Anti-Christian Behaviour

Two articles today caused me to reflecton the vastly different attitudes towards criticism and tolerance of Christianity and Islam.

The first was the the start of the Popetown comedy which takes the mickey out of the Catholic Church. Now I’m all for comedy which takes the mickey out of everyone, and the only issue I would have with Popetown is that it isn’t actually funny or offensive enough, according to Craig Ranapia.

But it did make me reflect on what the reaction would be if such a comedy was directed at Islam. I mean if an (incorrect) report that copies of the Koran had been flushed down the toilet leads to world-wide riots and killings, could you imagine the reaction to a comedy show that showed lampooned Islam, as this show lampoons the Catholic Church. Every member of the cast and crew would probably live in fear for their lives.

And on the same issue I note that Seatoun School Board of Trustees has banned a weekly lunchtime religious studies group from meeting on school property. As long as it is voluntary and at lunch-time, I think it is stupid to ban it. Do we really want school boards banning clubs? Rongotai College had a peace club – should that have been banned if some parents didn’t like it?

I think the comparison here again is if a school had Islamic students, and they asked for a room at lunch-time they could meet in, to do their religious duty (I think have to pray five times a year [day I meant]), it would be unthinkable for permission not to be granted, because that would be discriminatory!!

What just annoys me is the double standards where Christianity is the one religion or minority it is always safe to lampoon or attack. And I say that as someone who detests religious moral crusaders such as Graham Capill and Brian Tamaki.

UPDATE: The Green Frog concurs on the issue of Seatoun School. And I suspect like me, Frog is not overly religious (well maybe it worships Jim Henson), so this is hardly a case of regular church going Christians complaining about the ban, but just basically common sense I suggest.