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defrogA number of you have already seen that clip of Philip Pullman talking about his new book about the Jesus Twins that has some conservative Christians upset, and defending it by pointing out that “No one has the right to spend their life without being offended”.
Which is true, although the additional point that “no one has to buy this book” is technically correct but also technically irrelevant, because censorship isn’t about personal choice – it’s about taking choice away from other people who might otherwise be assaulted by Dangerous Ideas. It’s about Saving Us From Ourselves.
Anyway, none of this is really new. Indeed, the whole kerfluffle reminded me of the time John Cleese and Michael Palin went on TV with church officials to convince them that Monty Python’s Life Of Brian wasn’t nearly as blasphemous as it looked.
Like so.
See? We’ve been here before. See also: Nikos Kazantzakis’ The Last Temptation of Christ (which I recommend), and Martin Scorsese’s film version (which I also recommend, as well as the Peter Gabriel soundtrack).
Of course, one difference this time around – apart from the perception that conservative Christians are running on a shorter fuse than ever – is that it’s hard to view the outrage over a blatant attack on a revered religious figure without thinking of the Muslim furor over those Mohammad cartoons, if only because many conservative Christians said the Muslim outrage was proof that all Muslims were intolerant radicals who couldn’t take a joke.
Admittedly, Pullman’s book hasn’t resulted in mass street protests (yet), and no one’s officially issued any Christian-style fatwas on Pullman. On the other hand, it’s fair to imagine that the Hutaree militia group would have been glad to answer an imprecatory prayer from Pastor Wiley Drake to send Pullman to Hell earlier than scheduled, to which some conservative Christians would respond with the old “We don’t condone murder, but dude had it coming” routine.
I’m just saying.
As for whether people should be allowed to muck about with other people’s saviours in a fictional manner – and if so why aren’t we allowed to make Muslim jokes – well, that’s another blog post for another time, and one that would have no real wisdom for you anyway. Maybe Jesus said it best: “There’s no pleasing some people.” [Matthew 8:2-4; Luke 5:12-14]
FULL DISCLOSURE: I’ve never read Pullman, though we have the His Dark Materials trilogy in the Def Citadel Library. They belong to the bridal unit (a devout Christian, ironically), but I’ve been meaning to read them one day, once my “to read” gets to a managable level. Which it never will, so it’s probably time to stop making excuses.
The gospel truthiness,
This is dF
Which is true, although the additional point that “no one has to buy this book” is technically correct but also technically irrelevant, because censorship isn’t about personal choice – it’s about taking choice away from other people who might otherwise be assaulted by Dangerous Ideas. It’s about Saving Us From Ourselves.
Anyway, none of this is really new. Indeed, the whole kerfluffle reminded me of the time John Cleese and Michael Palin went on TV with church officials to convince them that Monty Python’s Life Of Brian wasn’t nearly as blasphemous as it looked.
Like so.
See? We’ve been here before. See also: Nikos Kazantzakis’ The Last Temptation of Christ (which I recommend), and Martin Scorsese’s film version (which I also recommend, as well as the Peter Gabriel soundtrack).
Of course, one difference this time around – apart from the perception that conservative Christians are running on a shorter fuse than ever – is that it’s hard to view the outrage over a blatant attack on a revered religious figure without thinking of the Muslim furor over those Mohammad cartoons, if only because many conservative Christians said the Muslim outrage was proof that all Muslims were intolerant radicals who couldn’t take a joke.
Admittedly, Pullman’s book hasn’t resulted in mass street protests (yet), and no one’s officially issued any Christian-style fatwas on Pullman. On the other hand, it’s fair to imagine that the Hutaree militia group would have been glad to answer an imprecatory prayer from Pastor Wiley Drake to send Pullman to Hell earlier than scheduled, to which some conservative Christians would respond with the old “We don’t condone murder, but dude had it coming” routine.
I’m just saying.
As for whether people should be allowed to muck about with other people’s saviours in a fictional manner – and if so why aren’t we allowed to make Muslim jokes – well, that’s another blog post for another time, and one that would have no real wisdom for you anyway. Maybe Jesus said it best: “There’s no pleasing some people.” [Matthew 8:2-4; Luke 5:12-14]
FULL DISCLOSURE: I’ve never read Pullman, though we have the His Dark Materials trilogy in the Def Citadel Library. They belong to the bridal unit (a devout Christian, ironically), but I’ve been meaning to read them one day, once my “to read” gets to a managable level. Which it never will, so it’s probably time to stop making excuses.
The gospel truthiness,
This is dF
