.. what in the hell is wrong with people??!
I am so bloody sick and tired of how much ridicule Christianity garners around the world - what is it that we ever did to make so many people so badly deride us? Yes, I can understand that some people like to think they don't believe in God, or maybe they believe in a different god, or maybe they think that people who believe in God are doing so as a mean of allaying our fear of death or fate.
I can understand those attitudes, I really can. But why, oh why, do so many people put so much effort into mocking and ridiculing Christianity? Why is it that anytime a muslim imam, or a hindu priest, or a buddhist monk is depicted on TV or the movies, they are played by talented dramatic actors and portrayed as wise, deeply spiritual and sagely, with unshakeable faith and hearts of gold, while the vast majority of Christians one sees are all played for laughs by some moronic, barely-even-qualifies-as-comedic character actor and portrayed as hyper-spastic, time-forgotten, patriarchal, domineering, under-handed and closed-minded familial dictators who subscribe to extreme forms of corporal punish administered to the entire family, all accompanied by the most red-neck inspired southern accent imaginable??!!
Even better is when the character actor in question is an outspoken atheist, anti-Christian, gay activist(the kind that believe that all people are really gay inside and that all church related notions are complete garbage), etc, etc, and the Christian or Minister character is a closet homosexual/pedophile/mysogynist/all of the above. And people eat it up - they think its absolutely hilarious! "How dare those dang Christians act all sacred about their beliefs?!" one might ask.
I suppose it should be no surprise when I heard that Britney Spears was slated to appear on Will & Grace as the ridiculous host of a "Christian" cooking show called "Cruci-fixin's", in an episode in which a Christian broadcaster takes over a gay-themed TV Network and starts making changes to the roster. http://www.cnn.com/2006/SHOWBIZ/TV/02/01/people.spears.ap/
And surprise, surprise a group described as a "Conservative Christian Organization" lodged a complaint, for which they were, subsequently derided by the public. Hell, if I was in a position to lodge a complaint, I would too - its ridiculous that they can get away with that, and even more-so that Christians come off looking like the closed-minded bad guy in the scenario. But did we stage a riot, or burn the American flag, or attacked the U.S. embassy in protest?! No - we lodged a complaint. What a bunch of jerks we are.
Seriously though, I don't even want to imagine the kind of religio-political backlash that might occur if, for instance, some independant newspaper published a funny cartoon about the prophet Muhammed - after all, while Muhammed may be no more sacred to his respective followers than Christ is to his, Muhammed, being a muslim prophet, must be taken seriously at all times, unlike anything related to Christianity.
Just imagine the chaos - my conservative (not really, but you see my point) Christian mind can conceive of unimaginable numbers of angry letters written to that newspaper, and maybe even peaceful protests by Danish muslims outside the doors of their office. This is a serious issue. Heck, I might even write a letter to the government of Denmark just to make sure that my opinions were heard.
Apparently, though, when you are a muslim and your beliefs have been mocked, you have a lot more in your arsenal than words to fling against those who have insulted you with words or cartoons. It is apparently somehow justified for muslims to burn Danish flags and attack / set fire to Danish embassies (apparently any European embassy is fair game, now) with molotov cocktails and rocks and who knows what else. For some reason it is okay for them to stage massive riots and kill people as well. http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/asiapcf/02/07/cartoon.protests/index.html
Please don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to colour all muslims as violent and insane - I've been friends with muslim people who I greatly respected and respect to this day, but I have to honestly wonder why the world is so caught up in making fun of Christians.
We may well be stuck up and religious and prideful and all of those other things, but no Christian I've ever heard of has ever flown an airliner into the side of a building, or organized suicide bombings for no other reason than to kill as many of the heathens as we can. People may call the United States under President Bush a theocracy, but hey, unlike some Islamic states (Saudi Arabia, for on), they haven't started imprisoning, torturing and publicly beheading people of other religions quite yet.
And so I remain, baffled by the idiocy that is public opinion. In all honesty, I do not believe that Christians are better people than people of other religions, or that we are somehow less capable of doing horrible things, but the fact is that we AREN'T doing those horrible things, and yet the world still delights in hating us. I suppose Jesus warned us, but when I see things like this Will & Grace fiasco side-by-side with this Danish Cartoon thing on the news, and the Christians are still made to look like the bigger idiots, I just can't help but be a little bit confused.
Thank you for tolerating my incoherent rantings and ravings. I promise I'll get better :)
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
13 comments:
Christians are definitly not blameless, yes we may have never flown planes into buildings but we were responsible for the persecution of thousands of Muslims during the Inquisition, the Crusades, and look at colonialism...Christians were all over that mess...our history is just as bloody. And for you to say that Muhammed and Muslims are never made fun of, apparently you just read CNN. Jews are made fun of all the time and depicted in very stereotypical ways. Different minorities are marginalized and laughed at.
