It has been a good week for freedom of speech. First, FBI agents arrested two Chicago men for plotting to kill a cartoonist in Denmark.
From the Chicago Tribune:
The Chicago men, who knew each other from a military school in Pakistan, on Tuesday were accused of an international plot dubbed “The Mickey Mouse Project” that since late 2008 included scheming with others to “commit terrorist acts against overseas targets,” according to federal criminal complaints made public in Chicago.
The North Side men are accused of plotting to target employees of the Danish newspaper Morgenavisen Jyllands-Posten, which published cartoons of the prophet Mohammed in 2005, sparking violent riots across the Muslim world.
The most controversial of the 12 cartoons depicted Mohammed wearing a bomb with a lit fuse as a turban. That cartoon was drawn by Kurt Westergaard, 78 — who was targeted for assassination, authorities said.
Westergaard has said that the meaning behind the cartoon was that extremists exploit the prophet to legitimize terror by drawing “spiritual ammunition from Islam.” Extremists, outraged by the cartoons, including the would-be-murderers arrested this week, responded by exploiting the prophet to legitimize terror by drawing spiritual ammunition from Islam.
Ironic, I know.
In other good news, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton took a stand against a U.N. resolution that aims to prohibit the defamation of religion:
From the Examiner:
The Organization of the Islamic Conference, a group of 56 Islamic nations, has been pushing hard for the U.N. Human Rights Council to adopt resolutions that prohibit the defamation of religion. The resolution “condemns… any advocacy of national, racial or religious hatred that constitutes incitement to discrimination, hostility or violence.”
The resolution is an attempt by Islamic countries to restrict the freedom to criticize religion. The resolution would be used to justify crackdowns on free speech in Muslim countries, and give cover to those who would harass religious minorities.
Some claim that the best way to protect the freedom of religion is to implement so-called anti-defamation policies…. I strongly disagree. The protection of speech about religion is particularly important since persons of different faiths will inevitably hold divergent views on religious questions. These differences should be met with tolerance, not with the suppression of discourse.
And, in not-so- good news for freedom, a church in North Carolina is holding a good ole Halloween book burnin’. Of course, there’s nothing anti-free speech about people burning their own property. What is problematic is that authorities are threatening to stop the burn and fine the church members because of (what sounds like a trumped-up) ban on book burning. I gotta support the church on this one.
In truth, the story is funny enough that it sounds like something out of The Onion. Based on the list below, can anyone tell me which music shouldn’t be burned? From the church’s website, here’s the plan:
Halloween Book Burning
Has NOT Been Cancelled!
Burning Perversions of God’s Word
October 31, 2009
7:00 PM – Til
This event is not open to the public. Only our members and those by special invitation from the pastor only. All others are tresspassing.
Great Preaching and Singing
We are burning Satan’s bibles like the NIV, RSV, NKJV, TLB, NASB, NEV, NRSV, ASV, NWT, Good News for Modern Man, The Evidence Bible, The Message Bible, The Green Bible, ect. These are perversions of God’s Word the King James Bible.
We will also be burning Satan’s music such as country , rap , rock, pop, heavy metal, western, soft and easy, southern gospel, contemporary Christian , jazz, soul, oldies but goldies, etc.
We will also be burning Satan’s popular books written by heretics like Westcott & Hort , Bruce Metzger, Billy Graham , Rick Warren , Bill Hybels , John McArthur, James Dobson , Charles Swindoll , John Piper , Chuck Colson , Tony Evans, Oral Roberts, Jimmy Swagart , Mark Driskol, Franklin Graham , Bill Bright, Tim Lahaye, Paula White , T.D. Jakes, Benny Hinn , Joyce Myers , Brian McLaren , Robert Schuller, Mother Teresa , The Pope , Rob Bell, Erwin McManus , Donald Miller, Shane Claiborne, Brennan Manning, William Young, Will Graham , and many more.
We will be serving fried chicken, and all the sides.
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Right, because I am sure that the King James version of the Bible didn’t get ‘lost in translation’.
However my heart sinks because not only are they burning country music…but also ‘western’ music as well. What is this, 1940?
The ACLU should step in and defend these people’s right to burn their own property. This reminds me of a famous article from the Onion several years back, “ACLU Defends Nazis’ Right to Burn Down ACLU Headquarters”:
http://www.theonion.com/content/news/aclu_defends_nazis_right_to_burn
However, I have difficulty respecting these folks’ point of view. Christopher Dawson, 1939:
“It is easy to give way to the dominant tendency to surrender to the spirit of the age and the spirit of the world by shutting our eyes to the errors of public opinion and the evils and injustice of popular action; it is the same temptation which in the past made religious men flatter the pride of the great and overlook the injustice of the powerful. But it is also easy, and it is a more insidious temptation, to adopt an attitude of negative hostility to the spirit of the age and to take refuge in a narrow and exclusive fanaticism which is essentially the attitude of the heretic and the sectarian and which does more to discredit Christianity and render it ineffective than even worldliness and time-serving. For the latter are, so to speak, external to the Church’s life, whereas the former poisons the sources of its spiritual action and causes it to appear hateful in the eyes of men of good will.”
Elwood: What kind of music do you usually have here?
Claire: Oh, we got both kinds. We got country *and* western.
you nailed it, jarhead…