You Can Insult Anyone in America Except Christians
Kathy Griffin won an Emmy last and created a bit of a stir with her acceptance speech:
“A lot of people come up here and thank Jesus for this award. I want you to know that no one had less to do with this award than Jesus,” an exultant Griffin said, holding up her statuette. “Suck it, Jesus. This award is my god now.”Asked about her speech backstage a short time later, an unrepentant Griffin added, “I hope I offended some people. I didn’t want to win the Emmy for nothing.”
Christians were livid:
The speech drew fire from a leading Roman Catholic group, the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, which condemned Griffin’s remarks as “obscene and blasphemous.”
Some went even further:
The comedian’s remarks were condemned Monday by Catholic League President Bill Donohue, who called them a “vulgar, in-your-face brand of hate speech.”
Okay, remember two posts ago, where I mentioned that Christians in America were among those who exulted in victimhood?
I mean, let’s get real here: “hate speech”? “Obscene” and “vulgar” are pushing it pretty far already, but “hate speech”? If you said, “Christians are all despicable people and should be rounded up,” or suggested violent acts against Christians, that would be hate speech. But “Suck it, Jesus”? To call that “hate speech” is greatly exaggerated–not to mention, aren’t these the same people who scoff at the idea of “hate speech” when it’s directed at gays, women, or minorities?
Not that this reaction is really unexpected. At this point, I would be surprised if Christians didn’t react that way. Take Christmas, for example–Jesus and Christianity are everywhere, permeating the culture, songs about Jesus saturate the airwaves, it’s virtually Jesus 24/7 for all of December–but if shops start saying “Happy Holidays” instead of “Merry Christmas,” if they simply fail to join in the near-universal obeisance to Christianity and instead remain neutral, then suddenly there is a “War on Christmas” and Christians everywhere are victims of it.
Similarly, Christianity was wormed its way in to our legal system to an un-Constitutional extent, with religious oaths and iconography; it has encroached unacceptably upon government, with religious tests for office and Christian sentiments on money and in schools and other public places. And yet if we dare deny the Christians the ability to enshrine the Ten Commandments in a large granite monument in a courthouse so as to proclaim it a house of worship, implying unfair treatment to unbelievers, then Christians take that as an attack on their religion, as persecution, as part of a “long war on Christianity.” It is perceived as discrimination, and Christians, in reaction, throw themselves prostrate on the ground, in agony over their suffering.
Like I said, Christians, like right-wingers, revel in their perceived victimhood.
Despite Griffin’s probable truth-saying about it being her accomplishment and not Christ’s, what she did was clearly a gag. She did what a lot of comedians have been talking about for some time. I think it may have been Bill Maher who did a bit not long ago where he tired of sports players crediting Jesus for every victory, and hoped for one someday to pronounce that Jesus didn’t do anything, it was all me. That’s what Griffin did, the comic’s dream come true.
In short, it was a joke. Lighten up, Christians.
The SuckItJesus.com Kathy Griffin Censorship Petition!
Stop the Censoring!
Perhaps I have mentioned this before.
The right wing has used the political technique of the “persecuted majority” before. That was in Wiemar Germany where right wing German’s claimed that Germany had been stabbed in the back by Jews and liberals.
The problem with the ‘stab in the back’ myth of a ‘persecuted majority’ is once that majority gains unrestrained power they feel entitled to ‘stab back’ as a way to ‘even the score’. In the case of Germany they did to horrific effect.
In the case of Germany, the stab in the back meme was over how Germany could have lost World War I. The belief implied is that Germany could only be beaten from within, not from with out. In World War I, the German’s won on the Eastern Front, but lost on the Western Front. In World War II, the right wing German’s got their second chance to make right the outcome of World War I. This time they cleared the decks of Jews and Liberals, and manage to win in the west (at least for four years) but only to lose in the east.
In America, the right likes to think that liberals (implying Jews) and the media lost Vietnam. Never mind that Graham Green predicted the outcome 20 years before it occurred and wrote about it in the Quiet American. Never mind that Sun Tzu’s dicta that says that all wars are lost or won before they are fought. The right winger’s got their second chance in Iraq and totally flubbed that up. They can’t be trusted to pore piss out of a boot even if the instructions were written on the heal.
But I’ve strayed off subject a tad.
Make no mistake, this ‘persecuted majority’ crap is a down payment on future hate crimes. Donohue is about as Christ like as, well, a Nazi.
As a Christian, I agree largely with what you’ve written here (I care little what Griffin, and society at large, thinks about Jesus — meaning I’m not offended when people say what Griffin said, because it’s true. She’s not a Christian. Jesus has nothing whatsoever to do with her talent and award. Her disrespect is just as much the modern Christian’s fault as it is hers). And the name of Jesus is used all-too-flippantly in American culture.
Just be mindful that what characterizes Christianity in the modern West is only a fraction of what has passed for Christianity for the past two millenia.
Regards,