OPINION:
Some say “ignorance is bliss,” but a recent on-air proclamation uttered during a meandering segment on “The View” reveals that oblivion can be truly heartbreaking, unlettered and damaging.
“I don’t know what the difference between our Christian right and the Taliban is. I have no idea what the difference is.”
That quote from Broadway star Patti LuPone, emitted on the show April 19, quickly sent shockwaves across the internet, raising eyebrows and shattering hearts — and with good reason: It was aimlessly flippant and completely detached from any semblance of reality.
For that reason, I decided to write an open letter to Ms. LuPone in the hope that she will reconsider her statements and ponder a public apology:
Dear Patti LuPone,
First and foremost, I respect your right to divergent viewpoints and free speech, but I’m alarmed and worried by your comments conflating the Taliban — a murderous group of terrorists who are destabilizing Afghanistan and slaughtering innocents — and the “Christian right,” a group of American citizens with whom you presumably disagree.
I understand you differ with these individuals who espouse traditional biblical values and with Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ handling of LGBTQ issues in public education. But what I do not understand is why anyone even remotely aware of what’s happening in Afghanistan would willfully make such perilous and haphazard comments.
Are you aware, Ms. LuPone, that, since U.S. forces abruptly abandoned Afghanistan in August 2021, the Taliban have been going door-to-door, kidnapping young girls and murdering Christians?
Do you know that the vast majority of the Afghan people have been catapulted into abject poverty and misery at the hands of Taliban radicals?
David Curry, president and CEO of persecution watchdog Global Christian Relief, recently revealed the extent of the monstrosities, telling me most Christians have been driven from the country or are hiding out.
“Christians and religious minorities within Afghanistan face enormous persecution,” he said, noting that many if not most have been forced to flee. “The Christians that remain are underground, are on the run.”
Women have been among the most destabilized population, as the Taliban have banned females from all forms of education, expelling them from elementary schools and universities, among other institutions. And that’s not all. Did you know, Ms. LuPone, that women have been forced back into their veils, with the Taliban clinging to their “medieval ideology” as they turn the female population into subservient citizens?
“Once again, women are required to be completely veiled if they step outside the confines of their home,” Katrina Lantos Swett, president of the Lantos Foundation for Human Rights and Justice and the former chair of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, told me. “They’re really not permitted to go anywhere without a male escort.”
One Afghan woman described the situation as being akin to “a psychological prison,” with Open Doors USA emphasizing that religious freedom is anything but welcome there. “Leaving Islam is considered shameful and punishable by death under the prevailing Islamic law,” the watchdog recently said in a heartbreaking report.
And that’s only a sliver of the horrors plaguing the Afghan people – terrors you have conflated with Christian conservatives in America who simply conflict with your politics and seek to protect their children from subject matter with which they disagree.
Differing with these folks is one thing, but comparing them to murderous terrorists is another. What I’ve shared in this letter makes your proclamation that you “don’t know what the difference between our Christian right and the Taliban” patently preposterous.
Ms. LuPone, if the aforementioned realities don’t show you the difference between these groups, you’re ignoring reality, lying or haplessly political — or perhaps an amalgam of the three.
Adding insult to injury, “The View” panel did little to point any of this out or to correct your statement. While it might have seemed advantageous at the moment to prey upon the horrors being inflicted by the Taliban to score a cheap political shot at the “Christian right,” the shameful on-air moment does a disservice to Afghans’ suffering, shows a total disregard for facts and reality, and exposes the truly cavernous depths to which our politics have plunged.
I have no doubt you have strong convictions and truly could “cry” over Mr. DeSantis’ actions, as you stated — policies that, I’d note, come nowhere near the maniacal, deadly, traumatic, nation-destroying actions of the Taliban.
But I’d remind you that Afghans are shedding real tears — and losing their very lives — over the tattered state of their nation. I have no doubt you have compassion for what they face, though they deserve an apology for your blunder, as do Bible-believing Christians.
We all make mistakes. I’m just hoping you realize the size, scope and heartbreaking nature of yours.
• Billy Hallowell is a digital TV host and interviewer for Faithwire and CBN News and the co-host of CBN’s “Quick Start Podcast.” Hallowell is the author of four books, including “Playing with Fire: A Modern Investigation into Demons, Exorcism, and Ghosts,” and “The Armageddon Code: One Journalist’s Quest for End-Times Answers.”
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