Last night ABC presented a Barbara Walters special called Heaven : Where is it? How Do You Get There? and the show didn't really answer these questions, but it did raise one very important one for this viewer. Why did Walters pass judgement on evangelical pastor Ted Haggard when he proclaimed boldly that Jesus was the only way to heaven, but not the Muslim, failed homicide bomber when he said that Muslims were the only ones going to paradise?
Walters questioning of Haggard:
W: Okay. If a person does not accept Jesus Christ as his savior, does he go to Hell?
H: Yes.
W: But what if the god is not Jesus Christ? What if it's a different god? Do they go to Hell?
H: I think so.
W:You do?
H: Unfortunately.
W:... there are a great many people who feel that evangelicals are very judgmental, that your way is the only way, that everybody else, as you say, has to work it out.
H: Well, we're not pointing fingers. We're just grateful for what God has done for us, and we're just offering that to other people.
W: Does God mean for you to be so judgmental?
H: Well, I -- I don't mean to be judgmental, but there are certain things that are true. If you drink water, you'll be healthier. If you drink drano, you won't. And somebody may look at that and say, but I have a conviction that drinking drano will be wonderful for me. Well, and I would be judgmental and probably narrow-minded and say, you know what, you really need to set aside the drinking of drano and drink some water. I don't want to communicate a bad attitude or anything like that, but the issue is this is a guarantee for eternal life.
Later in the program Walters does an interview with a Muslim terrorist named Jarrar who failed to kill himself and when he declares that she should follow Mohammad in order to enter paradise, Walter's doesn't call this terrorist judgemental. Why?
W: Do only Muslims go to Heaven?
J: The fundamental thing is you must accept God. You have to believe that there is a creator. The Jews, the Christians, whoever believes in God and does good, will be saved.
W: Do Jews go to Heaven?
J: No.
W: Where do Jews go when they die?
J: They go to Hell, of course.
W: What is Hell like?
J: Hell is the hottest fire that is possible in the world. The heat of the fire in Hell is 70 times stronger than the strongest fire on the earth.
W: So everyone who goes to Hell gets burnt.
J: He gets burnt, of course. But if he gets burnt and that's it, he would be relieved. But God revives him, and he doesn't die. He's burnt and God revives him again.
W: So only Muslims go to paradise. Everyone else in the world goes to Hell, yes? That's a lot of people in Hell.
J: Yes, many people.
W: You are sitting opposite me. Would you like me to go to Hell? I am not a Muslim.
J: No, it's not that I want it. It's what God wants. You should follow Mohammed.
W: Or if I do not?
J: Then, of course, you're going to Hell.
There were many things wrong with Walter's special on Heaven, but the intentional jabbing of evangelical Christians being judgemental because of the belief that Jesus is the only way to heaven, and then the dismissal of an Islamic terrorist saying that Jews and anyone who doesn't follow Mohammed will go to hell and left unquestioned is absolutely stunning.
Once again, Christians are depicted as the intolerant ones, while the Muslim terrorist is given a pass.
