Christian Response to the Oregon University Cartoons Defaming Jesus

In a unified burst of outrage, Christians around the world are staging violent protests over the depictions of Jesus in a University of Oregon student publication. There is violence in the streets, burning, looting, and some people have already been beaten nearly to death.

“This outrage cannot be tolerated!” said one Christian while waving a sign that read “Bomb UO! Their blood is on their hands!”

“It’s time to show those heathens what it means to insult our Lord!” said another Christian who had his six-year-old daughter helping him hold a very large that read “If you think 9/11 was bas just wait until you see what’s coming!”

Other signs and shouted slogans included “The apocalypse is now, and we are the tools of God’s wrath!” “Death to everyone at UO!” “Burn them now and for eternity!” “Death to all pagans!” “Hell awaits you!” and, my favorite, “Think Muslim terrorism is bad? You aint seen nothing yet!”

Acts of violence and vandalism were slowed slightly because the rioters would frequently stop and scream “Praise Jesus!” with a wild look in their eyes and broad geatures to emphasize it.

All of this outrage has been sparked by the publication of cartons depicting Jesus as a homosexual, terrorist, and a fraud in a UO student publication.

University of Oregon President Dave Frohnmayer had this to say. “I understand the outrage of Christians at the publication of these cartoons. I have ordered all remaining copies of the Insurgent rounded up for disposal and the staff of that publication are currently being reprimanded. There may be expulsions.”

The French Ambassador said “The French government does not blame the Christians for the violence in our streets. We understand that they are disenfranchised and that such outrage to such horrible pictures is only natural to people in their situation.” He also swore that France would “do everything possible to satisfy the demands of the Christian rioters.”

A UN spokesman declared “These pictures of Jesus are not acceptable. Such an attack on the founder of the world’s largest religion cannot be tolerated. The Un wishes to express it’s sympathies to the Christians and we are currently looking at ways to satisfy their demands and stop the violence.”

Okay, now for the real scoop. It has been months since these cartoons were published, they are known about pretty much everywhere in the world now, and there has been absolutely no violence, rioting, or other criminal acts of intimidation engaged in by the Christian community. Letters have been written, a few small, peaceful protests have been staged, and that’s about it.

The first portion of this article is not actually fiction though. Simply replace every instance of the words “Christian” and “Jesus” with “Muslim” and “Mohammad”, switch the University of Oregon for Denmark and you have what actually happened when Muslims faced the same situation. The difference in conduct between the followers of Jesus and the followers of Mohammad is as different as night and day.

When I look at individuals and groups of people I look to their actions to see if they are acting on Godly or demonic impulses. Godly impulses are love, patience, peace, generosity, and so forth. Demonic impulses are violence, murder, hatred, and other basic evils. My opinion of people is shaped largely by the spiritual influences I see coming through their actions. It is such actions that cause me to have a very high regard for most Christians, and a very low regard for most Muslims. I have called Allah a demon in the past, and this position is based on the actions of his followers.

Truth be told, we are very unlikely to see how the global community would react if Christians started acting like Muslims, but I suspect we would not be treated with such generosity. Rather, I suspect we would be universally denounced, and our religion might even get banned in some countries.

So, where do I stand on this whole UO cartoon thing? My stance is that I expect it because it is simply more of the same old typical assaults on my religion that are so common that I have a hard time understanding how these cartoons are even able to draw attention. With “art” like a cross floating in a jar of urine, Mary mother of God covered in elephant dung, and innumerable other foul and degrading depictions of Christianity flooding the art world I have grown rather numb to it. Assaulting Christianity seems to be a popular activity among certain groups, and artists are one of those groups. Truth be told, I fully expect this trend to grow and become so common it may even become fashionable in the mainstream. I wonder how long until we see models walking down the runway wearing crowns of thorns with the thorns shaped to look like devil horns. I wonder how long until speaking about Christian morals starts getting banned as hate speech in some countries. Not long I suspect.