Religious Mockery

In an editorial in Sunday's Dallas Morning News, William Salatin, a writer for Slate, asks why antisemitism is banned and pilloried while anti Islam and Christian hatred is allowed to flourish. That is a good question. Of course the history of antisemitism is a long and terrible one. Jews have suffered more for their religion than any other. That is why Western nations have become vigilant and striven to keep antisemitism on the margin. They have learned that when a religion becomes a target for scorn, the adherents of that religion become targets as well. So why is that lesson so quickly forgotten when it comes to Christians and Muslims?

When you mock or ridicule a religion the real target is not belief or faith. The real object is the adherents. You cannot lampoon prophets, saints, and texts without lampooning the people who believe in them. You cannot ridicule Judaism without ridiculing Jews. You cannot vilify Islam without vilifying Muslims. You cannot dedicate a web site to exposing the evil of the Catholic Church without condemning Catholics. You cannot make a buffoon out of Jesus without making buffoons of Christians. That is the real danger underlying religious mockery. By denigrating a religion you marginalize its believers. When you place a crucifix in a jar of urine you are symbolically putting all Christians in a jar of urine. That is why such offense is taken by the religious. If the Pope is a tyrant, then Catholics are sheep. If Mohamed was a lecher, what does that say about those who adhere to his teachings? If Mormonism is a cult, then Mormons are cultists.

There are any number of laws protecting people and groups from derision and hatred. Very rarely do those laws apply to people of faith. People are free to slather religion with hate. Because they do not apply to religions, they do not apply to believers. Religious people are frequently singled out as driven by ignorance and authoritarian zeal. They are suspect because their motivation comes from a source that has always been out of reach of the secular state. When their faith is in harmony with the sensibilities of society, they are welcomed. But the platitudes and vacuous calls for love and tolerance common at public and political events are little more than a neutered vestige of Christianity. Christ's charge to love your neighbor and his frequent calls for forgiveness are rallying cries for the religious left. His requirement that sin be recognized and admitted to and mercy must be asked for before it can be received is ignored. Christ's command that you live according to the word of God is shunned in favor of his admonition not to judge others.

The Islamic faith has become a target for hostility. Islam is perceived as a menace to the free world. Therefore Muslims are a menace. They are often portrayed as blood thirsty savages bent on death and destruction. They are frequently associated with terrorists and tyrants. They are lampooned and caricatured as ignorant, backward, dirty, and violent. Korans are burned. The long, crooked noses, hunched backs, scheming visages, and bony hands once reserved for Jews have become part of the common portrayal of the Islamic plotter. Certainly not all discussions of Islam are limited to its savageness. There is an effort by some to reveal the piety, humility, and compassion that runs throughout Islam. If one takes the time to look one can find the long tradition of tolerance and respect for other faiths. One will find calls for mercy and love. But just as a thousand acts of charity and love can be undone by one violent act, one thousand depictions of humble and peaceful Muslims can be undone by one hateful caricature or spiteful article.

It is not difficult to find images, anecdotes, and articles vilifying Islam. There are no doubt thousands of websites and publications dedicated to insulting and mocking Muslims. Just a few key strokes will take you right down into the sewer. Blogger Pamela Geller has gained a considerable following through her tirades against what she sees as the inherent wickedness of Islam. Many of those sites and publications style themselves as defenders of Christianity and Western values. They dedicate themselves to exposing the "evil" behind Islam: its goal to enslave the world and exterminate non believers. Such sites are little more than malicious rants. Most of them extend their vitriol beyond Islam to include all Muslims. They cherry pick their topics, combing the news for articles sympathetic to their point of view. Curiously, more than a few are willing to glide over the intolerant bile of Terry Jones and Jerry Falwell and treat it as simply a malignant growth on the Christian body. They turn a blind eye to the flagrant hatred and racism of Jewish Settlers. They ignore the Muslims bringing bread to their homeless neighbors in favor of the angry men burning flags and waving rifles.Their attention is tightly focused on Islamic extremism.

There are approximately 1.6 billion Muslims in the world. They constitute 23% of the world's population. The vast majority of them are peaceful and modest in their faith. The number of Muslim extremists among them is minuscule. Nevertheless, the entire faith and its 1.6 billion adherents are frequently tarred with one brush. Just as Mother Teresa and Martin Luther King can be forgotten by the secular left in their zeal to expose the "truth" about Christians, the Islamic emphasis on charity and the commandment to tolerate people of "the Book", i.e. Christians and Jews, is ignored in the focus on Islamic extremists.

