Behar: Baptism = Waterboarding

June 3rd, 2009 2:39 PM

An ancient Christian religious ritual is apparently comparable to a controversial interrogation technique, according to Joy Behar of ABC’s “The View.” On June 3, the hosts of “The View” were discussing the new reality show, “I’m a Celebrity…Get Me Out Of Here,” where pampered “celebrities” are placed in a jungle in Costa Rica. “Hills” reality television star Spencer Pratt was baptized on the show and “The View” featured a clip from his baptism in a river.


Behar, of course, had to add in her usual quip. “Isn’t it like water boarding- when they dump your head under there like that?” Fellow host Elisabeth Hasselbeck quickly replied with, “no.”

Of course, it was Behar who previously has called Rush Limbaugh a terrorist, made outlandish anti-Catholic remarks about saints who have psychological issues and called home schooled children “demented.”
Luckily, co-host Sherri Shepherd was there to set Behar straight. “But it’s not torture when you get baptized with water,” she explained. Behar, a lapsed Catholic, later clarified “In the Catholic Church all they do is sprinkle you with a little bit of water. This dumping you is a little drastic.” In the clip previously shown of the baptism, Pratt even explained the religious significance behind a baptism. But apparently Behar wasn’t listening and Hasselbeck had to explain to her how “it goes back to Biblical times.”

Only Hasselbeck supported Pratt’s baptism by saying, “I think that’s great,” Shepherd, however, astoundingly replied with, “You think that’s great?”

Hasselbeck was left to defend why Pratt’s baptism may have been a good thing. “Look- I don’t think its right for anyone to judge the emotion behind someone’s baptism. I think a water baptism is especially moving for many people and I think that’s a great thing.”