What if the cartoons were mocking Jesus? (LAUGH AND BARF ALERT)

Chicago Sun-Times ^ | February 19, 2006 | MARK BROWN SUN-TIMES COLUMNIST

[Chi-townChief]

Opinions Are Like Belly Buttons (everybody has one) -- aka: Brown Picks Lint from His Navel.

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Odds are that you would not be offended by seeing a cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad wearing a turban shaped like a bomb, seeing as how Muslims are a scant minority of this newspaper's readers.

But how would you feel about it if we ran a cartoon depicting Jesus Christ in a priest's garb sodomizing a choirboy to illustrate the sexual abuse scandal in the Roman Catholic Church?

I'll bet some of you would have a slightly different reaction to that.

Or what if that same cartoon depicted the choirboy as African-American, in light of the alleged abuse at St. Agatha's in North Lawndale?

Just reading the description probably causes the hair to stand up on the back of some of your necks, as I well appreciate.

Words can be powerful tools, pictures even more so. I considered substituting a milder description than sodomizing, just to tone it down. Self-censorship, you see.

But what if I took it even further, what if the cartoon's caption somehow incorporated Jesus using the "N" word? Or just to clarify that the point I'm trying to make is not based on race, let's make the choirboy a white girl and the caption with Jesus using the "C" word.

That's entirely different than the Muhammad cartoons, you may say.

The Muhammad cartoons are nowhere near as offensive as what I'm describing, you think.

Well, apparently they are to Muslims.

It's great to hear all the support that's being voiced around the country right now for the First Amendment in light of the Muhammad cartoon controversy -- all of it coming from people egging us on to print the cartoons.

Yes, we have the right to print the Danish newspaper's cartoons, just as we would have the right to print a cartoon such as the offensive ones I have imagined.

Having the freedom to print what we want carries some responsibility to consider how it will affect those on the receiving end, which is a balancing act we face every day.

Pushing people's buttons

I'll bet my imaginary Jesus Christ cartoon could get a few protesters outside the Sun-Times, and if we told the protesters to buzz off, citing freedom of the press, I'll bet we could get some death threats, too. Rioting in the streets? Probably not. Unless we kept it up.

Maybe you think I'm missing the point. The real issue, you think, is the violent rioting in the Muslim world and that Muslims need to understand that they can't kill people because they don't like what's in the newspaper.

How exactly does publishing the cartoons here serve that end? Or do you just feel the need to prove that we're not afraid of any Muslim protesters?

One thing I've learned since I started writing this column is how easy it is to push people's buttons, and I'm not even the most skilled in-house practitioner of the art.

[SmoothTalker]

What a dumb article. The reactions wouldn't even be close. You would probably see some letters to the editor and some people would pull their subscription and boycott the paper if the cartoons were really bad. You would not see ambassadors being recalled because the paper choose to print a cartoon. You would not see deadly riots in the streets. You would not hear calls to shut down the free press.

[Noachian]

What if the cartoons were mocking Jesus?

Why doesn't Brown put his ideas where his mouth is and publish some obscene cartoons about Jesus -- find out what happens?

Does he really think Christians will act like Muslims by rioting in the streets, and burning buildings?

Brown should either put up or shut up.

[TheCrusader]

"But how would you feel about it if we ran a cartoon depicting Jesus Christ in a priest's garb sodomizing a choirboy to illustrate the sexual abuse scandal in the Roman Catholic Church?"

The Chicago Sun Times just figured out how to put this this incredibly filthy image into the minds of its readers in a context they can claim was 'benign'. The msm just never ceases to amaze me. They are the face of the enemy within.

[Rocko]

Clueless in Chicagoland.

[seastay]

Jesus and Christianity are not above criticism, many people have mocked Jesus, even the Koran mocks Christianity, claims Jesus was not the Son of God, and he was even a Muslim and not a Jew.

However, Christianity and Christians always stands firm in the heat of criticism. In fact as christens we are called to continually test that what is presented as truth.

1 John 4 “ 1Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.”

If something is true then it can within the test of criticism, while a false prophecy cannot, therefore one needs to question the motive to silence the criticism of Islam, as if what are they afraid the world or themselves will find out?

[Fenris6]

If America was a Christain Theocracy and New Testament was civil law, then editorialists would have every right to mock them with cartoons, oped criticism, etc. without being stoned to death for "blasphemy"

[Rocko]

The Chicago Sun Times just figured out how to put this this incredibly filthy image into the minds of its readers

Christian riots to come. /sarcasm

[hershey]

This column carefully avoids mention of the many murdered and or maimed by the peaceful followers of Islam and that they espouse a worldwide Jihad by any means available. The argument put forth is phony and insulting. All cultures/religions aren't equal and anyone buying into that nonsense is likely to end up dead.

[DoNotDivide]

I guess crazy Christians would be justified in the contemporary sense for burning all of CNN down to the ground then.

[DoNotDivide]

Very true.

[Bon mots]

When Muslims blew up the WTC, did bands of white men go out and beat Muslim looking teens to death with pipes, fists and knives?


“This was not a race issue, it was purely a thuggish element bordering
on criminality. They were not standing up for the community, we are talking
about thugs and criminals who wanted to deliberately start things
up to create the headlines, and there’s no justification.”

...and if they did, would the Muslim press make excuses like the crap above?

Never mind even that... would they do it in the Muslims' own home countries? They are doing it in France. They are doing it in England. Holland, Denmark and Sweden too.

Goodbye Europe.

[rawcatslyentist]

Hey Mikey, the problem of pedophiles in the church isnt because of the church! It's because of the Perverted Sodomites!!!!!

Does this sentance offend SLimes?

P>
Sura 9:5 of the “Koran,” “Slay the idolaters muslimes wherever you find them, and take them captives and besiege them and lie in wait for them in every ambush.”

Written the other way IT OFFENDS EVERYONE!!!!!!!!

[DoNotDivide]

What is that photo? If you tell me they are mohammedans assaulting a non-mohammedan youth over these cartoons, I will have a 5-cap answer and then a 5-cap follow up.

[muir_redwoods]

"I'll bet some of you would have a slightly different reaction to that."

I would have a slight different reaction to the one I had about the cartoons mocking the child-raping spawn of Satan. I'd be a bit annoyed and move on. I don't think I'd be joining thousands of others and rioting in the streets. Such behavior is inappropriate to civilized people but not that unusual for illiterate, meteorite worshiping, moon-god lovers

[justkillingtime]

Please add me to your ping list. Thank you.

[sauropod]

To Mr. Brown.

I wouldn't want to be in your shoes in the End times.

[kjo]

I admit that I don't know much about Islam. But the more I learn the more I think it's some kind of murderous cult that needs to be stopped.

Deep in their hearts most Muslims must know that too, or they wouldn't be so violent when protecting it.

I wonder how many millions of Muslims would be receptive to the words and life of Christ? Guess we won't know because of the censorship of the Islamic world.

[DoNotDivide]

I actually knew this "Danish paper apologizes to Arab world for Mohammed cartoons" was coming, but I thought it would take until Monday for the dhimmitude to begin.

[SouthernBoyupNorth]

What an IDIOT!