PEOPLE MIKE BARNICLE HATES

“Woe unto you, when all men shall speak well of you!  for so did their fathers to the false prophets.” (Luke 6:26)

I don’t hate Mike Barnicle, but I guess he would hate me.

For those of you who don’t know who Mike Barnicle is, he has a late morning radio talk show on Boston’s 96.9 FMTalk.  He also “contributes” to the Chronicle newsmagazine show on Boston’s Channel 5, and is seen occasionally on MS-NBC.  Mike can be very interesting and entertaining and can be quite funny.  Mike Barnicle is probably about 65, from an Irish Catholic background, and I’d say he’s socially liberal and fiscally conservative.  He leans Democrat, but isn’t a strict partisan.  He’s pretty good at radio, although he constantly says he hates it, along with disdaining many of the callers.  There are so many people who would LOVE a shot at having their own radio talk show that it seems unfair for a guy who HAS one to hate it so much!

If you listened to Mike Barnicle’s program yesterday, you’ll probably think I want to write about Mike’s defense/explanation of John Kerry’s incredibly insensitive remarks a couple of days ago, but that’s NOT what this piece is about.

The reason I think Mike would hate me is not that I’m an avid talk radio listener- although I am.  The reason Mike would hate me is that I’m an evangelical Christian.

A few days ago he commented, “Have you ever met ANY of these EVANGELICALS?!  I mean their WHACKED!  They’re CRAZY!”

Can you imagine if he’d said that about Jews?  Or Mormons?  Or just about anybody else?  He wouldn't have.   Muslims believe they are the most hated religious group in America, but that MAY not be the case.  The stereotyping of evangelicals and the hatred of evangelicals is...well...sad.

Pollster George Barna categorizes “born-again Christians”  and “evangelicals” separately, but I don’t.  My experience is that the terms are pretty much synonymous.  Evangelical Christians believe that just being born into a Christian family, going to church, or having been baptized are not enough to merit Heaven.  We believe there MUST be a definite, distinct, personal commitment to Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord.  There are Roman Catholics who call themselves “born again” or “evangelical” although such folks make up only about 5% of American Roman Catholics.  Most evangelicals are Protestants.  In America, probably about 40% of Protestants could be classified as evangelicals.  That figure is probably only about 20% of Protestants in Massachusetts, but would be around 70% of Protestants in a  place like Dallas, Texas.

The stereotypical evangelical is white, of northern European extraction, Republican, ultra-conservative, very intolerant, and  wants to force America to become a fundamentalist Christian nation.   Now, there ARE some evangelicals like that.  But my experience is that they’re a minority.  Probably about 25% of evangelical Christians in America fit that description, but probably about 75% do not!  (Incidentally, did you know that at least HALF of the Brazilians living in the Framingham area are evangelicals?  Do THEY fit that description?!)  There are African-American evangelicals, Asians, even Native Americans.  The majority of evangelicals are politically moderate and most likely to NOT belong to any political party.  Admittedly, many evangelical LEADERS are conservative Republicans but that doesn’t tend to be true of the laity.  Some evangelicals are liberals.  Some are Democrats.  Did you know, for instance, that the world’s most famous evangelical Christian, Billy Graham, is a Democrat?

You may think I’m being very touchy about what Mike Barnicle said.  If this were the first time, I’d probably ignore it, but over the years he’s ignorantly taken shots at evangelical Christians time and time again.  I’d e-mail Mike Barnicle, but he doesn’t read his e-mail.  I’d write him a letter, but he’d never answer it.  

I’m just tired of the stereotyping and I wanted to put down my “two cents worth” about what it means to be an evangelical.