kosher dinner for right-wing radio: Straightgoods.com
 
Date: Wed, 11 Jul 2007 11:16:07 -0500 (CDT)


from: http://www.straightgoods.ca/ViewMediaFile7.cfm?REF=30
Hungry for an audience

My weird kosher dinner with right-wing Christian zealots hungry to topple 
liberal media.

Dateline: Monday, July 09, 2007

by Paul Weinberg

TORONTO The bearded guy next to me with the Promise Keepers shirt tells his 
wife that I write for a "lesbian" newspaper.

But neither seems to regard the presence of a lefty journalist with any ill 
will at this fundraising dinner at the Canada Christian College on Gervais 
Drive in Don Mills where the keynote is entitled Breaking The Left-Wing 
Monopoly On Public Discourse.

Among the 150 waiting to hear the speech by US Christian right columnist 
Joseph Farah last month, are a fair number of cheery, chaste-looking and 
well-tanned young evangelicals.

I make as much conversation as is possible under the circumstances for a 
downtown Jewish scribe as we chow down on get this a kosher meal of salmon, 
potatoes and vegetables.

2c2e1e.jpgKosher? You can thank the radical right's infatuation with Israel 
for this one. Although this evening has a decidedly God-versus-Satan feel, 
I'm greeted at the registration table by a bulky man in a black suit and 
kippah named Joseph Ben-Ami.

Ben-Ami, a former communications director with B'nai Brith Canada, is one 
of the key organizers of the evening hosted by Equipping Christians for the 
Public-square Centre, the Institute for Canadian Values (Ben-Ami is 
executive director) and the Canada Family Action Coalition.

One of flyers being circulated bears the letterhead of Christians United 
for Israel Canada. It describes upcoming talks between the Israeli 
government and "Christian leaders" as well as visits to Jewish settlements 
on seized Palestinian land in "Biblical Israel... where Jesus walked."

Buried somewhere in the evangelical package is the Rapture, the upward 
migration of Christian souls to heaven at the end of the world leaving 
everybody else, including the Jews, to a deadly fate.

But it turns out theology is a non-issue for the Judeo-Christian social 
conservative alliance. In an earlier phone call, Ben-Ami explained: "I 
believe one thing with respect to the Messiah and how things are going to 
work out, and my Christian friends believe something different. But we 
share the same belief that in the end of time, something is going to 
happen. And whenever it happens, then we will know what the truth is."

Besides enthusiasm for Israel and Armageddon, this unusual pact also 
includes a loathing of the media.

The evening is a $200-a-pop funder for a new Christian-friendly radio 
program....

whole article at: http://www.straightgoods.ca/ViewMediaFile7.cfm?REF=30

Penney Kome, author and journalist
http://penneykome.ca
Editor, Straight Goods, http://straightgoods.com 

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