Offending Religious Icons??

When Idols Are Offended
The Jakarta Post, Wed, 03/05/2008

"Many Christians and Muslims respect Jesus or Muhammad. They have given up learning and growing and instead seek strength in the reflected glory of their idols.

They are told that in blind submission lies virtue. In fact there lies only annihilation of the person’s creativity and individuality.

He becomes a soldier for his idol, eager to prove his devotion by smiting offenders whose reverence takes a different form, is directed elsewhere or is altogether absent.
For society, the outcome is a hierarchy built on fear, in which members of the smallest religious groups are beaten, persecuted or imprisoned by members of the largest group. The actual beliefs or practices of the persecuted groups are immaterial.

The persecution is just an outcome of the emotional need for dominance among the largest group. This is the context for the recent protests by Catholic youth groups against Tempo magazine’s cover parodying da Vinci’s ultima cena.
By intimidating an influential magazine’s editors, perhaps with court backing, they prove that they remain near the top of the hierarchy of fear, rather than down in the swamp with the deviant sects.

While their grievance may be genuine, appeasement of such protests is unhelpful.
Attacks perpetrated by religious groups against the weak and helpless are a symptom of the submissive-dominant complex outlined above. Conceeding that anger justifies censorship gives protesters an incentive to prove the force of their anger through violence.

And it reinforces their sense that idolatry confers strength. Their dependence on mindless submission increases, and with it the corresponding urge to oppress non-conformists.

It is better to remember that historic and controversial figures are not the property of any particular group. And not everyone idolizes a prophet.
Accepting censorship does not promote tolerance. It only legitimizes repression."

JOHN HARGREAVES
Jakarta

The Above has quite an impact in one's way of thinking especially if you r a Christian, to all of u who doesn't know what this guy is talking about remember that acouple of years ago and even last year there was a cartoon depiction of Mohammad the prophet of of the Islam Religion which ignited harsh comments from the moslem world... At that time me being a Christian thought that that was the worst way of handling this because these people actually did those kinds of things to ignite these kinds of reaction ....in fact they feed on it.... especially if the press got a wind of this....
and I thought to myself that (rather arrogantly perhaps) 'We Christians wouldn't have been baited like that too easily".... and boy I was naive aren't I....... turns out just a couple of months ago a spoof of Da Vinci's interpretation of The Last Supper was published and strangely enough some people seems to have been troubled by this .... my jaw almost dropped to the ground.......
although it wasn't as big of a commotion as it was with our counter-part community and seemingly to be isolated here in Indonesia and a small commune back in the States it still is bewildering to me how this kind of thing would even be imaginable........
First of All, I believe the spoof was mostly aimed at the painting rather than the occassion itself...
Secondly, to explain my naivete' why I did thought that we As Christians and I specifically a Catholic wouldn't be so fickle minded to take the bait, is that the Core of Christianity, specifically of the Catholicism school of thought is that we measure the experience & Suffering that Jesus had to endure before being cricified is what have freed and saved us... now if Jesus Christ Our Lord didn't mind being presecuted and physically tortured like that do we as followers really think that He would throw a fit at a picture of Him being replaced with a Dog Playing poker?? do we as His disciples really think that he would be that shallow??
Well again it is up to you to make up your mind and comment to me this is a cosmestic issue compared to my previous post that is a real threat to our right to commune and pray.....
more ever if we expect to be free build churches and believe in our beliefs we have to respect other free men who are free to express their way of thinking.....