Burnt Orange Report

Yes. The racial hatred of this man knows no bounds. Check out this article. The indecency...

Yes, I'm sure the BaptistMessage.com website that you've linked is a very reputable and unbiased newsource that would never distort the facts. In fact, let's look at some current headlines:

SBC losing ‘the battle for souls,’ professor warns
Date: June 3, 2004

Years later, they still remember well ‘when God came to town’
Date: May 27, 2004

Key moral issues remain on the table in state legislature

Hey... I link to this site on my own. And I wouldn't exactly call BOR balanced and non-partisan. =) After the "Perry is Gay" headlines, many would wonder if this website is reputable... but I still read it, and still find truths and thought-provokers here. You can choose to believe or disbelieve anything you read on the internet. But since the story I linked has many specifics and public events involved, I urge you to invest a little time and energy investigating the unvarnished truth of the story.

Or you could just ignore it. I'm sure that a Baptist-preacher Republican who reaches out to African-Americans isn't conducive to your pre-conceived notions. =)

Besides, what's the big deal here. Is the outrage here because a Republican, and a Christian one at that, pointed out that Islamic extremists kill people in defense of their faith? I've heard mainstream Muslims make the same admission - they even (gasp) DENOUNCE such behavior. Publicly. On TV!

Chris,

I'll certainly commend Rev. Butchett for his work regarding racial reconciliation in east Texas. He ought to be commended for that. That said, his comments at the Texas GOP convention strike me as hurtful rhetoric that unfairly characterizes the war on terrorism as a battle of Christianity versus Islam. And that's not helpful.

As for Chris's remarks about BOR. Well, there's only one time I've claimed to be "Fair and Balanced" - when I was mocking Bill O'Reiley when he sued Al Franken. As for the this site being reputable or not... that's a decision for each reader of this site to make on their own.

Regarding the Perry stuff - It was a widely discussed rumor that I passed along on this site with appropriate qualifications. I happened to be the one targetted by Perry because I was an easy target. By blaming me instead of the people within his own party that were perpetuating the rumor, he could spin it to look like it was a liberal Democratic Party conspiracy. I learned a lot from the episode, so I'm grateful for the experience. I don't regret it, but I'd probably have handled it differently if I had to do it all over again. Oh well. You live and you learn.

Well, I wasn't trying to indicate that BOR claims to be fair and balanced. I think that everybody on the internet has some sort of agenda - some are easier to identify than others.

Byron, I'm curious and I promise I'm not trying to bait... what did you learn from the "Perry incident"?

Chris,

I'm pretty open about this. I started this blog just over a year ago and I never had any experience with journalism. Commenting on politics on other weblogs was a hobby of mine, but I never saw it as something that was taken too seriously by anyone else. When we started this blog we could write about whatever we wanted and say whatever we felt like and no one really cared. Well, over the course of a year, this blog went from being checked by a handful of my friends and random observers to being read by several hundred people each day. Instead of being able to write whatever I wanted about anything and not having to worry about the consequences, this weblog was actually being read and taken seriously by people in the mainstream media, by people within the Democratic Party and by people from all walks of life across the state.

Per my point, I realized that while I never said anything factually untrue regarding the Perry story, I came to realize that as someone who is taken seriously by a significant number of people, I have a responsibility and an obligation to stay above rumors and hearsay that has not been independently verified. While I'll never back down from my political views, I think that when you reach a certain level of readership and creditability, you have a responsibility to stay away from rumormongering - unless you aspire to be Matt Drudge, which I don't.

Byron, can you read this article and still objectively state that Muslims do not see this as a religious war?