Last week Hollywood announced a multi-million dollar project to make a film called ‘Mohammed’. Not for reasons of entertainment but as a way of ‘reaching out’ to the Islamic world. Fair enough- but when is ‘Jesus’ going to be released in order to ‘reach out’ to Christians and promote the faith on which the nation supporting Hollywood was built? And when will the Islamic world reciprocate this gesture?
Controversy has been only caused this week by a play entitled ‘Jesus- Queen of Heaven’, which depicts Christ as a transexual engaging in a sex change procedure. Incredibly this historically ludicrous and deliberately contentious blasphemy is being funded by tax payers money, the National Lottery and other public bodies. What chance such agencies funding a depiction of Mohammed as transexual? I think we can safely agree that there is more chance of me gaining employment as a dancer at the national ballet!
And yesterday the EU, to whom this government has handed power without electoral vote, ruled that crucifixes should not adorn schools in Italy. Was the crescent mentioned or treated with the same disdain? Of course not!
Last October Sony withdraw a computer game, and apologised unreservedly, because the backing music contained quotes from the Quran. It refused to apologise for, or recall, a game depicting a bloody massacre inside Manchester Cathedral.
On the BBC the abuse of Muslims in Israel is regularly reported on and highlighted. So it should be. But when do they report on the widespread mistreatment of Christians by Islamic regimes? A recent documentary showed the despicable treatment of Pakistanis by British yobs on council estates…but none are made showing the burning of Christian homes and widespread persecution in Pakistan.
We might also ponder why the BBC was happy to screen the vulgar production of ‘Jerry Springer the Opera’, in which Jesus was portrayed as a coprophyliac being masturbated by Mary, when they most certainly would not stoop to such a foul level in their handling of other sacred figures?
Little wonder the Church of England felt a need, last June, to release a report lamenting the manner in which this government has ignored Christianity in order to focus attention and support on minority religions. Hazel Blear’s defence actually made me laugh- she negated this by demonstrating that she had recently met with Rowan Williams…..to debate inter-faith issues!! Exactly Hazel- you would never attend to discuss purely Christian issues or promote the work of the Church!
Why does a nation, increasingly secular but with a Christian constitution, ban air-hostesses with crosses, nurses who pray with patients, the sending of Christmas cards within council offices….whilst not doing likewise to minority faiths? Why does Christianity get the roughest deal of all faiths in Britain, despite being the majority player?
The answer is, I fear, deeply troubling. We Christians are afforded little respect by secular society (which in truth despises all religion) because there is little risk of us placing bombs on buses. Whereas Islam, despite only containing a tiny minority dedicated to acts of aggression, is sensitively dealt because such terrorism is working. Does this not play into the hands of those who hate?
And if I am wrong, answer me this….would the media have dealt with an Imam lamenting secular funerals in the way they dealt with me? Would a Muslim cleric ever be depcited with the lack of respect that most vicars now come to expect? We are either cast as bespectacled buffoons in situation comedies or raving lunatics lambasting common sense. What you will never see is the church treated with love or listened to with any serious interest. Of course much blame for this must lie with a toothless National Church that has been happy to play the benign but loving fool and which has largely rolled over in the face of aggressive secularism.
Let the reader understand. This is not an attack on Islam, most Muslims are decent people utterly committed to their understanding of faith. This is an attack on the present leaders of the West who, by the twin sins of promoting secular atheism and giving into fear of terrorism, are damaging our national identity as a Christian society and diluting our heritage, faith and culture.
Christians need to mobilise and fast. Not to acts of aggression and violence, which contradict all we stand for, but to standing up for the faith on which our nation was built. Let all who worship Jesus lobby, nag and challenge those in authority to give the Church a better deal. Heaven knows, we deserve it!
Excellent post, May I request permission to cross-post this on our blog with links to you?
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I agree with much of what you say from para. 2 onwards! What the producer Barrie Osborne has actually said is that he envisages “an international epic production aimed at bridging cultures. The film will educate people about the true meaning of Islam”.
What’s to criticise? The film has yet to be made, but if it fulfils his intentions then it can only be a force for good. With radical or extreme forms of Islam, pitched against other religions or the secular west, at the centre of most of the world’s most serious conflicts, we need bridge-building on a big scale. And we desparately need education about Islam which, along with Christianity, has contributed so much to our cultural inheritance, to counter its one-sided representation in the media.
Read again Rod- I say ‘fair enough’! I am not knocking the making of Mohammed but asking why Hollywood does not see fit to give Christ the same treatment. Mel Gibson might have had success but tha was entirely driven by him and not the corporations.
Maybe because the life of Christ is comparatively well known to the film’s English-speaking audience, whereas few will know much about the life of the Prophet.
I watched Jerry Springer the Opera, and, I can’t help saying, found it utterly hilarious and essentially harmless. I do not recall the scene that you have described. Either I fell asleep at that point or your source imagined it.
Well I watched the televised version very carefully and can assure you it was there, Mary making manual actions over the figure of a scatilogical Christ in a nappy. How you possibly found such a blasphemous representation of Christ in any way funny renders me speechless. Here was the Lord Jesus, who came into this world to save sinners, mocked and spat on again. A modern day crown of thorns and purple robe. What possible reason would somebody have to unite one of the most vile sexual perversion with Jesus who was pure and without sin? What reason other than to blaspheme and mock? Seriously did this not trouble you at all?
OK, I admit it. Christianity is, in some ways, a more tolerant religion than Islam, thus making it a ‘softer’ target. For example, I know that many of your parishioners might take offence at comments I make from my position as an ‘aggressive’ Atheist (assuming this post is not blocked), but I also know that few if any of them would seriously consider making personal threats on my life.
As for mocking Jesus, I hate to break this to you people, but if he ever lived at all he died more than 2000 years ago. Blasphemy is a victimless crime.
This is my third attempt to add a response to your blog, so I’m not holding out much hope for seeing the appearence of this one either.
However, please could you enlighten my why you see Athesim as a sin. Obviously, by pointing out the absurdities surrounding religion, Atheism could be regarded as a threat. But a sin?
Is it really a sin to have a brain and to use it? Is it really a sin to reject superstition and myth and live your life according to Humanitarian ideals? Is it really a sin to read of a book written 2000 years ago, find it flies in the face of all logic and reason, and to criticise it? Is it really a sin to regard institutions that promote hatred, misogyny and homophobia as distasteful?
Or is the greater sin dumping your brain by the roadside and embracing nonsense above all things?
If Athesim is truly a sin, I regard myself as a proud sinner.
I think you need that paternity leave. Congrats by the way. However even the Christian Voice headbangers don’t seem to have noticed that bit.
I agree wholeheartedly. As a Catholic I wish our clergy would speak out on this issue more forcefully. Well said.
“Fair enough- but when is ‘Jesus’ going to be released in order to ‘reach out’ to Christians and promote the faith on which the nation supporting Hollywood was built?”
Oh, you mean a movie like “The Passion of the Christ”? Or one like “Godspell”? “The Greatest Story Ever Told”? “The Robe”? Sorry, Father, but you can’t really make a case that Hollywood has ignored Christ or Christians in terms of making movies geared towards them.
See http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/movies/commentaries/2006/top10jesusmovies.html?start=1