Scott Cawelti

Sunday, April 14 Courier column--on blasphemy and freedom of speech.   

Blasphemy, aka heresy, impiety, sacrilege, apostasy, and plain old taking the Lord’s name in vain, is back in the news.  

It’s been awhile since questioning religious beliefs was punishable.  The last execution for blasphemy in English-speaking countries occurred in 1697 in England.  Young Thomas Aikenhead, all of 20, was hung for ridiculing the Bible and questioning the legitimacy of Christ’s miracles.  Soon after, blasphemy was eliminated as a capital crime in England.      

Authorities must have realized that executing religious questioners was a bigger problem than offending God and His followers.  Besides, there were so many blasphemers, apostates, and impious cursing citizens that nearly everyone would have to be arrested.

The Bible does declare that blasphemers will be punished—but in the afterlife. Mark 3:29 declares “he that shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost hath never forgiveness, but is in danger of eternal damnation.”

Since hell awaits, there’s no need to punish blasphemers with mere execution.

So we’ve come a long way since those dark days of being killed for questioning religion.

Republicans, Democrats, progressives, conservatives, and libertarians alike, all agree that government must not infringe on free worship, speech, and press.  In a nutshell, that’s our first Amendment, the equivalent of the Holy Grail for freedom seekers.  It’s also widely imitated and appreciated worldwide, regardless of party affiliation.   

In fact, there’s even an International Blasphemy Day—September 30--recently established to encourage people everywhere to freely express questions about religion or any other sacred beliefs, just to celebrate true freedom of speech.

However, since 1989, free speech in the form of blasphemy has come under attack. Indeed, writers and other protestors have been intimidated and killed for expressing their questions and beliefs about religion.  It began when Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini declared that Salmon Rushdie had insulted Islam and declared the writer should be killed for his novel “Satanic Verses.”   

Rushdie went into hiding, and would have been murdered without police protection. His Japanese translator, however, was killed, and his Italian translator seriously injured.  Bookstores in America were bombed and burned to the ground.   All because Rushdie’s novel offended Islamic radicals, urged on by their leaders.

Now comes an international movement led by contemporary Muslim radicals.  Egyptian president Morsi declared, “Insults against the prophet of Islam, Muhammad, are not acceptable.   We will not allow anyone to do this by word or by deed.”  Morsi and others are calling for international laws against blasphemy toward Muslims in all countries. 

Even though the Koran (unlike the Bible) never mentions blasphemy, radical Islamists have defined any questioning of Islam as “blasphemy” and want the rest of the world to do the same.

In effect, they want the whole world to ignore freedom of expression in order to protect their own religious sensibilities. 

There’s a word for this:  Tyranny.  

Free speech supporters everywhere must unite and reject calls for new laws against blasphemy. 

Here’s why.

No one can say who will take offense.   One person’s entertainment and satire is another’s assault on deeply held beliefs. The Broadway satire of “The Book of Mormon” must be deeply offensive to some Mormons, but Mitt Romney appreciated the Broadway exposure of his faith.

People with deeply held faith-based beliefs are occasionally going to be offended, period.   That’s our world—secular, diverse, free-wheeling, questioning, pondering, wondering, making people think and take stands, or change their minds and move on. 

Offensive expressions of ideas especially need protection from those who would silence it.  Why bother protecting expression that only amuses and delights?  “The Ten Commandments” needed no free speech rights, but “The Last Temptation of Christ,” which questioned Christ’s godliness, did.  

Or consider Martin Luther, whose protests in 1517 established an alternate version of Christianity.   That’s why they’re called “protest-ants,” after all.  No doubt that Catholics found Luther’s protests deeply offensive.  

*Freedom of expression is a primary human right, enshrined in our constitution and respected worldwide as the fundamental human freedom.

If we can’t insist on its primacy, and fight for our right to use it in whatever way we choose, we’ve lost.  

And not only the battle, but also the war.  

Here's a piece published in the Courier on April 15, 2001--just under five months before the World Trade Center attacks.  

After twelve years, I thought it would be dated, but if anything it seems more relevant than ever.  An Islamic fundamentalist ideology was behind the 9/11 attacks, I believe, and fundamentalism continues its surge across the world's religions--including Christianity.   

Most Christians I know and associate with are not fundamentalists.  But the others--well, read on.  
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Three Kinds of Christians

Over the years I've observed hundreds of folks who claim to be Christians.  Friends, relatives, acquaintances, and vast numbers of students claim that faith as their own, and around now—Easter season—they come out in force. So it's an ideal time to reflect on Christians and how they make themselves known.

In my experience, Christians tend to fall into one of three categories:

First, there are those who keep their faith quietly. They only declare their beliefs if pushed, and even then with humility.  A Christian friend will assert, "I don't wear it on my sleeve. I figure God knows who we are, and I don't have to keep telling people about it." 

These Christians are tolerant, kind, open-minded, willing to listen to other perspectives, to question.  But when pushed, they will make their case. "I believe because it makes sense to me, and my faith helps me deal with hard life situations."

 I respect these kind of Christians, and recognize their humility and quiet faith as reasonable, given our pluralistic and secular world.  They wouldn't dream of launching a crusade; they let others find God in whatever way works for them.   

Next, there are the loud Christians.  They try to tolerate different points of view, but they're convinced they're right, and will argue about it at the drop of a hint that someone might listen.

 I've had many conversations with these kind of Christians, and they're usually pleasant, full of give and take, and some insights that make me think hard about some of my own ideas.  Yet they secretly believe that sooner or later, like them, I'll see their light.     

And if not, they pity me.      

Still, they don't bother me, and I respect their deep conviction of their own righteousness.  They might launch a crusade, but it would be a gentle one.  They believe others should find God, and it should be those Christians' particular God.  

Then are there are the fundamentalists.  Karen Armstrong, in her book "The Battle for God," (2001) writes at length about the world's fundamentalists.  Whether Jews, Muslims, or Christians, fundamentalists share similar traits.  As Armstrong puts it,  "They are engaged in a conflict with enemies whose secularist policies and beliefs seem inimical to religion itself. Fundamentalists do not regard this battle as a conventional political struggle, but experience it as a cosmic war between the forces of good and evil."

I don't know many fundamentalist Christians personally, but I get letters from them regularly.   They condemn, judge, rant, and insist that I'm going to Hell unless I take the Lord as my personal savior, and they cite their favorite Bible verses as proof. 

They see no contradiction between their actions, which amount to various levels of crucifixion, and their belief in the meekest and mildest of spiritual leaders.

 Instead, they believe the world would be better off if all non-believers would either convert or disappear.  Indeed, they believe that the rapture (apocalypse) approaches any day, when God will take the righteous to heaven, leaving the world to us sinners. 

These are the Christians who start crusades, who are capable of murder in the name of their faith, and who won't rest until their religion becomes part of the mainstream political system.  Since the world seems ever more religiously diverse and secular, meaning to them sinful, they grow ever more restless and impatient. 

Some of them insist that all other Christians are phony, that only their sect holds the truth.  Never mind that literally billions of people, including Christians, have no idea what they're talking about. They're all condemned unless they convert to their fundamentalist sect. 

These are the people (in another religion) who rule Afghanistan, who hold sway in the Middle East, who keep trying to turn the world into their version of a holy land.  These are the people whom our forefathers feared when they created separation of church and state.

And these are the Christians who give Christianity a bad name. 

Honestly, I’m not worried about going to hell when they’re around.  They scared it right out of me.