“Good evening. Here is the News for Parrots. No parrots were involved in an accident on the M1 today when a lorry carrying high-octane fuel was in collison with a bollard. That’s a bollard and not a parrot. A spokesman for parrots said he was glad no parrots were involved.”
(from Monty Python’s Flying Circus, Episode 20)
I couldn’t help but remember the above scene (followed by news for several different animals, speaking of the absence of those animals from certain accidents) when I heard CNN talk about the Air France accident this week, mentioning that only two Americans were on board.
Two hundred plus people died, but fortunately, only two of them were Americans.
Also reminded me of this survey from Pew Research.
Let’s just hope that no Christians were involved in this bit of ethnocentrism.
The United States has had, and still has a problem with seeing each human life as equal. we still don’t see that each human made in the image of God has a right to be respected. And it is even worse in other parts of the world.
Laymond, that’s a good point. “Tribalism” has long been a problem. To some extent, it’s what we see in the book of Jonah, right?
that’s what good patriotism is all about, isn’t it??
I guess I should have mentioned that only those familiar with Monty Python will have any shot at connecting the graphic with my post.
“Only two”…how offensive to their families and friends. May we never treat people with such disdain.
BTW,
Glad to learn your a MP fan. Makes me like you even more :)
Paula,
You might enjoy this site:
http://www.ibras.dk/montypython/justthewords.htm
I know, it’s not the same without the visuals. But if you’ve seen the shows, reading the scripts can still make you laugh.
Seems like one more of many examples where our national citizenship is making a claim on our identity – who we are.
Grace and peace,
Rex
To me it’s a reminder of the influences that our society wants to have on us. I can handle this coming from CNN, because I don’t expect them to behave by kingdom standards.
It’s when Christians start praying for “our people overseas” that I worry.
You people are just “????centric”.
The U.K. TIMES headline was about the “Bristol School Boy” among the crash victims.
The BELLFAST TELEGRAPH headline was about the Dublin woman that died in the crash.
Why does it surprise us that a U.S. media talks about U.S. losses?
I don’t know why I even bother…….
Don, I see the point. However, it would take little effort in the story to say, “There was one American couple in the group, with the majority being…”
Your comments about other media do confirm the point made in the comments… tribalism is a universal trait. Christians need to fight against that trait everywhere, not just in the U.S. This wasn’t about U.S.-bashing or CNN-bashing; that’s why the Monty Python bit was included. It’s “human tendency” bashing.
I probably should have made that point in the main post; not everyone reads the comments.
Grace and peace,
Tim Archer
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