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Cartoons reveal the last permissible bias — Anti-Catholicism
18 February 2006 at 21.23The topic of the worldwide — and stateside — response toward the anti-Mohammadan political cartoons first printed in Danish newspapers also serves to demonstrate how unequal the response is towards Catholics:
Consider the following: When the Daily Illini, the student newspaper at the university of Illinois, republished these same cartoons that derided Muhammad, those responsible for doing so (the editor-in-chief and the opinions-page editor) were suspended from the university. Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights president Bill Donohue replied with a very astute, and tragic, observation:
Richard Herman, the chancellor of the University of Illinois, is critical of the decision to reprint the anti-Muhammad cartoons. He maintains that a discussion about the controversial Danish cartoons could have taken place without republishing them. Heâ??s right, but that is not the way the university treats anti-Catholic fare on campus.
In March 1997, the same Urbana-Champaign campus displayed drawings by Michele Blondel that showed red glass vaginas hanging inside European Roman Catholic cathedrals; two of them had red glass holy water cruets with crosses on them. I wrote a letter to the president registering my objections, and received a reply from the chancellor, Michael Aiken.
Aiken said he regretted that the art “disappointed” me (flat beers disappoint me, not lousy art). He instructed, “Most viewers find Blondelâ??s art to be quite subtle as it invites the viewer to contemplate and reflect on topics as diverse as the body, the church, and architectural and religious symbolism.” Stupid me — I thought it was Catholic-bashing porn. His closer was precious: “The University believes that true intellectual discourse extends not only to written communication but also to the visual.” Except when Muslims get angry.
So whatâ??s changed? Do Catholics have to call for beheadings to get respect? How else to explain the condescending response I got, and the sympathetic response afforded Muslims? Similarly, nobody was disciplined for offending Catholics, but two kids have been suspended for offending Muslims!
The Culture of Death is also alive-and-well in other media. Laodicea notes the following:
When Tony-winning author Terence McNally writes a Broadway play in which Jesus has gay sex with Judas, the New York Times and Co. rush to garland him with praise for how “brave” and “challenging” he is. The rule for ‘brave,’ ‘transgressive’ ‘artists’ is a simple one: If you’re going to be provocative, it’s best to do it with people who can’t be provoked.
Thus, NBC is celebrating Easter this year with a special edition of the gay sitcom Will & Grace, in which a Christian conservative cooking-show host, played by the popular singing slattern Britney Spears, offers seasonal recipes — “Cruci-fixin’s.”
On the other hand, the same network, in its coverage of the global riots over the Danish cartoons, has declined to show any of the offending artwork out of “respect” for the Muslim faith — [i.e.,] out of respect for their ability to locate the executive vice president’s home in the suburbs and firebomb his garage.
We, the Church Militant, must continue to fight this sacrilege and injustice against Catholicism.
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The Compleat Gentleman
Transformation in Christ