In a recent heated exchange on CNN’s NewsNight, Republican strategist Scott Jennings confronted guest host Audie Cornish over her assertion that considering Jordan Neely a victim was “a Christian thing.” Cornish’s comment prompted a sharp response from Jennings, who questioned her implication that he, or anyone who disagreed, lacked Christian values.
“I have a tendency to call the people who die a victim,” Cornish said, after Jennings questioned the framing of Neely as a victim. “I think it’s a Christian thing.” Jennings quickly pushed back, asking, “Are you saying I’m not a Christian?” This rhetorical clash exposed a broader pattern in which some Democrats and media figures selectively invoke Christianity to advance political agendas, often to attack conservative Christians, while ignoring other parts of scripture that don’t fit their narrative.
This selective use of Christianity is far from isolated. Time and time again, Democrats have used cherry-picked Biblical interpretations to attack conservative Christians while disregarding other principles that are equally clear in scripture. For example, many on the left routinely use scripture to call out conservative Christians for their opposition to open borders and government hand outs, but rarely do they address the Bible’s teachings on abortion, homosexuality, and more.
Cornish’s remark, while seemingly innocent, underscores a familiar trend on the left: the cherry-picking of Christian principles to suit political objectives. In this case, her use of Christian values was with the purpose of framing Daniel Penny as a villain and Jordan Neely as a victim, suggesting that Christian compassion inherently demanded such a view. Yet, the context and nuanced realities of the situation — including Neely’s criminal history and aggressive behavior on the subway — were largely ignored.
Neely, a homeless man with a criminal history, died after Marine Corps veteran Daniel Penny restrained him on a New York City subway in May 2023.
While Cornish claimed that “someone lost a child,” and that framing Neely as a victim was a “Christian thing,” the question of “who is the real victim” is far more complicated than her characterization suggests. While it is indeed tragic when any life is lost, especially under violent or avoidable circumstances, one must ask whether focusing solely on Neely as a victim overlooks the real victims of his actions — the passengers on the subway who felt threatened by his erratic behavior, and Penny, who was forced to make a split-second decision to protect others.
Is Christianity solely about compassion and empathy for those who suffer? Or does it also encompass justice, the sanctity of life, and the protection of the vulnerable? As many conservative Christians would argue, the sanctity of all human life — including the life of a Marine veteran defending innocent passengers — should be recognized as part of a true Christian ethos.
When progressive elites pick and choose which parts of the Bible to endorse, they ignore the broader moral context in which Christianity is meant to be lived out. Christianity, as a faith, doesn’t allow for such convenient compartmentalization of its teachings.
And CNN hacks are not Journalists.
Who really cares what this hack thinks?
While it is true that many unaware Christians take the Scriptures out of context, those who are not Christian cannot keep them within context. In the same way, for example, that the language of Mathematics cannot be explained with words ( and if it could be explained with words, then it is not Mathematics, but words), the Spirit cannot be explained with the flesh. “For the man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them because they are spiritually discerned.” Until a man is born again, it is meaningless to argue the Scriptures with him; instead, it is of greater value to share what a man is being saved from so that he knows what he is being saved to. That is the harder road, but the only road until that man has the Spirit of Christ inside him.
When non-Christians define Christianity, it no longer remains Christianity.
That said, when the bulk of today’s smorgasbord churches (most of whom are not Christians, having replaced the Bible’s plan of salvation with man-made surrogates, among other critical false doctrines) define Christianity, it also fails to be genuine Christianity.
“Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you—unless indeed you fail the test?” (2 Corinthians 13:5)
For more, see audio series “I Had a Dream: Judgment’s Coming: Are You Under the Blood?,” beginning at https://missiontoisrael.ORG/tapelist.php#T1111
NEELY’S FAMILY FAILED HIM!!! PERIOD!!! HE COULD/WOULD BE STILL ALIVE IF HIS FAMILY HAD SEEN TO HIS MENTAL HEALTH ISSUES!!! THEY ARE THE ONES FULLY RESPONSIBLE FOR HIS DEMISE!!!!
Seijah Drake. You’re a good writer and by all appearances, a good, moral, decent human person. I like you, your style and reading your journaling’s. Merry Christmas maam’ and continue your good works. Kudos to you. Ciao.
Typical TRIPE coming from someone who knows diddly S**t about WHAT Christianity is for starters:
As for the contention that “someone lost a child” while referring to Neely’s death and the father, it appears to me that the father did not realize he had a CHILD IN NEED, until that child was killed while committing a crime to get money because he was hungry, which NOT the first time; it appears that was a almost daily practice.
This man =, Neely was a sick person who should have had medical attention, among other things. WHY was it that the father was NOT aware that he had a “child’ until that child died? Why was Neely, a sick person of long duration, daily terrorizing passengers on the subway to get money to eat. WHERE was his father all this time?
Why did he, like the parents of George Floyd , a lifelong criminal and druggie, who died in police custody after being arrested for a crime, to COLLECT MILLIONS OF $$$$ from TAXOAYERS, when it was clear that they were NOT aware they even had a son until he DIED and a scavenger lawyer HONED in, just as is happening with Neely?