[guest post by Dana]

Cottage Avenue Pentecostal Fellowship has stood in its current Indianapolis neighborhood for 100 years. About five years ago, the congregation erected a statue of Jesus near the entryway to the church. The first day it was put up, it was knocked over. Now, the statue has been attacked twice in two weeks. The first time, Jesus was beheaded, and the decapitated head was left behind. The church reattached it to the statue this past Saturday. But on Sunday, the statue was once again attacked, with Jesus again beheaded. This time, the culprits took the head.

Rather than the pastor and church members losing their heads over these attacks on their Savior and rioting in rage or threatening the blasphemers who dared to deface Jesus, Pastor Brad Flaskamp instead chose to live out his faith in response:

“If whoever it is would come in and return the head and ask us to forgive him, we’d forgive him,” he said. “That’s what it’s all about.”

Interestingly, Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Sgt. Kendale Adams also kept a cool head and declined to jump to any conclusions about who might be responsible for the attacks. Instead of assuming that these beheadings were done by individuals disdainful of Christ or His followers, he reasonably stated that the investigation is ongoing, and that detectives are reaching out to locals for any leads.

In the meantime, I can find no report of any social justice group coming along side this Christians fellowship to protest an attack on their religion and demand this be investigated as a hate crime… And further, I can find no public condemnation from any elected officials over the attacks. Crazy, right?? It almost makes one suspect that maybe all religions are not regarded equally. Or maybe this is just a reminder of what reasonableness looks like.

(Cross-posted at The Jury Talks Back.)

–Dana

Yesterday, Susan Wright flagged the fact that James O’Keefe is now going after the media. He has now released his material, and his target is . . . CNN:

Project Veritas released 119 hours of raw audio in a WikiLeaks style dump, with over 100 more hours still yet to be released. The audio was secretly recorded in 2009 by an anonymous source inside CNN’s Atlanta headquarters who we are identifying as Miss X. The tapes contain soundbites from current and previous CNN employees Joe Sterling, Arthur Brice, and Nicky Robertson, as well as numerous others. Project Veritas is also offering a $10,000 award for content that exposes media malfeasance.

The Wikileaks style release is an unusual method for O’Keefe. He says that with all the investigations he has going, he has not had the time to go through all the audio and compile the highlights. O’Keefe is calling it “CNNLeaks” and has put the audio here — though I’m warning you, you may have trouble getting through today.

Is CNN worried? It sure seems that they are.

CNN’s Brian Stelter did his level best yesterday afternoon to pre-inoculate CNN with a hit piece using the old Big Media “many say” trick to try to discredit O’Keefe in advance of this morning’s release. I’ll go ahead and bold several statements that reflect Stelter’s own opinion, which he dishonestly couches as “news” through the transparent device of attributing his own opinions to a faceless mob of “many” or “detractors”:

O’Keefe, who uses undercover stings to trap his targets, has a reputation for shady tactics and exaggerated statements.

Some of his so-called exposés have relied on misleading editing techniques. And an incident in 2010 landed him in legal trouble. After he was arrested at Senator Mary Landrieu’s office, O’Keefe pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor for entering federal property under false pretenses. He was sentenced to three years of probation, plus community service and a fine.

Given his track record, many consider O’Keefe discredited, and not a serious journalist.

In the phone interview on Wednesday, he said that characterization is “very false and very inappropriate.”

O’Keefe’s fans, who cheer him on via social media and donate to his nonprofit group, Project Veritas, say he is serious about rooting out liberal corruption, voter fraud and media bias.

His detractors say his salesman techniques are an attempt to mask unethical practices.

You know, Brian Stelter’s detractors say he is a nasty bald-headed tool of the Hillary Clinton campaign who slanders people behind a phony mask of objectivity. I mean, I don’t say that, you understand. But that’s what many are saying. His reputation is poor among many of his detractors, is my point.

Anyway, feel free to dig through the release, if you can get through.

[Cross-posted at RedState and The Jury Talks Back.]