashing of teeth in the liberal media at George Bush’s religious beliefs and those of certain others:
What’s behind it? Is it just that, for secular liberals and leftists, all those invoking a line to, or about, God in decisions and actions in the public realm, with far-reaching effects on others, are to be seen as laughable, grotesque, or worse? I guess that must be it. But hold on. This seems to apply only sometimes. Like to the US President; or to Republican voters of devoutly Christian outlook; or to fundamentalist Jews in the occupied territories. It seems not to apply so much, or at all, when Islamists appeal to religious sources as a basis for blowing up themselves and, more particularly, others. Here, what is often urged upon us from the same quarters, from the pages of the same newspapers as have just carried the shock-and-mock stuff, is an understanding of the grievances that accompany the appeal to religious motivations. And what is most certainly urged upon us is the avoidance of any disrespect towards widely-held religious sensibilities.