An uninsightful piece in the Style section of today’s Washington Post spends a great deal of ink estabilishing the more-or-less uncontested assertion that free speech leaves Americans room to make fun of one another’s religions. Under the common heading of blasphemy, the article lumps both serious theological efforts to re-imagine the life of Christ and lame-brained attempts to offend Christians for the sake of having done so. In running through the catalog of contretemps between the (self-proclaimed) artistic avant garde and the (self-annointed) guardians of traditional values, the author, Neely Tucker, overlooks the fact that the parties in these skirmishes are frequently using one to mutual advantage. Both sides have a base they hope to mobilize, and it is the opposition of the other that helps them do so.
In the midst of the piece however, sits this perceptive nugget :
To Mark Galli, managing editor of Christianity Today, the American willingness to offend Christianity, but extend deference to Islam regarding the current batch of Muhammad cartoons, can be understood through a series of cultural and political differences.
First, he notes, Christians worship a man who was persecuted, beaten and killed. The sense that people might persecute Christ’s followers is an inherent part of the Christian ethos, he says, so Christians are inherently likely to tolerate offense. Muhammad, a prophet who died after an illness, did not leave behind a religion with that mindset, he says.
The second factor, he theorizes, is that American society assigns different rules of social conduct for majority and minority cultures, in which the dominant culture isn’t supposed to ridicule smaller ones. It’s done, of course, but it’s seen as bad form.
“Christianity is fair game for mocking because it’s an established presence here, it’s always been a majority, and there’s no sense of followers being a persecuted minority,” he says. “When people can be publicly mocked in this country, it means you’re a player, and you’re going to take your lumps with everyone else. There’s not that sense with Muslims. People are more cautious.”