{"id":3947,"date":"2011-01-07T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2011-01-07T09:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/2011\/01\/of-muslims-bishops-anti-christian-violence-and-barracudas.html"},"modified":"2011-01-07T09:00:00","modified_gmt":"2011-01-07T09:00:00","slug":"of-muslims-bishops-anti-christian-violence-and-barracudas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/2011\/01\/of-muslims-bishops-anti-christian-violence-and-barracudas.html","title":{"rendered":"Of Muslims, Bishops, anti-Christian violence and barracudas"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Much has been made about the indifference that the media and other outlets (like our government) seem to have regarding the murders and attacks against Christians across the Islamic world.\u00a0 Apparently the US conference of Bishops is noticing as well<\/a>. Why all the indifference?\u00a0 Hard to say.\u00a0 But a couple guesses on my part.\u00a0 First, we\u2019re scared crapless of Islam.\u00a0 We just don\u2019t know what to do with it.\u00a0 There\u2019s anywhere from 1.2 to 1.5 billion Muslims in the world, and we don\u2019t have clue one how to handle the problems that seem common to the Muslim world.\u00a0 Before 9\/11 we might have been more forthright about calling down such violence.\u00a0 But since 9\/11, the only thing we\u2019ve been consistent about regarding the Islamic world is our lack of courage in dealing with it.<\/p>\n

Second, we\u2019re an indifferent nation.\u00a0 We don\u2019t care.\u00a0 We really don\u2019t.\u00a0 The latest IPhone app, the newest 4G device?\u00a0 Now that\u2019s something worth caring about.\u00a0 Some of us might even care about a hobby or sport we like.\u00a0 But such things as this?\u00a0 Hardly.\u00a0 We\u2019re not going to ruffle our feathers over things that don\u2019t affect us.\u00a0 After all, a mark of an enlightened person has been to say \u2018I don\u2019t worry about it unless it affects me.\u2019\u00a0 That was what you said over the last few decades if you wanted to show just how tolerant and enlightened you were.\u00a0 And since the death of Christians over there somewhere probably doesn\u2019t affect too many people, there you go.<\/p>\n

And, of course, you have the Super-Narrative of our time<\/a>.\u00a0 White European and American heterosexual Christian men are the incarnation of consummate evil and the singular cause of all human suffering in the world.\u00a0 If this were Christians attacking Muslims, even Christians of a non-European variety, you can probably bet your bottom that we\u2019d see more coverage, more outrage, and more condemnation than we see now.\u00a0 After all, when Terry Jones (white American Christian male likely of heterosexual tendencies) threatened to burn a Koran, all hell broke loose.\u00a0 The President, the military, the international community, and the media all came down on him like white on rice.\u00a0 Story after story reminded us of America\u2019s sad history of racism and bigotry<\/a>.\u00a0 We were reminded of slavery, of prejudice against Catholic immigrants, or the interment of Japanese citizens in WWII.\u00a0 Jones was threatened, some called for legal action, companies pulled out from their relationships with him and his congregation.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

Because, once again, that fit the narrative.\u00a0 The Super Narrative of our time.\u00a0 The media, in addition to its own biases and agendas, is just as much a slave to such overarching narratives as anyone.\u00a0 So is our president.\u00a0 So is our government.\u00a0 So are we.\u00a0 Thus when Christians are murdered in America or butchered abroad, it just doesn\u2019t have that same \u2018umph.\u2019\u00a0 We may not like it, and some stories have reported on such violence.\u00a0 President Obama did speak out against it, and some folks in the government\u00a0 have condemned it.\u00a0 But it doesn\u2019t have that same, what do you call it, visceral response.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

As Mayor Vaughn pointed out in the film JAWS<\/em>: \u201cYou yell \u2018barracuda!\u2019, everyone says \u2018huh, what?\u2019\u00a0 You yell \u2018shark!\u2019, and you\u2019ve got a panic on your hands on the fourth of July.\u201d\u00a0 Whenever Europeans, Americans, or Christians are even potentially connected to a crime or offense, that\u2019s yelling shark.\u00a0 Whenever any other culture, religion, nation or ethnicity is doing it to Europeans, Americans, or Christians, as far as our culture is concerned, I\u2019m afraid that\u2019s just yelling barracuda.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Much has been made about the indifference that the media and other outlets (like our government) seem to have regarding the murders and attacks against Christians across the Islamic world.\u00a0 Apparently the US conference of Bishops is noticing as well. Why all the indifference?\u00a0 Hard to say.\u00a0 But a couple guesses on my part.\u00a0 First, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2805,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3947","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nOf Muslims, Bishops, anti-Christian violence and barracudas<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Much has been made about the indifference that the media and other outlets (like our government) seem to have regarding the murders and attacks against\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/2011\/01\/of-muslims-bishops-anti-christian-violence-and-barracudas.html\" \/>\n<meta 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