A New Cartoon Debacle, A Totally Opposite Response
(HT Hot Air)
WorldNetDaily broke this story yesterday:
Notice the Catholic League didn't say they "We're going to start a holy war, burn everything that can possibly be set on fire, and threaten to behead those who depict our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ in such a vulgar and offensive fashion."
Nope. They wrote to Oregon's governor and state lawmakers to express their displeasure in hopes that they would take action on the matter. I wonder if the publishers of "The Insurgent" have the intellectual capacity to note the difference in the two responses.
Am I outraged? Am I offended? Absolutely and unequivocally YES!!!
What would Jesus have his followers do in retaliation? He would have us pray for them!
These misguided college students may have thought that by publishing these cartoons they were "provoking dialogue", but actually all they have done is offend scores of people, Christians and non-Christians alike. You don't have to be particularly religious to be offended by a drawing of any religious figure depicted with an erect penis. There is a vast difference between making a political statement and simply being vile and offensive.
Maybe they thought Christians would react in the same way that Muslim extremists reacted during the Jyllands-Posten cartoon debacle, but they won't. By failing to accurately predict the reaction, and by printing opposing cartoons much more offensive than the ones they are being compared to, the only thing they have really done is shine a spotlight on their own stupidity.
They have exercised their freedom of speech by posting these images. I hope they also understand that freedom of speech means they will not be protected from the onslaught of opposition they will most assuredly face as a result. There won't be any beheadings or burning buildings, but if I were them I might prepare for a significant round of tongue lashing.
For the record, I don't find the Mohammed cartoons and the Jesus cartoons to be even remotely comparable in the dialogue they would provoke, so I'm going to exercise my freedom of speech by not reposting them here.
Tags: University of Oregon,The Insurgent, Jesus Cartoons, Jyllands-Posten, Religion
WorldNetDaily broke this story yesterday:
A Catholic activist organization has written to Oregon's governor and state lawmakers to protest a University of Oregon student newspaper for having published cartoons showing Jesus Christ naked and with an erection.
In its March edition, the Insurgent, an "alternative" student paper on the Eugene, Ore., campus printed 12 hand-drawn cartoons of Jesus as a response to rival paper the Commentator having published the controversial cartoons of Muhammad originally published in Europe that sparked Muslim riots worldwide. The Insurgent claimed it published the drawings to "provoke dialogue."
William Donohue, president of the Catholic League, said the university's president, Dave Frohnmayer, had been unresponsive to complaints about the drawings, so he had written to the governor, every state legislators and the chancellor of the Oregon University System, among others.
"The March edition of the Insurgent ... was one of the most obscene assaults on Christianity I have ever seen," Donohue said in a statement. "To make sure that the persons I wrote to understand how vile this attack was, I sent a photocopy of the two most offensive graphics: one was a depiction of a naked Jesus on the cross with an erection; the other, titled 'Resurrection,' showed a naked Jesus kissing another naked man, both sporting erections."
Notice the Catholic League didn't say they "We're going to start a holy war, burn everything that can possibly be set on fire, and threaten to behead those who depict our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ in such a vulgar and offensive fashion."
Nope. They wrote to Oregon's governor and state lawmakers to express their displeasure in hopes that they would take action on the matter. I wonder if the publishers of "The Insurgent" have the intellectual capacity to note the difference in the two responses.
Am I outraged? Am I offended? Absolutely and unequivocally YES!!!
What would Jesus have his followers do in retaliation? He would have us pray for them!
These misguided college students may have thought that by publishing these cartoons they were "provoking dialogue", but actually all they have done is offend scores of people, Christians and non-Christians alike. You don't have to be particularly religious to be offended by a drawing of any religious figure depicted with an erect penis. There is a vast difference between making a political statement and simply being vile and offensive.
Maybe they thought Christians would react in the same way that Muslim extremists reacted during the Jyllands-Posten cartoon debacle, but they won't. By failing to accurately predict the reaction, and by printing opposing cartoons much more offensive than the ones they are being compared to, the only thing they have really done is shine a spotlight on their own stupidity.
They have exercised their freedom of speech by posting these images. I hope they also understand that freedom of speech means they will not be protected from the onslaught of opposition they will most assuredly face as a result. There won't be any beheadings or burning buildings, but if I were them I might prepare for a significant round of tongue lashing.
For the record, I don't find the Mohammed cartoons and the Jesus cartoons to be even remotely comparable in the dialogue they would provoke, so I'm going to exercise my freedom of speech by not reposting them here.
Tags: University of Oregon,The Insurgent, Jesus Cartoons, Jyllands-Posten, Religion
posted by Barry at
12:03 AM
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