Shoe on the Other Foot

Fair is fair, and since most of us here in America were raised as Christians how would we feel about a cartoon that showed Jesus with a bomb coming out of his head? That would probably be a confusing image, but the case could be made - cartoon or otherwise - that Christianity is a pretty violent religion. Crusades, anyone? What was that all about? Do we all really think that Jesus would have put his seal of approval on that centuries long fiasco? Not me. I think he probably wouldn't have such fond memories of the piece of real estate where the Romans tortured and killed him. I think he would be alright with us leaving it alone.

But how peaceful was our Messiah, anyways? Remember that Gospel verse when he says that he would be showing up with a sword in his hand? What were you planning on doing with that sword, sweet gentle Jesus - turn it into a plowshare, perhaps?

Well, you can see my point. A case can certainly be made for the violent tendencies of Christians. We just don't usually make it because that's us and God blesses us and nobody else. It's right there on our money, you know.

Still, it's kind of hard to see the Muslim side of this so well. Their point is that we should be tolerant and respectful of their religion, which is not violent. And they make their point by - what? Oh. Being violent and attacking other's people's religions. Yeah, I can see where they're coming from with that. They aren't ironically proving the very point of that cartoon, are they?

There is a voice of reason out in the Muslim world. I'm sure of it. But for some reason our Western media hasn't done such a good job of finding it and they should. It's just that it's easier and lazier for them to cover the violence and leave the voices of reason alone. Think of this: There are hundreds of millions of Muslims and they aren't all out on the street rioting and murdering and burning embassies, churches and synagogues. Most of them are all quietly home probably wishing that those extremists nuts weren't making them all look bad to the rest of the world.

The Danish cartoon showing a bomb coming out of Mohamed's turban was offensive. No question. It was offensive but it shouldn't have been censored. Free speech is a wonderful thing in the respect that we need idiots to speak up. We need idiots to speak up so we all know who they are. Otherwise, when they're quiet we have to guess.

Show of hands, please. Who knew I was an idiot before I'd written this?

See, that's exactly what I'm saying.