There have been an awful lot of horrible things done in the name of Christianity and with people like Pat Robertson saying we should kill Hugo Chavez, massive assimilation of the First Nations and countless others, our hands are hardly clean, The media seems to be more critical of Christians but at the same time that's not a surprise because God says in His word that we will encounter that kind of thing for His sake, we are after all just as human as any other person regardless of Religion or lack thereof, but in some ways because we proclaim that God is the only way it would be better if we actually showed the world we loved them ALL the time, but of course we are a fallen people, humanity that is, It's nice that you use your blog to rant, I like to see what is going on in your head, it's good ground to spew and formulate thoughts and feelings, and after all that is what blogs are for! :-D
1When Jesus saw his ministry drawing huge crowds, he climbed a hillside. Those who were apprenticed to him, the committed, climbed with him. Arriving at a quiet place, he sat down 2and taught his climbing companions. This is what he said:
3"You're blessed when you're at the end of your rope. With less of you there is more of God and his rule.
4"You're blessed when you feel you've lost what is most dear to you. Only then can you be embraced by the One most dear to you.
5"You're blessed when you're content with just who you are--no more, no less. That's the moment you find yourselves proud owners of everything that can't be bought.
6"You're blessed when you've worked up a good appetite for God. He's food and drink in the best meal you'll ever eat.
7"You're blessed when you care. At the moment of being "carefull,' you find yourselves cared for.
8"You're blessed when you get your inside world--your mind and heart--put right. Then you can see God in the outside world.
9"You're blessed when you can show people how to cooperate instead of compete or fight. That's when you discover who you really are, and your place in God's family.
10"You're blessed when your commitment to God provokes persecution. The persecution drives you even deeper into God's kingdom.
11"Not only that--count yourselves blessed every time people put you down or throw you out or speak lies about you to discredit me. What it means is that the truth is too close for comfort and they are uncomfortable.
My church did a sermin on this sorta thing and it was really quite interesting now that u mention it i remember the sermin. ok we had a skit it was 3 christians prayin' at a table in public and the watress walked up not noticeing they were prayin' and asked if there was anything els she could do for them. the guy at the head of the table angrily put his hand up signaling her to go away very rudley. i think that's why ppl don't like christians. however living at job crops i figured out it isn't all jobbies ppl hate it's the select few that screw it up for everyone. so like with job corp i belive it's the same with christians. just a little insite, from my jobbie point of veiw. and don't worry about ranting that's one of the beautites of the internet.
I certainly agree that historically there have been many horrible things done in the name of Christianity, but I have to admit that I find it really bothersome that things like the crusades or the inquisition are used as arguments about the overriding contempt that people have for Christians TODAY.
Not only have these things happened not in our own lifetime, but not in the lifetime of anyone in the past 400-800 years. The things I have talked about are happening NOW!
I guess more than anything else I am not so much trying to paint Christians as wonderful, nor am I saying that Christians are the only ones who are marginalized. Every people group on earth has been marginalized at some point, and they all have a right to speak out about it, because it isn't right.
Certainly that Danish cartoon should not have been published - muslims have every right to be upset about it. My point was centered more on the general reaction of people to both the action and reaction.
Like the example I used in my post - a popular TV Show takes an overtly derisive and mocking statement about Christianity and it is generally accepted as hilarious. When Christians complain about it they are painted as closed-minded and humourless.
But when a newspaper publishes a cartoon that makes light of Islam, suddenly everybody is very solemn and disapproving (hell, the U.S. government even officially decried the cartoon). And when the people who have been mocked not only complain but take violent action against peoples and governments who weren't even remotely involved, and people die as a result, the world, while not perhaps approving of their methods, takes the stance that they are righteous in standing up for themselves.
Following that example, Christians should be rioting anywhere that the U.S. has a foothold, throwing gasoline bombs at their embassies and burning their flag for allowing one of their T.V. networks to mock us. But we'd never get away with that kind of crap (nor should we, nor should anyone).
What anonymous (is that Ron?) added is very true, and I suppose my post made it seem like I was more surprised about this than I really am. Its no surprise, nor is it a mystery why these things happen - Jesus did tell us that it would be this way. It just frustrates me when I think about it, because it seems like such an obvious disparity. Like people should know better than to uphold freedom and respect for all beliefs except Christianity.
Anonymous is back...I through in the scripture as I eneded a quick coffee break at work.
- I don't believe in violence or terrorism as a solution. I don't think that the reaction of certain extremists are justified.
- I don't believe that these extremists are an example of or represent Muslims as a whole. I believe that they are, in a religion that runs to billions, relatively few.
