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Laughing at Faith
February 04, 2006 - 8:32 p.m.

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As if there hasn't been enough ire between the West and Islam lately - from terrorist attacks to Cowboy Bush to riots in the suburbs of Paris - we're now faced with a storm over these cartoons. In case you've been under a rock, a Danish newspaper printed twelve cartoons depicting Mohammed, Islam's great and final prophet. Not only does this violate the diktat that the prophet not be represented in any way, some of the cartoons link Mohammed to terrorism. Others just make light of him.

Of course, in western culture this is old stuff and no big deal. Jesus comes in action figure form and is a regular character on South Park. God the Father is regularly depicted in comic strips as a slightly dotty old man. (The Holy Spirit is less popular...difficult to draw, really.) Certainly there has been some uproar. I dimly recall the Piss Jesus scandal back in the - what - 1980's? Still, I don't recall anyone burning down embassies over it, which is what just happened in Syria.

It's a touchy situation. One response has been to suggest that Muslims chill out a bit. Caricature is part of western culture and if you're going to rub up against western culture you have to live with it. I can see some validity in this...certainly it's obscene to suggest, as Hamas officials have, that the cartoonist be put to death. Honestly, some perspective might help here.

But why would anyone go out of his way to offend someone's beliefs? It's rude, at least.

One might also wonder why most Christians seem so unconcerned about the appropriation of Jesus as the butt of jokes. There are always a few who scream and shout, but never the sort of response that the Mohammed cartoons have aroused. It's even more dramatic since Christians believe that Jesus is God...Mohammed is Islam's prophet, but he's not considered divine. You'd think mockery of God would elicit more reaction. Do Christians not care? Is it OK to mock Jesus?

That leads to the larger question...what's the wrong done here? Is it bad to poke fun at anyone's faith, or only religions other than Christianity?

And there we enter the dicey turf of scary Fox News sorts who see a vast anti-Christian conspiracy. Of course, as with all scary ideas, there's an element of truth in there. Cultural sensitivity does tend to defend everyone except the power party. But Christianity isn't really the power party any more...Christendom is long since past and most churches are far from packed. We're living in a swiftly secularizing world. Is Christianity still paying for the sin of once being the faith of the ruling class?

Perhaps it has to do with fundamental theological outlook. Christians ought not to react in anger when Jesus is mocked...after all, that sort of mockery and disdain is at the heart of the Christian story. Christ won victory through defeat, so the lower regard the world outside the church has for him...well, that's about how it should be.

I'm not an expert on Islam; I can't say that I'm much versed in its precepts. But it does seem, from this outsider's vantage point, that Islam is a triumphal religion...one in which the victory is substantively won in this life and further rewarded in the next. Mohammed's story is one of victory - obvious, military victory and power. He was a respected man who commanded armies, whereas Jesus was a poor teacher who was killed in a shameful, ignoble fashion.

The two faiths also had very different histories...within a hundred years after Mohammed died, Islam had swept from Arabia into the Mediterranean world and across Persia. The early years of Christianity were a very different story...persecution came and went but discrimination was a pretty constant factor in Christian life.

Maybe I'm grasping at straws but it does seem that the two faiths have been shaped by their histories. It stands to reason...the house has to fit the foundation. Facing the reality of the modern power balance, in which Western nations regularly interfere in (and invade) Muslim nations, would contradict a theology of triumph. (I often wonder how "prosperity theology" Christians deal with the fact that life isn't an all-you-can-eat buffet.) These cartoons have added insult to injury.

At any rate, it's clear that there are deeper currents in faith than most of the world ever sees. I suppose the best idea would be for everyone to learn a bit more, respect a bit more and learn to forgive a lot more.

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