I don't agree with death threats. I don't agree to anything that threatens to cause material harm to any party.
But.
Imagine an art exhibit with photos of famous people from the LGBT community. The photos are defaced and strong words like "whore" and "fag" and, you know, words I can never bring myself to type, dot these images. These images, imagine them, show these people as the lowest of the low, as though they're hardly even human.
If the LGBT community took a stand to have these photos removed, calling them offensive, insulting, and an outright manifestation of discrimination, they would be completely justified. I'd probably be campaigning right along with them. The whole world would probably be campaigning right along with them.
So why is it so different with images of Jesus Christ? I'm really trying to understand other people here; I am in no way trying to be smart-alecky. If those imaginary photos of LGBT-directed insults were removed due to pressure from the relevant groups, wouldn't the LGBT community heave a sigh of relief and satisfaction? (I mention the LGBT community not to make it a polar opposite of the Christians and Catholics and the Bishops; only to use it as an example of a minority group that has its rights like every other group does.) What makes it so different that this time the people who raised an outcry were Christians? Why is it OK to discriminate against Christians? Why is it not okay to campaign to have art exhibits like those in the CCP removed, when they do offend a lot of people? Why would it be okay, in my hypothetical but all too possible situation, to apply the correct pressure to remove those slanderous photos from CCP, but they call it censorship when the force behind it is "conservative" and "conventional"?
Why is it censorship as long as the CBCP is the first one to speak up? They're just one group, like the rest. Whether you believe they have power or not, they are just one group, and they have rights like we all do, and they have freedom of expression as well. Whether the powers that be will bow to the pressure they exert is another thing altogether.
Just help me understand. Why is it not okay to discriminate against the atheists and the freethinkers and the LGBT, and always, always okay to discriminate against Catholics? I am getting a little tired of this double standard, and all I really, really want is to understand why it exists so that I can stop being so hurt.
Why is it okay for movies like Easy A to have words like "Jesus-freaks"? Why is it okay to make fun of Christians and not of everyone else? Does the fact that Christianity has been "in power" (an absurd and oversimplified concept) for two thousand years justify the violation of human rights against discrimination in the present? Why? Why? Why?
Why is it that everyone's catchphrase is "respect", but that no one ever seems to remember it when it comes to Christians and Catholics? Why?
I don't think I'll ever understand.
--------------------------
ETA.
...And, you see, because I understand that freedom of speech is not absolute--meaning it is NOT the same thing as freedom from criticism--I'm just going to let you come at me. I will let you say what you want. Because that is what freedom means.
I just wish that you, whoever you might be--whoever might be reading this and might be thinking of commenting--would approach the topic with the same sensitivity, and respect, and fairness of outlook that I try, try, try to use. Because I have tried. I really, really have. When we're angry we tend to use strong words. Sure. I get that. But maybe, just maybe, you can understand that topics like these require something more than strong words. That they might, for example, require kindness.
No comments:
Post a Comment