Who's shoving what where?

“Stop shoving your religion down my throat!”

The person saying this means that he feels coerced and violated by over-aggressive evangelistic tactics. As such, it’s a useful reminder that browbeating anyone is rarely winsome because the message gets obliterated by the messenger.

Nevertheless, this phrase with genuine applications is surely overused in reaction to almost any expression of Christian insight or motivation in the public square to the point that one might often reasonably respond, “How would a legitimate effort to proselytize you differ from what you call shoving it down your throat?” But this distinction isn’t my real concern.

What suddenly catches my attention is that this phrase is only ever used about religious persuasion. One never hears it used to describe Hollywood’s sexual agenda or every DVD’s anti-smoking propaganda, for example. But if “shoving a message down someone’s throat” is bad, these must certainly qualify. Also, what about the things our broadcast and print media try to force feed us by what they cover ad nauseum? To wit, am I the only one who wishes they’d stop trying to shove Charlie Sheen down my throat?