Hawaiian flower

A columnist at the Washington Post has used a column about a gardening book to deliver a dig at Christians, calling the missionaries who traveled to the Hawaiian Islands while the region still was a kingdom "pernicious."

That's the word defined in various online dictionaries as:

• "baneful: exceedingly harmful"
  
  
• "insidious: working or spreading in a hidden and usually injurious way
  
  
• "causing much harm in a subtle way"
  
  
• "grave harmfulness or deadlines

Columnist James P. Pinkerton at Fox News raised the alert about the insult.

"Are Christian missionaries 'pernicious'? The Washington Post seems to think so," he wrote today.

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"In a review of a book about a botanical garden in Hawaii, Carolyn See, a longtime contributor to the Post's 'Style' section, includes this nasty little aside about newcomers who changed the ecosystem of Hawaii: 'then white people and their pernicious missionaries,'" Pinkerton wrote.

"Needless to say, no other group was similarly saddled with an insulting modifier. Only missionaries are 'pernicious.'"

See's article was about "Waking Up In Eden," a book by Lucinda Fleeson, who exchanged her life as a reporter for the Philadelphia Inquirer for a life in Hawaii working on restoring its plant life.

In the discussion about the damage to the island flora and fauna, See cited the impact of severe storms and other factors.

"The Hawaiian Islands have about 1,000 unique native plant species, but about 100 were already gone. The culprits for this plant massacre were many: the first Polynesians, then white people and their pernicious missionaries, then feral goats and pigs. And there were numerous plant villains as well, particularly bougainvillea and morning glory," she wrote.

Pinkerton said the slam is significant.

"For perspective, we might try to imagine the reaction if the writer had written, say, 'black people and their pernicious ministers.' Or 'Jews and their pernicious rabbis.' Or 'Muslims and their pernicious mullahs,'" he wrote.

"'It's only Christian-bashing' and it is becoming more and more common," wrote a participant on Pinkerton's forum page.

Said another, "Interesting how one can become inured to the constant stream of 'innocent' comments and subtle digs at some groups. While others enjoy near total immunity from any form of criticism."

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