Entry #21 - The Bible for the Americans and the truth for everyone else…
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying the Bible is untrue, but there are some advantages to living overseas and this figure captures one of them pretty nicely. These were the four editions of Time Magazine for the week of April 2. While the rest of the world got a harsh analysis of the war in Afghanistan, Time USA subscribers got a mealy mouthed discussion of whether the Bible should be taught in US schools.
I know that there is no such thing as “unbiased journalism” since every for-profit medium has to cater to its viewers. Even non-profit media do their share of “catering” if they want to be read. But I thought this particular example was beautiful and I am going to use it in my service learning course.
But what really is the logic behind this selective use of covers? Does TIME think US Citizens can’t handle more bad news? Perhaps it doesn’t want overseas readers to know about the Talibanization of the US? Put these two cover images together and you just might get the idea that the “war on terror” IS a crusade. The thesis of the article is that “the Bible is the bedrock of western culture and therefore should be taught in schools.” For the past 200 years the foundation of western culture has been science and inquiry… that’s why we are not the Taliban, but my guess is that they will cut the science class in order to create the bible class. Ahh… progress.
