Try to wrap your head around the hell that would break loose if the following scenario were true: The American lead character on one of the most popular comedy shows on TV “accidentally” urinates on a statue of Mohammed. Can you even fathom the fiery outrage?
How many nanoseconds would pass before extremist Muslims would issue a jihad calling for the death of the infidel comedian? There is no doubt that before the guilty comedian and his complicit network bosses could even draw a breath to apologize, innocent Americans the world over would be assaulted and the offices of American interests all over the globe would be ablaze!
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The virulence of the reaction need not be completely imagined, however, as it’s only been four years since violence erupted throughout the Muslim world over a depiction of the prophet Mohammed that appeared in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten. Danish embassies in Syria, Lebanon, and Iran were burned and buildings with branch offices of European companies were ransacked and vandalized. Furthermore, politicians and pundits alike decried the “insensitivity” and “bigotry” of the illustrators and the newspaper that published the editorial cartoons. There was no measure or delay to the castigation of and retaliation for the perceived insult to one of the world’s largest religions.
Now, imagine that the above imaginary scene actually happened only instead of Mohammed, the comedian in question urinated on a painting of Jesus Christ. Observers and commentators would instantly ride to the defense of Christianity and fill the airwaves and newspaper with quick and unqualified denouncements of such intolerance, right? Wrong. Blogs, trade journals, entertainment news shows, and newspapers are mocking the “overreaction” and “victim mentality” on the part of Christians, principally the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, over the splattering of urine on a picture of Christ. The desecration occurred on an episode of the HBO series Curb Your Enthusiasm, as the character played by star of the show and Seinfeld co-creator, Larry David, has taken medicine that increases his urine flow and while taking a bathroom break at the house of a Christian family, he splatters urine on a painting of Jesus Christ that some members of the family mistake for a miracle of weeping.
Within minutes of the broadcast of this sacrilege masquerading as entertainment, the Catholic League responded to the tasteless treatment of their religion:
That’s what passes for creativity these days. Was Larry David always this crude? Would he think it comedic if someone urinated on a picture of his mother?” Furthermore recrimination came from Deal Hudson of insidecatholic.com: “I don’t think it’s funny. Why is it that people are allowed to publicly show that level of disrespect for Christian symbols? If the same thing was done to a symbol of any other religions — Jewish or Muslim — there’d be a huge outcry. It’s simply not a level playing field.
Amen.
For its part, HBO answered the criticism with a statement void of any apology but with an unmistakable endorsement of their cash cow: “Anyone who follows ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm’ knows that the show is full of parody and satire. Larry David makes fun of everyone, most especially himself. The humor is always playful and certainly never malicious.”
Fair enough, if that’s the way they see it, then there is a very effective way to answer this disregard accordingly. A response spoken loudly and clearly in the only language these immoral enemies of faith understand. Specifically, there are millions of devout Christians in the United States and last Sunday a character on a premium pay cable television show urinated on an image of their Savior and Son of God. How many of those Christians pay money every month for the privilege of having that programming pumped into their homes? Christians know that their Master would not endorse violent response, however, there is a way to manifest displeasure — cancel their subscription to a network that callously and unapologetically mocks their faith.
Finally, HBO should be true to their word and make fun of the sacred images of Islam and Judaism. Or, as we know to be the case with this cadre of hypocritical anti-Christian elites, does “make fun of everyone” really mean “everyone” that’s an easy, safe, and familiar target: Christianity.
Photo of Larry David: AP Images
