Jesus Cartoons by South Park

http://wisdomofreligion.blogspot.com/2010/06/jesus-cartoons-by-south-park.html

Ultimately goodness triumphs. Let freedom prevail, there is no end to controlling others, it is time we dispossess and disown Jesus, Muhammad, Moses, Krishna and others, they are not our property and they belong to all of us. Christians don’t own Jesus, Krishna is not the property of Hindus nor Muhammad is owned Muslims. Let’s not bottle them, it is not prudent to reduce their message to a few. Each one of them wanted us to be good beings, let's be one.

The problem is not cartoons; it is the intolerance of the few. A majority of Muslims, Christians, Jews, Hindus and others understand that, diversity is part of their life. When you have the power, you solve problems with humility and not arrogance. Arrogance flares up the conflict and causes people to take a stand and dig in their heels, humility brings understanding and understanding leads to solutions of co-existence.

The insecure among us are frightened and want to quell and even annihilate others to “feel secure” alas, that were the truth. Security comes from within first, and then from what surrounds us. If we want goodness to prevail, we have to create that to surround us.

In April this year, I wrote, “If you know the producers of South Park, please let them know that there are more Muslims willing to protect their rights than a few radicals who have threatened them.” - http://mikeghouseforamerica.blogspot.com/2010/04/south-park-incident-with-muslim.html

In February 2010, I asked the Indians, “If he (MF Hussain who painted nude pictures of Hindu deities) were to be in Afghanistan, Iran or Saudi Arabia, he would have been killed. As a nation, do we want us to be like Afghanistan, banning everything and imposing on others?

When Passion of the Christ was released, the Christians and Muslims together formed an alliance to protest the release of the film in India.

The radical Christians have killed the Doctors or bombed the clinics that performed abortions; the radical Jews have forced the Palestinians out of their homes and radical Hindus and radical Muslims have done their share as well.

Most Muslims including me were against banning Rushdie's book, we wrote against it and spoke against it. I had appealed to the fanatic fringe among Muslims to ignore the cartoons and follow the model of the prophet and pray that goodwill prevails, and several mosques have done that in their Friday sermons, but a few hundred individuals violated civility and resorted to violence.

Jesus had all the power in the world to turn every human into his follower; he did not do it, neither Moses, Krishna, Muhammad, Buddha, Nanak, Bahaullah, Confucius, Mahavir, Zarathustra or the spiritual masters from the earth based and indigenous traditions believed in copy catting humans.

The believed in freedom, their goal was not to convert any one, but guide people to learn to get along with everyone. They understood that a female from the Zulu tribe or a male from the another tradition or a prince were all created by the same process and were programmed to last anywhere from 1 second to 150 years at most. They believed in diversity of thought as God’s will, but getting along with those difference was also God’s will, and that is what they taught.

The purpose of religion was to guide us how to live with others that differ from us and not be afraid of the stranger. Every religion offers numerous lines of guidance on embracing the stranger, as knowing the other takes the fear out of us and brings peace and security.

Wasn’t Jesus ridiculed in his life, wasn’t each one of the spiritual masters ridiculed, chased, harassed and persecuted? They could have turned the evil upside down and created a heaven, they chose not to, because they believed in the freedom of speech.

Let our anger be not the temptation for others to mock, let our love be the way for them to love every one of the spiritual masters. If you want the honey, you don't kick the beehive. Win love by love and not punishment or anger.

Mike Ghouse is a speaker, thinker, writer and an activist of Pluralism, Justice, Islam, India and Civil Societies. He is a conflict mitigater and a goodwill nurturer offering pluralistic solutions on issues of the day. http://www.mikeghouse.net/
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Religious leaders unite against planned Jesus cartoon
By James Hibberd James Hibberd Tue Jun 1, 11:47 pm ET

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) – It's not on the air yet. It's not shot yet. There's no pilot yet. There might not even be a script yet.

But Comedy Central's plan to develop an animated project about Jesus Christ has the biggest names in the TV watchdog business forming a protest supergroup to preemptively smite the show.

Brent Bozell (president, Media Research Centre), Tony Perkins (president, Family Research Council), Michael Medved (talk radio host), Bill Donohue (president, Catholic League), Rabbi Daniel Lapin (American Alliance of Jews and Christians) and Tim Winter (president, Parents Television Council) are joining forces to form the Coalition Against Religious Bigotry.

Comedy Central's "JC" is in development, which means it's still a couple of steps from getting the green light as a series. The project is about Jesus trying to live as a regular guy in New York City and wanting to escape the shadow of his "powerful but apathetic father." Because Comedy Central recently censored "South Park" for its portrayals of the Prophet Muhammad, some Christian leaders see the prospect of a Jesus cartoon as proof of an offensive double standard.

CARB will hold its first press conference on Thursday to urge advertisers not to support the project, should it ever hit the air.

"After we reveal the vile and offensive nature of Comedy Central's previous characterizations of Jesus Chris and God the Father, we expect these advertisers to agree wholeheartedly to end their advertising on Comedy Central and discontinue their support for unabashed, anti-Christian discrimination," Bozell said in a statement. "Why should they be supporting a business that makes a habit of attacking Christianity and yet has a formal policy to censor anything considered offensive to followers of Islam? This double standard is pure bigotry, one from which advertisers should quickly shy away."
Comedy Central had no comment.
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