If people want to discuss the rising tide of extremism in Islam, they should be encouraged. It is a subject that needs understanding. If people want to decry the violence perpetrated by Islamic fundamentalists, they should not be silenced. But if people want to condemn and mock the Islamic faith and imply that Muslims are all potential terrorists, they should be addressed as what they are: intolerant, ignorant, and hateful.

Hatred for the religious is one hatred progressives are willing to tolerate. Indeed, they will fight for the right to hate religion.

Gambling for the Troops

Texas is once again finding itself in trouble over sagging lottery sales. While On Tuesday it was announced that its Veterans Cash lottery game was down 42% from this time last year. That translates into $4.7 million in lost revenue. The game was inaugurated in 2009 to help veterans by funding a wide variety of services from rehabilitation to counseling. All of Texas lottery ticket revenue is dedicated to education but one. The Veterans Cash lottery ticket was dedicated to helping veterans. This is of particular concern because 9 out of every ten dollars provided to the state fund for Veterans Assistance fund come from lottery sales.

A similar ticket issued in Illinois is also in trouble. "There's a lot you can do with these special interest games if you think about them differently" said Illinois' lottery superintendent Michael Jones. He has proposed gimmicks to improve sales such as allowing ticket buyers the opportunity to fire a howitzer.

"People are patriotic", said Texas state Senator Leticia van de Putte. "Maybe we should do a little more advertising." Maybe they are patriotic, but they are not patriotic enough to support more state funding for veteran's programs, schools, and roads. They need to be enticed by the prospect of making some quick money.

People want to help others. They want the homeless to have a place to live. They want the hungry to have food. They want children to be able to go to decent schools. The problem is that many don't want to have to pay more or do anything themselves. They want others to take care of the problem. The government is more than willing to accommodate them. The government makes it easy to ease your conscience by taking the burden of tending to others upon itself. All a citizen has to do is pay his taxes and his obligation to society is met. More than a few want something for their beneficence.What better way to help the homeless than to buy some cookies or attend a concert? Still others want a more public display of their generosity. What better way to help the hungry than to attend a gallery opening or a charity benefit? Now people will have another way to help. They can play the lottery.

No one is going to buy a lottery ticket to benefit veterans or fund schools. If they really wanted to do something they would volunteer or write a check to support the cause. They are going to buy a lottery ticket to win money. By dedicating proceeds from a lottery ticket to a program, the government is simply enticing people to gamble by allowing them to justify their gambling by putting a veneer of social benefit on it. People can go to a store and purchase $20 in lottery tickets and tell themselves that they are contributing to a worthy cause by doing so, that is if they give their purchase any thought beyond the simple habit and the hope of winning money.

If people truly cared about the causes and needs the lottery boards claims to be benefiting they would do something other than seek personal gain. There are any number of charities that would welcome the money. But where is the fun in donating to them? Where is the reward in that? Offering to dedicate some of the proceeds from lottery sales to worthy causes is not far removed from prostitutes offering to set aside some of their profits to help women's centers, or casinos offering to support homeless programs. In each case an effort is made to polish a vice and maintain its appeal and continued existence by trying to put a veneer of nobility on it. Vice is to be encouraged, in moderation of course, if it is for a good cause.

States want people to buy lottery tickets. Increasingly, they need people to buy lottery tickets. What can you do if greed and desperation are not enough? Simple: you seek to portray playing the lottery as a civil contribution. You can attempt to portray playing the lottery as an act of civil and moral responsibility if you like, but it does not change its essence. It is still gambling. Whatever the merits of the cause, the motivation is, and will always be, personal gain no matter what lottery players promise God and the fates regarding all the good and decent things they will do with their winnings. To use veterans as a marketing ploy to boost lottery sales is not only crass marketing, it is shameful.

So, even if you can't attend some celebrity gala or play around of golf for the troops, you can still do your part and buy lottery tickets. Who knows? You might even make yourself a nice pile of money to go with that warm feeling. It is not like you are being asked to wash cars or bake a pie. If everyone does their part we just might gamble our way to a better society.

If the state lottery board's plan works, a whole new vista will open up for lottery sales. I can see it now: lottery tickets for the homeless, pregnant teens, and the elderly. At least people will be able to put their money where there heart is.