Factual Ignorance, Left-wing Bias or Anti-Christian Bigotry?

I link, you decide.

Tar Heel Tory's link doesn't take you directly to the story [video], but I found it via Google's cache. I make no promises as to how long my link will be good for.

Yes, in the video it does look like JJ Ramber is trying very hard to pillory Hayes for his remarks, and that her two interviewees are trying to downplay the issue. Tar Heel Tory wants us to believe that Hayes was quoted out of context, but does not provide us with a complete transcript of Hayes' remarks. Anyone out there in Conservative Blogoland want to point me to one?

THT goes on to say:

What Congressman Hayes was speaking about was the exportation of Christian values to Iraq – not Christianity itself, or the forcible conversion of Iraqi Muslims to the Christian faith.

Um, dude, peace on earth and goodwill towards all are values of a number of major and minor religions, not just Christianity. The fact that the good Congressman tossed in “Everything depends on everyone learning about the birth of the Savior” suggests he's proselytizing, and proselytizing for Christianity, if you ask me. But then I'm a godless humanist living in the Bible Belt, constantly fending off other peoples' attempts to save my mortal soul, so I could be overly sensitive here.

There's a discussion down in the comments section comparing Congressman Hayes' speech at Rotary Club meeting to Congressman Ellison's speech at a conference of Muslims. Not a valid comparison, I say. Speaking about specific religious values at a gathering of, for, and about your co-religionists is fine, but Rotary International frowns on dissing the beliefs of others. Let's hope that Hayes was just an invited speaker and isn't himself a Rotarian.