Moshe Phillips, President
Benyamin Korn, Chairman
Religious Zionists of America,
Philadelphia
Mockery And Tolerance
There is not much one can say about the terrible tragedies that took place in Paris last week. The perpetrators of these ferocious crimes clearly deserved the ultimate punishment.
But there are things one should say about some of the reactions to the murders that occurred at the satirical magazine. I had never heard of the magazine in question but it apparently has a long history of mocking the Islamic religion – relentlessly and in some instances obscenely. And, I would guess, of mocking other religions as well.
The God I believe in is perfect and therefore, by definition, has a perfect sense of humor. I don’t believe He needs individuals, whether gunmen or clerics, to defend Him from crude and stupid jokes.
Nor do I believe religious people need to be so sensitive to every slightly anti-religious joke or comment. But that doesn’t mean I don’t believe there is a line that should not be regularly crossed and that the magazine in question not only regularly crossed the line, it took delight in doing so.
I also believe that people in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones. If it is acceptable to tell anti-religion jokes, then it should be equally acceptable to tell anti-nonreligious and anti-atheist jokes. By the same logic, it should be fine to tell Polish jokes and black jokes and Jewish jokes. And yes, gay and lesbian jokes as well. Being politically correct has gone too far.
It seems to me that the shock expressed by many journalists and others is a one-sided shock. If people who mocked homosexuals or blacks or antiabortionists were, God forbid, killed, I strongly suspect the sense of outrage would be much more muted.
It’s time for society to cut down, at least a little, on the anti-religious mockery and at the same time to be at least a little more tolerant of anti-nonreligious jokes and the ethnic humor that many of us grew up with.
P.S. Did you hear the one about the Polish guy who….
Harold Marks
(Via E-Mail)