USA Today Rejects Christian Message to President Obama

This past week I read a public notice in USA Today that their editors were allowing people to write a message to President Barack Obama that would run in that newspaper's Inauguration Day edition. The cost was $15 a line.

"Hmmmm . . . I thought. Good way to get a message to our new president." So, after much soul searching I wrote and submitted my ad:

"Dear President Obama, 'We shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. For it is written, as I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God. So then every one of us shall give [an] account of himself to God.' (Romans 14:10-12)"

Well, the next day -- just one hour before the USA Today deadline for the Obama messages -- I received a call from someone at USA Today named Jennifer. She claimed that USA Today will not run any ads containing Christian, religious or Bible verses.

Mind you, unlike USA Today routinely referring to President George W. Bush as Mr. Bush and routinely having bashed our 43rd President -- my prose contained a positive message, especially since Obama professes to be a practicing Christian who will be sworn in as our 44th President, reciting his oath with his hand atop a Christian Bible.

In closing our telephone conversation, Jennifer promised that USA Today would send me an email explaining why my ad was rejected. After two hours I hadn't gotten it. So, I called Jennifer and she said she would have it out to me in 2 minutes.

That was 2 days ago.

[I don't happen to be a person of faith - but is this right? Papers should be able to reject disrespectful or offensive ads - but that's now what they're doing here: neither condition applies. They're imposing their bias that they simply don't 'do' religion. Maybe their call as well - but when next they claim themselves non-ideologues or paragons of unbiased 'professionalism', I'll think of this little bit of liberal fascism.]

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