Cartoons in Poor Taste; Don't Warrant the Reaction, Though

Muslims the world over are outraged by some satirical cartoons that have recently appeared (and reappeared) in the Danish media.

The Danish cartoons may be in poor taste. But how serious is it to satirize a man--Mohammad--by comparison with the daily satirizing and disrespect with which Jesus is daily treated in the West's mass media? (Including un-Biblical perversions of Jesus that inform bestsellers like The DaVinci Code?) After all, we Christians believe that Jesus was also God-in-the-flesh!

My feeling is that if we Christians are willing to take our lumps and mix it up in the marketplace of ideas without burning flags or calling for people to be executed for having ideas or beliefs different from our own, then Muslims, Jews, Buddhists, atheists, and others ought to live with the same magnanimity.

I have enough faith in the greatness of the God I know through Jesus Christ not to need to threaten people who don't believe in Him as I do. (Although I will always remain committed to sharing Him with others in the hope that they too will come to follow Him!)

Some Muslim leaders, it should be pointed out, have called for calm and the demonstrations the world over haven't been as large as one might have expected. Nonetheless, the reaction of many Muslims is disturbing.

I was going to write more on this subject, but Pastor Jeff said it all so much better than I would have said it. A few choice passages:

When Christians and Jews start rioting in the streets with guns, burning flags, closing embassies, and calling daily for the destruction of their neighbors, let me know. Until then, how about we hold Muslims accountable for their own despicable propaganda and expect them to behave like civilized adults?

Could the Danes have known the response the cartoons would get? Sadly, yes - which has led some to argue the Danes shouldn't have published the cartoons. This is known as the soft bigotry of low expectations. Protection of speech which is polite and inoffensive is not protection of speech.

Read Jeff's whole post.