I do not think Jesus requires us to be doormats.
And to answer the person who thinks that "real men change the channel", I'll just say that in a gentler age, real men answered insults with swords. Having tried reason, having appealed to standards of basic civility, having made it clear to advertisers that it is not in their best interest to sponsor this stuff, all to no avail, I'm convinced that a more active response is required.
We Catholics have put up with more than enough calumny, misrepresentation, and attacks on our persons and property. It is long past time to fight back.
To the person who accuses us of hypersensitivity, let me bring up just a few fairly recent incidents:
1. Sorono's "installation" with a crucifix immersed in a beaker of urine.
2. A picture of the Virgin Mary smeared with elephant dung.
3. Numerous disruptions of Mass by gay activists who:
a). pelt recently-ordained priest with condoms;
b). take the Eucharist and spit it out on the floor;
c). smear menstrual blood in the sanctuary and attempt to overturn the tabernacle [this happened in Montreal's basilica of Marie, Reine du Monde];
d). perform mock-liturgies in which a condom is "elevated" in place of a Host;
e). shout down priests trying to give sermons.
4. A "prank" instigated by Opie and Andy and sponsored by Samuel Adams Beer, in which "Sex for Sam's" was performed by a couple in St. Patrick's Cathedral (NYC) on the Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
5. A recent incident in which three fundamentalist Protestants ran up to the altar after Communion and pulled it down, smashing it to bits.
This isn't hypersensitivity, it's objective fact. It's not free speech, it's a pattern of insult and vandalism. It's religious persecution, and if we don't fight it, it will simply get worse.
The original poster is correct. This would not be acceptable if directed at certain other groups. Catholics can take a joke: movies like Sister Act, and plays like Nunsense contain self-deprecating humor, and no one objects to those. I found them quite amusing, personally. But what is now being directed at us are not jokes. If Jews were insulted and ridiculed like this, you can be sure that Abe Foxmann would be all over the national television media, screaming anti-Semitism, and for once he'd be right. If Muslims were subjected to this, there would likely be rioting, as we have recently seen in France and in Australia. The implied threat of violence keeps this from happening in the first place.
Catholics are targeted in this way, because it is generally assumed that we'll quietly put up with it. It's time we made it clear that we won't.
I for one am sick to death of living in a culture which extols vulgarity in the name of "free speech". [The right in question refers primarily to political speech, not to the expression of every imbecility of the booboisie.] Telling me to simply ignore the muck is no answer, because it just gets worse. This is my culture as well as that of the vulgarians, and I object to their dominating it. I will therefore do what I can to bring it back to at least a tolerable standard. That means protesting insulting behavior like this, and supporting those who provide alternatives to it.
Geehawd!