www.christwire.org
When the Landover Baptist Church appeared on the Internet, it ticked off a great many religious nut cases – because it gave such a dead-on parody of their lunacy, many of them thought it was serious and not a deliberate spoof. Recently, in 2009 and 2010, we've seen the emergence of a "Christian news service" that may be even more accurate and barbed than Landover Baptist – Christwire! Its logo proudly proclaims it as providing "conservative values for an unsaved world." In these days when "conservatism" in American politics has largely been subsumed and assimilated by hardcore religious leaders who insist on "returning" the United States to its original status as a "Christian nation" (which we never were), Christwire's "news" stories are so subtle in their satire, they keep being taken seriously by amateur and professional news pundits alike. The key here is that they take oddball news stories and put a subtle twist on them – a very subtle twist.
Examples include:
- May 15th, 2010 – Liberals Smearing Sarah Palin with Naked Nude Stripper Pictures! Someone took pictures of a pole dancer and digitally edited Republican wanna-be Presidential candidate Sarah Palin's face onto them. Christwire reports, "Now we see that Sarah Palin is once again eyeing the White House in 2012, the liberals are scared so they are attacking Sarah's character! They are trying to make Palin look like a whore devil when in reality she is a chosen women of God!"
- April 4, 2010 – Scientists “Discover” New Evolution Fossil in Cave. Scientists discovered a 2.5 million year old fossil lemur monkey, named "Ida," and suggested that it may be part of the evolutionary tree that led to humanity. And on Christwire they write, "Already, we see the lies being formed. Scientists are now wildly claiming that the advanced humans are 2.5 million years old. While their claims are not as their initial assertions, where they said Ida was ten million years old, it’s all still impossible as the Earth is approximately 6,000 years old….You see, scientists believe that it is possible for a man and monkey to have intimate relations. This is probably where the gays get their ideas that if its okay for a man to mate with monkey, why not a man with his own kind." (This part of the story was what made me scratch my head and say, "No, wait a minute. This has GOT to be a satire. They're using a 2.5 million year old skeleton to attack homosexuality?!?")
The funny (and scary) part is that in the modern-day United States, there are many people out there who really think this way. That's why Christwire is being taken seriously, even to the point where its stories keep showing up on Digg and Fark, while frequently being compared to real lunatic religious news services such as Worldnet Daily.