Tuesday, February 07, 2006

Depictions of Sacred Figures

Not to beat a dead horse, but I want to chime in the comparisons between fundementalist Christian reaction and fundementalist Muslim reaction to depictions or parodies of their sacred symbols and personages. Let me quote Island Passage a Christian blogger here in the Northwest.

Exhibit B: I find it very interesting that during this weekend of Islamic riots, the Fox television network re-ran it's Simpsons Christmas episode. I don't keep up with the Simpsons these days, but out of curiosity I had Tivo-ed the episode and watched about 15 minutes this morning as I munched cereal and gulped my morning coffee.

In this episode, the Christmas story is re-enacted with the Simpsons as the Holy Family: Homer is Joseph, Marge is Mary, Lisa is the angel Gabriel, and Jesus is portrayed by Bart! The depiction (as far as I saw it) was rather harmless, but as far as depicting the center of your religious beliefs in a cartoon, it did make the Danish cartoons seem small beer.


His entry is a response to a query from a non-Moonbat leftist about how Christians would respond to similar provocation. I think it is telling that even a non rabid leftist is so innured to what could constitute something offensive or blasphemous to a devout Christian that the answer is not self apparent. Sure they might dredge up "Piss Christ" or any other so called art which uses bodily excretions as a medium, but the everyday offenses to Christians are so pervasive that the Christian community praises things that don't actively offend or at least is even handed in the presentation.

Consider this: What if Muslims were presented with offensive depictions of co-religionists, the Prophet, and Imams so often that a TV show that didn't immediately villify them seemed a breath of fresh air?



Cross Posted at the Wizbang Bomb Squad.

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