Thursday, April 22, 2010

Regarding the Controversy of South Park's depiction of Mohammed

Mark Shea:

Such is the madness of our time that Christians--Christians!--rejoice because now South Park, passing from glory to glory, moves from a blasphemous depiction of Jesus to pulling the nose of Mohammed! O Happy Day!

Are we really willing to settle for so little? Well, you *did* depict Jesus defecating on somebody, but, aw heck, since you are willing to pluck up the guts to mock my political movement's current ideological enemy then heck! Come here and let me hug you, ya big lugs! We're all on the same page after all!"

Talk about selling your manhood cheap!

Clues for the clueless! South Park is the production of very funny, very gifted cultured despisers of Jesus Christ and him crucified. The devil always sends enemies of the gospel into the world in pair so that fleeing one, we might embrace the other. For quite some time, the alternative has been inflamed Islamic spirituality or watery secularist spirituality. Of late, the West has been tending a bit more toward "Inflamed Islamic spirituality vs. some form of inflamed secular spirituality". But both of these are false choices. Christians should be about radical commitment to the healthy spirituality of Jesus Christ (which, as a Catholic, I would argue is found in the tradition He has handed down to us in the Catholic faith). Selling that for the pot of message offered by the cultured despisers of South Park, or the equal opportunity haters of God like Christopher Hitchens, is but one of the signs of the madness that has gripped Christians in the US who don't seem to get that post-Christian Western Culture is, well, post-Christian.

This makes me think about the controversy surrounding the niqab.

I'm in agreement that people should not be walking around in public with their faces covered. It truly is a security isssue.

On the other hand, banning the niqab will provide the impetus for the persecution of other unpopular religious practices.

Secularists DO NOT UNDERSTAND FREEDOM OF RELIGION.

Why would they? They have no vested interest in that freedom. They do not believe in God, or do not take him seriously.

They think freedom of religion means the freedom to worship the Flying Spaghetti Monster in the privacy of one's own home. That's the level of intellectual discourse in their discussion of religion. They're ignorant, bigoted and often close-minded.

They do not believe in a transcendent destiny for humankind. They do not believe in absolute truths. They do not have any "rule" to measure truth, except their own feelings-based political correctness.

Don't be too quick to rejoice over an anti-Islamic moment. Because when they can, those militant secularists will turn on you.