Be More Careful

Former Archbishop Desmond Tutu urged the media to be more careful when reporting on religious conflicts, especially with the words they use. He stated:

I would hope that you in the media would be passionate about letting people judge for themselves, that you would be careful about some of the language that you do actually use.

... 'Muslim terrorism' -- have you ever read anywhere 'Christian terrorism?' -- as if Islam propagates violence, but you have never spoken about what happened in Northern Ireland as Christian terrorism.

... Fundamentally there is no faith that I know that propagates violence that says it's a good thing to oppress anybody.

... We Christians ought to get off our high horse and learn to be a great deal more humble, when you look at our history, the bloody things that we did in the name of religion.

This is a good reminder for all of us, not just those in the media. We should be careful that the words we use do not add fuel to the fire.