Christian Democrats in the United States

Wednesday, April 21, 2010 5:16 PM

most censorship definitions are impossible: case in point

RevolutionMuslim.com intimated terrorism against the South Park cartoon creators for using a bear instead of Muhammad: precisely NOT an image of Muhammad. Yet, as reported at that magazine, these people get off on the idea of violence, so they reportedly posted plans of some house owned by the creators of the cartoon, suggesting that somehow Islam promotes death. They didn't even interpret it correctly - Parker and Stone self-censored to make a point, and used an image of a bear that was clearly NOT Muhammad, to represent his character in the episode.

Which is to say, that yes, the entire idea is ridiculous. It is usually impossible to define any censorship rule that can be applied clearly to restrict free speech and media, except in the worst crimes against humans, which are very rare, and deserve due process and trial by jury for each instance. Otherwise, censorship is just political power, without reason, and quickly devolves to the power of violence, which becomes social chaos in a very real and very bloody way. We want to move beyond that. We want to get over it.

No Christian expects that someone would choose to worship the image of Jesus in the South Park cartoon in the man's stead. (Though their depiction of Jesus's character is pretty awesomely nice.) Everyone understands that the real Jesus is something more than the depiction of his character or an image on the screen. As for worshiping golden calves, you could do that freely in America, but everyone else would be free to laugh at you, and they would.

The website in question has been censored and can no longer be accessed. Scary, true, but yet another way the American People are denied the opportunity to expose the truth about these people who worship violence. Thank God for Google's bravery in the face of censorship: google cache copies.

I contend that anyone who has read the blog here at USChristianDemocrats.org and taken it to heart would never try to hurt people about this or any other cartoon. If someone wanted to, they could still search public property ownership records. Why would you want to do that to someone over a cartoon, unless you have descended into madness? The world will not survive if people want to do that. Love your neighbor - not just a good idea, it's a good policy for the survival of all humankind.

It seems like the attitude is changing around the globe. The Bush policy was one essentially of laughing at these violence-worshipers, attacking them. Now the west is beginning to realize that they are actually psychotic, that this is more of a mental illness problem.

The Bush response was to go as crazy as they were with the violence, crazier, if possible, but this tainted the psychology and the souls of our own armed forces, and it resulted in a great amount of random violence against people who had done no harm. To go down that road makes us become the enemy we fight.

Instead, we have to challenge ourselves to new understanding of mind. We have to treat people like this as what they are: angry, helpless human beings who have suffered a lot of hurt and have given into senseless rage and psychosis. We have a fair number of people like that in the United States, and more people at risk every day who return from the wars. If we don't make it our common goal to unravel that whole mentality, the entire world will descend into ruthless violence and chaos. But to do so, we will not be able to fight with that mentality, either.

Yet, escape from the maze is not impossible, if we tune into the spiritual dimension inside ourselves. God always offers a way out of any such imprisonment of thought, and that is freedom. That is why censorship usually is not worth it - thought always escapes. That is its nature, the image in which we are created.

It is not what goes into us that matters, but what comes from us. It's what you say and do in response to information that defines you as a human being. Will you lash out like an angry beast, or will you use the amazing gifts of thought and kindness to make the world better?

> detail, links and comments >>

Monday, March 1, 2010 6:16 PM

censorship presumes government can define morality - it cannot

[ California Assembly passes resolution for Cuss Free Week - http://www.mercurynews.com/search/ci_14470806 ]

James said no man can tame the tongue. It's not our fault that our brains are simian, or that political parties and pundits prod us to be so angry that we cannot sing with our prosodic cortex instead of cussing at every red light. It is not government's place to judge - by interfering against freedom of speech where it cannot justify itself, government tries to substitute itself for that highest object of the inner mind. So, don't cuss, if you believe that will better your relationship with the Lord or with those you know and love, but don't do it for the idiots in Sacramento. The financial doom that these people brought to the Golden State is not a joke.

On a deeper level, besides distracting us from the financial issue by riling our anger over a trifling but fundamental insult to freedom, the state Assembly seek to supplant the abstract ideals that any thinking being would strive for, with their own sanitized and shallow morality. This pedantry they flap in our faces serves the personal interest of politicos drinking thousand-dollar bottles of wine and spending donation money on escorts for the after-party in the hot tub with the fat old guy lawyers. They shovel truckloads of it into the vacuous textbooks of letters and arts in public education.

> detail, links and comments >>

Friday, May 4, 2007 3:34 PM

where to direct our energies

At the risk of offending some good-hearted, god-fearing Jews, the story is important. J didn't waste any time appealing to the Romans to stop the free expression of the Pharisees on the law. He simply went out and fed the people. That's why I think we ought to stop wasting our time bickering about video games and instead reach out to problem kids and let them know that you care, that no matter how bad they feel or how distant, they are not alone. -ed.

> detail, links and comments >>

Tuesday, May 1, 2007 7:41 PM

Censorship

We believe no statue, newspaper cartoon, or poopy painting has any power over God, so why waste our time worrying over some temporary fad of art? If we don't take it too seriously, all art is capable of expanding the symbols of our collective conversation, and overall, this is the only means of progress. We believe this cultural progress, based in free expression, is worth funding the occasional piece of offensive art. There is no good way to draw lines around what offends and does not offend other people. God may be offended, but we believe that if God is offended, then God will work it out with the artist personally.

We certainly believe that no one, anywhere, should suffer punishment for free expression and association that does not directly and immediately incite specific criminal behavior that harms others, i.e. inciting a riot, a murder, or yelling "fire!" Certainly, no one has a right to kill someone for their artistic expression.

The editor happens to think "Grand Theft Auto" is pretty fun, but gosh, he doesn't feel any desire to go out and kill people, because his parents let him explore knowledge while guiding with values. Maybe parents should spend a little more time educating their kids on values, and a little less time sitting them in front of a monitor with no supervision. Government can advise us, but it isn't the government's place to hold your kids' hands in the big scary world — it's yours.

> detail, links and comments >>