CNN host Don Lemon is a man who is very sure of himself. He is extremely progressive, precisely as his parent company would like him to be. He condemns pro-life laws that protect pre-born children when states he would never visit without getting paid pass them. He passionately advocates for the transgender cause. He takes other African Americans—like Terry Crews—to task for being insufficiently supportive of Black Lives Matter.
And as all of that indicates, he really, really dislikes Christians. But like most folks at CNN, he has to stick to calling those who disagree with him on LGBT issues bigoted rather than just saying what he thinks outright (Lemon is a gay man.) But every so often, we are reminded that there is no group of people on earth more ignorant as to what Christians actually believe than the folks in media. Last Wednesday, Lemon was on air with his fellow host, Chris Cuomo (who had taken a brief break from interviewing his brother, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo.) Lemon was attempting to highlight the hypocrisy of Christians who disagree with the recent spate of statue-smashing when this came out of his mouth:
Jesus Christ — if that’s who you believe in, Jesus Christ — admittedly was not perfect when he was here on this earth. So why are we deifying the founders of this country?
I’m fairly certain I’ve never seen a more effective self-own. Lemon tried to dunk on Christians by saying that if they only listened to Jesus, they would be on his side. Lemon’s side, that is. The problem is that he did the opposite, and instead denied a doctrine that every orthodox Christian denomination—of any sort—adheres to: The perfection of the life of Jesus Christ. It is a core tenet of the Christian faith. Christ lived a sinless life, and died for sinners. He was perfect. If you don’t believe that, you’re not a Christian.
To be completely fair, Chris Cuomo’s eyes were very large while Lemon was saying this, so perhaps his Catholic upbringing was kicking in and he knew that Lemon was engaging in a spectacular belly-flop. But what this little incident highlights beautifully is the fact that most media folks know nothing about Christianity and nothing about Christians. In fact, the only time they ever invoke Christianity is when they want to bash Christians. Even, in Don Lemon’s case, when they have to invent new Christian beliefs.
