Conservapedia Tonight: The No True Scotsman Edition

Tonight's episode in the Conservapedia Follies comes in the form of their page on the "Religion of Barack Obama". Specifically, it comes from a section of the article that attempts to "correct" what the Conservapediots perceive to be "errors" in an article about Obama and religion that appeared in the "liberal magazine Newsweek." The whole article is, typically enough, amusingly bad, but there are two entries that are particularly enchanting:

Born to a Christian-turned-secular mother [correction: mother who abandoned Christianity] and a Muslim-turned-atheist African father [correction: almost no African Muslims become atheists], Obama grew up living all across the world with plenty of spiritual influences, but without any particular religion [correction: he was raised as a Muslim].

He said, "I decided that the meaning I found in my life, the values that were most important to me, the sense of wonder that I had, the sense of tragedy that I hadâall these things were captured in the Christian story." [correction: "Christian story"? No real Christian refers to the faith that way.]

I particularly like the "No real Christian" line. Apparently, Conservapedia editors are also arbiters of faith and morals. Who knew?

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correction: almost no African Muslims become atheists

"As numerous studies have shown..."

They say that no Christian would refer to "Christian story"? They do so and they do so all the time though "Bible stories" is usually how it is phrased. "The story of Christianity" is also fairly common. Maybe the idiot editor did not realize that "story" does not always mean "fiction."

Conservapedia editors also do not know how to do Google searches. Try entering "the Christian Story", and you will find all sorts of references matching Obama's use of the phrase.

They really are a bunch of idiots (but we already knew that, didn't we?)

By T. Bruce McNeely (not verified) on 10 Mar 2009 #permalink

I remember exercises in third or fourth grade designed to teach us the difference between a fact and an opinion. Whoever thought that turning "Christian-turned-secular mother" into "mother who abandoned Christianity" falls into the realm of error-correction needs a visit back to grade school.

I "wonder" why these rewriters didn't correct the one obvious mistake: "Obama grew up living all across the world"

Where is "all over"? Did he live in South America? Eastern Europe? South Asia? Middle East? Central Asia? East Asia? West Africa? North Africa?

Of course, if the Conservapedians pointed this error out, it would only go to show how provincial their point-of-view is. Of course, too, if they were proud of such a pov, why not point it out?

Born to a Christian-turned-secular mother [correction: mother who abandoned Christianity] and a Muslim-turned-atheist African father [correction: almost no African Muslims become atheists],

These two bits taken together make it even more hilarious. Almost no African Muslims marry white Christian Americans, so clearly Obama was never born.

By Ginger Yellow (not verified) on 11 Mar 2009 #permalink
Born to a Christian-turned-secular mother [correction: mother who abandoned Christianity] and a Muslim-turned-atheist African father [correction: almost no African Muslims become atheists],

These two bits taken together make it even more hilarious. Almost no African Muslims marry white Christian Americans, so clearly Obama was never born.

Of course not. He was grown in a vat from stem cells illegally harvested from aborted embryos. CLEARLY.