Offensive cartoons

Have you ever taken offense at someone’s criticism of Christianity in general, or of you personally? I’ve been following an ongoing discussion about high school basketball on mlive.com, where a certain contributor to the message boards insists that LCS recruits for its athletic teams and intentionally tries to keep its enrollment low so we can compete in Class D. This person has repeatedly mocked Christians as self-righteous and holier-than thou hypocrites. Another poster has patiently and lovingly defended LCS and Coach Brown, but his defense seems to fall on deaf ears. We know that these charges are not true, but certainly each of us can use the criticism for our own self-examination: when I criticize “the world” or “sin,” do I come across as self-righteous? How am I and are we perceived?

In America, we enjoy freedom of religion. People are also free to reject religion and faith. We also have freedom of speech. With this freedom, many people choose to be critical of organized religion in general, but more so, it seems, of Christianity in particular. There are many movies and TV shows (“Saved,” “Dogma,” “The Book of Daniel”) that portray Christians in a negative light, but very few in a positive one. And I would be shocked if you could name for me any movie or program that even hinted at anything negative about any other religion. It’s not just the media, either. It has not been that long ago that a New York art gallery featured a display of the Virgin Mary covered in Elephant Dung, or the National Endowment for the Arts sponsored the work of a photographer named Serrano which included a picture of a crucifix in a jar of urine. Even good old Kanye West was recently pictured on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine wearing a crown of thorns.

What have Christians done in response to these things? It seems like we perpetually put into practice the scriptural command to “turn the other cheek.” We may protest; we may boycott advertisers who promote offensive programming, we may try to use letters to the editor or even blogs to try to wage a battle of ideas and persuasion. What I do not see is the threat of violence against those who dare to offend us or even who mock our Lord Jesus himself. We take our cue from Jesus, who told Peter to put away his sword, and who humbled himself and endured insult as he went like a sheep to the slaughter to give his life as a ransom for us.

What a contrast to the reaction in the Muslim world to the publication of cartoons which, allegedly, are offensive to the prophet Mohammed and to Islam. This story began about five months ago when a little-known Danish newspaper asked cartoonists to sketch some political cartoons that looked at Islam in a critical vein. The editorial board felt that Islam was being treated with kid-gloves. It should also be noted that Denmark has been a steadfast ally in the war on terror with the United States, unlike some of the other western European powers. So several artists submitted their work. Muslims believe that no drawing or portraiture of the prophet is permissible under their law, because they are afraid that it may lead to idolatry. Here is a link to the cartoons in question. Follow the link and look them over before reading on.

Now, some five months later, there has been unleashed a massive series of protests, uprisings, and riots in places as varied as Britain and Syria. In fact, the rioters in Syria have even gone so far as to burn the Danish embassy. Danish flags are being burned across the globe. And now brace yourself. Follow this link to London's Daily Telegraph to see some of the signs that the protesters have been carrying as they protest the cartoons of Muhammad. As I write this, a news story has just come across the wires about how the violence has escalated and Christian churches are under attack, too. Now the Danish leader is indicating that it is no longer an issue of offense at cartoons, but it is being driven by those who wish to see a clash of civilizations come to a head. As one blogger put it, however, it’s not really a clash of civilizations because that would take two.

It has been rather disappointing to see that even our own media buys into the meme that these cartoons are too offensive to be shown on TV. I even heard the hosts on Fox News on Saturday morning say that they would not show the cartoons out of sensitivity to their Muslim audience. Our own state department has seemingly taken the side of the jihadists as well, essentially stating that the freedom of speech should never be used to cause offense or criticize another person’s faith or religion.

This story may only be beginning. How will Denmark react to the burning of its embassies? How will the US stand with its ally? Will the newspaper publishers yield and apologize to the Mohammedans and promise never to say anything critical of Islam or Muhammad again? What does it say for a country’s stand on basic civil liberties if one group can threaten and intimidate with violence in order to silence its critics? And is this, at last, going to be convincing evidence that the mindset of Islam is not peace-loving at all, and that the underlying emotion that drives Muslims is not love, but anger?

Finally, check out this movie from Michelle Malkin’s blog. (Sorry...you may have to scroll down until you see a movie called "First they came for...") And comment away!