- I believe in freedom of speech, but I believe that you must wield that tool responsibly, and think through the consequences of your free speech. The cartoons display a spectacularly terrible ignorance and insensitivity to the Muslim culture.
I can understand how a fanatical fringe of a religion,any religion does insane things...the spirit of religion consumes peoples minds.But I have to really wonder what would Jesus response be? I doubt, he would see the humour in the cartoons. Would his response be to fire the same fire and vitrol back?
Your rant, has been painted with a broad brush that has touched on many issues...which deserve dissecting, but I guess my question is, beyond the rant...what is your solution?
I believe the solution is in Matt 5:1-11, if we as followers can grasp a greater revelation of the truth, and live it every breathing moment...we will find " it " that conquers all.
ryan i thought you might find this article interesting...
http://sympaticomsn.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20060208/professor_cartoon_060208
I think you are right anonymous, that things like 9/11 and "terrorism" are not done by people who are necessarily indicative of Islam as a whole, however the support for these sorts of things IS built into their religion (Jihad, etc, etc), though obviously not necessarily practiced or supported by the majority of muslims.
This protest against the cartoon though, that is something else entirely - those people are very much representative of Islam in general, for a couple of reasons: A) These actions are not limited to one particular region or organization - groups of muslims all over the world are pulling this crap. B) It isn't the kind of tiny cross-section of extremism that groups like Al-Qaeda represtent - hundreds of thousands of people are taking part in this.
Somehow, within a large part of that religion, it is justified to react with the sort of violence that has been demonstrated, in essence, to respond to insult with mass murder and mayhem, and that is a scary thought.
And you just watch and see what world opinion says about it - obviously people on the whole can't say "Yes the killing was jusitified", but the insult, and the religion will be treated with utter seriousness that we all know would be denied to any Christian who would cry foul at having their beliefs mocked in such fashion. I guess the difference is not that Christians are the only group that are marginalized, but we certainly seem to be the only people left for whom marginalization is still socially acceptable.
I guess what it comes down to is that I really don't think there is any kind of "solution" for the problem - there are spiritual reasons behind it, obviously. Christ said it would happen, so its not like I'm surprised. My purpose here was mostly just to exhaust my frustration by getting it out rant style!
I can't believe you say that Christians are marginalized, Christianity is a more accepted religion than any other, I mean on the American dollar bill it says "In God We Trust" not muhammed not allah..."GOD keep our land" in the Canadian National anthem...I also worry about how you generalized that what is going on in denmark is representative of muslims. I know I'm going to sound crazy for saying that but its ethnocentric to condemn what we don't understand. Islam and the culture that surrounds it is something I think very few of us understand but now whenever we think of terrorism we think of Muslims, I think that is quite sad because I know people who are muslim and I don't think they are violent. Their culture doesn't have an open dialogue that western cultures do, we have forums do to our politics where issues of discrimination and violence can be addressed but in cultures where few people have a voice, violence unfortunately is away of getting attention. And I would like to say that just because Christians have never labled any of their wars "holy wars" doesn't mean that they couldn't be described as such, the crucades, the inquisition, the war on Iraq?
Ryan you said this in your post...I suppose Jesus warned us, but when I see things like this Will & Grace fiasco side-by-side with this Danish Cartoon thing on the news, and the Christians are still made to look like the bigger idiots, I just can't help but be a little bit confused.
And this in one of the comments...I guess the difference is not that Christians are the only group that are marginalized, but we certainly seem to be the only people left for whom marginalization is still socially acceptable.
Think we as Christians have made marginalization socially acceptable beacuse of the way we live. We are in the world...and of the world. Casey is right...Every deed of love points to an ultimate triumph in the very hour of its defeat. . .
The basic plan of life cannot be finally destroyed. The will of God prevails even when the Son of God is crucified.
Can we love to the point humiltiation, persecution and suffering, can we love to the point of sacrifice, can we love to the point of death. It is in that love is revealed, it is in that, a love that conqures all exists.
If we don't want to be marginalized, we must become centralized into the very life of Jesus.
You make some good points, Meg, but I think we're going to have to agree to disagree on this for the time being. What started as a simple rant about something I was feeling frustrated about is turning into a monster that I'd rather not feed any further o_0
Just to set the record straight, I, by no means, think that Muslims in general are all terrorists or violent or any of that stuff, and I certainly do not think that ANYONE deserves to be marginalized or derided for their beliefs, regardless of whether I or anyone agrees with them.
Don't want you to think I've become some kind of racist or something, none of that had anything to do with what I was getting at here.
So uh /match over, agreed? Still friends? :)
Wow! I'm the 14th comment! I must say Ry - that's a record (never got that many on any of mine) :)
Well.. I don't have anything much to say, but remember.. this is the place to share what's inside - no matter what it looks like.
..and that's all I have to say about that.
Post a Comment