To LUGNET HomepageTo LUGNET News HomepageTo LUGNET Guide Homepage
 Help on Searching
 
Post new message to lugnet.off-topic.debateOpen lugnet.off-topic.debate in your NNTP NewsreaderTo LUGNET News Traffic PageSign In (Members)
 Off-Topic / Debate / 27595
27594  |  27596
Subject: 
Re: Danish cartoons outrage some Moslem groups and nations
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.off-topic.debate
Date: 
Wed, 8 Feb 2006 22:11:18 GMT
Viewed: 
1720 times
  
In lugnet.off-topic.debate, John Neal wrote:

   I will grant to you that both sides are intolerant. But there is one difference that makes all the difference and makes comparisons, while seemingly accurate, completely and unequivocably wrong. Violence.

John, I simply can’t accept that.

   The> Islamofascists commit suicide, murder, butchery of all kinds in the name of their God, and the Christian Right, while screaming their agenda, however hateful it may be perceived, do not act out violently.

All evidence suggests that Fred Phelps and Pat Robertson and Eric Rudolph and all the rest would engage in murderous violence--and their followers would support them--if only they thought that they could get away with it. Robertson has publicly called for assassination. Phelps advocates violence against homosexuals. Rudolph is a terrorist convicted of murder. These are not misunderstood mystics whom the Left can caricature--they’re American citizens proudly proclaiming themselves to be doing the Lord’s work and passionately supported by their followers and apologists.

   Now, before you start pointing to specific instances of hate crimes perpetrated by so-called Christians, please realize that that behavior is universally condemned by any sort of mainstream Christian.

Their condemnation doesn’t really matter, since we’re discussing the fundamentalists (or absolutists), rather than the sane moderates.

   The Christian Right has the right to scream any hateful idea they want, as do the Islamofascists. And one could argue that they both do. But what they do with that intolerance are completely 2 different things.

Of course they have the right to express their views, though they cross the line when they preach politics from the pulpit or when they threaten those who disagree with their views.

   So that blogger, while cute and clever in his prose, is, in the final analysis, plainly wrong. Let us just imagine how absolutely and completely unglued the Islamofascists would become if anyone dare create a “Piss MoHo” work of art! And then we can compare that reaction to “Piss Christ” or any of the literally 1,000s of offensive works of art aimed squarely at Christianity and see if they are really the same. My money says, “Hell, no!”

Let’s imagine a President Pat Robertson, for a moment, who had dubiously secured for himself the role of Commander In Chief during a time of permanent war, and in so doing alleged himself to have the absolute power to do whatever he wants (you know, just like what Dubya has done). Do you really think that Robertson--out of the mainstream or not--wouldn’t exert his crazy fundamentalist will over the citizenry? How long do you think it would be before atheism, or even non-evangelical Christianity, were declared a blasphemous crime against the theocracy? My money says “a day or two at most.”

The Robertson example is extreme, I grant, but no more extreme that Robertson himself.

Long, long ago I commented here in OT.debate that people, while not necessarily evil, will nonetheless “expand” to fill the space available to them, behavior-wise. If passionate Christian fundamentalists had free rein to act as they pleased, I have no basis to conclude that they would not speedily and happily usher in a new dark age of intolerance and inquisition.

(not that anyone expects an Inqusition...)

Dave!



Message has 2 Replies:
  Re: Danish cartoons outrage some Moslem groups and nations
 
(...) But this is not a trial in court. One is innocent until proven guilty in this country, and so you just can't convict somebody for state of mind or intent. Now, as for Fred Phelps and Eric Rudolph, they are clearly deranged and insane. So write (...) (19 years ago, 9-Feb-06, to lugnet.off-topic.debate, FTX)
  Re: Danish cartoons outrage some Moslem groups and nations
 
(...) Sure Pat "I was for Ariel's stroke because he divided the Holy Land until I was against Ariel's stroke 'cause I couldn't have my Theme Park" Robertson has his followers, and has called for assassinations, and other such crap. However, his (...) (19 years ago, 9-Feb-06, to lugnet.off-topic.debate, FTX)

Message is in Reply To:
  Re: Danish cartoons outrage some Moslem groups and nations
 
(...) The temptation to equate intolerant Islam and the intolerant Christian Right is simply too great and self-servingly too delicious for the Left to resist. Don't fall into that blinkered, bigotted hole, Dave! I will grant to you that both sides (...) (19 years ago, 8-Feb-06, to lugnet.off-topic.debate, FTX)

109 Messages in This Thread:
(Inline display suppressed due to large size. Click Dots below to view.)
Entire Thread on One Page:
Nested:  All | Brief | Compact | Dots
Linear:  All | Brief | Compact

This Message and its Replies on One Page:
Nested:  All | Brief | Compact | Dots
Linear:  All | Brief | Compact
    

Custom Search

©2005 LUGNET. All rights reserved. - hosted by steinbruch.info GbR