{"id":95308,"date":"2012-10-09T09:37:34","date_gmt":"2012-10-09T13:37:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/?p=95308"},"modified":"2012-10-09T09:37:34","modified_gmt":"2012-10-09T13:37:34","slug":"some-religious-denigration-is-better-than-others","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/2012\/10\/some-religious-denigration-is-better-than-others\/","title":{"rendered":"Some religious denigration is better than others"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Back when the Obama administration was still claiming that they believed the assassination of the United States ambassador to Libya was in response to a YouTube video, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton<\/a> said:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe United States deplores any intentional effort to denigrate the religious beliefs of others. Our commitment to religious tolerance goes back to the very beginning of our nation. But let me be clear: There is never any justification for violent acts of this kind.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In President Obama\u2019s statement on Stevens\u2019 murder, he used this line:<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile the United States rejects efforts to denigrate the religious beliefs of others, we must all unequivocally oppose the kind of senseless violence that took the lives of these public servants.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The media seemed oddly incurious about the idea that our leaders were saying that the U.S. rejects efforts to denigrate religious beliefs (and they were only mildly more interested in this claim back during the early days of Terry Jones\u2019 media stunts or when similar statements were made during the previous administration). Media outlets more or less printed the claims and didn\u2019t even realize that many Americans believe that the First Amendment means the government has no business rejecting efforts to denigrate the religious beliefs of others. Even more, they believe the First Amendment protects Americans\u2019 right to do just that. Free country and all that. You can stand on the corner and distribute your poorly written anti-Calvinist tracts all you want.<\/p>\n

What was particularly odd about the coverage was that, for instance, the Associated Press previously reported that Clinton had been in a crowd that had given a standing ovation<\/a> to the \u201cBook of Mormon\u201d play. The same play that won a Tony for Best Musical, I believe. Do we reject efforts to denigrate the religious beliefs of others! Or do we give these efforts standing ovations and awards? I\u2019m so confused! (And I\u2019m not even going to get into any of the other religious liberty battles being fought against government entities.)<\/p>\n

All this to say that I was intrigued by media coverage of just the latest effort to denigrate the religious beliefs of others. Here\u2019s how the Inquisitr<\/em><\/a> covered it:<\/p>\n

In the clip for American Horror Story: Asylum<\/em>, Jessica Lange appears as a sinister nun at particularly dark and dreary mental institution during the 60s. \u201cHere you will repent for your sins to the only judge that matters,\u201d she says while leaning over a patient strapped to hospital bed. If the embedded promo is any indication of things to come, then this season looks to increase the sex and violence by several intense notches\u2026<\/p>\n

If you want to see more of Jessica Lange as a sadistic nun at a very creepy mental institution, be sure to tune into the American Horror Story: Asylum<\/em> premiere on October 17.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Entertainment Weekly<\/em><\/a> is so excited about the premier that it ran on the cover of the magazine.<\/p>\n

But I haven\u2019t seen any questioning of the anti-Catholic bigotry in this TV show in the mainstream media. Just in this piece in America<\/em><\/a> magazine by James Martin, S.J. He goes through his enjoyment of EW prior to reading its article on the show and adds:<\/p>\n

Anti-Catholicism (especially in\u00a0grotesque portraits of sisters and nuns)\u00a0has a\u00a0long history<\/a>, is alive and well, but is\u00a0often\u00a0overstated by some\u00a0sensitive Catholics.\u00a0 And of course it\u2019s quite subjective.\u00a0 One person\u2019s good-natured\u00a0ribbing is another person\u2019s\u00a0offensive stereotype.\u00a0 But\u00a0it\u2019s always a good thought experiment to imagine the\u00a0lines about, say,\u00a0Lange\u2019s\u00a0sadism\u00a0rendered with another religious or ethnic group.\u00a0 Instead of nuns,\u00a0substitute \u201crabbis\u201d or \u201cimams,\u201d or \u201cMuslims\u201d or \u201cJews,\u201d or \u201cAfrican-Americans\u201d or \u201cgay men,\u201d in that sentence.\u00a0 So reread those lines about the\u00a0spanking\u00a0with those groups in mind.\u00a0 Go ahead.\u00a0 I\u2019ll wait.<\/p>\n

How does that sound?\u00a0 Do you think it would make it past\u00a0many network execs or\u00a0the editors at EW<\/em>?\u00a0 Well, maybe, but should it?<\/p>\n

Of course Hollywood is an equal opportunity offender.\u00a0 A new movie called \u201cThe Good Doctor,\u201d opened this weekend, starring Orlando Bloom as a wicked physician who poisons his patients.\u00a0 (Bad Legolas.)\u00a0 So Catholic sisters aren\u2019t the only vocations to have their reputations besmirched.\u00a0\u00a0It\u2019s as fair\u00a0for filmmakers and TV producers to feature the occasional mean priest, bad bishop, and silly sister as it is to\u00a0feature crooked cops, devious lawyers and messed-up parents.\u00a0 And Hollywood even turns on its own: check out the brilliant \u201cEpisodes\u201d starring Matt LeBlanc as an addled, well, Matt LeBlanc.<\/p>\n

But that a sadistic, slutty, screwed-up Catholic sister is the centerpiece of a show\u2019s\u00a0entire season on a mainstream network is depressingly retrograde, especially\u00a0when real sisters are trying hard to\u00a0be\u00a0seen as women worthy of dignity and respect.\u00a0 It\u2019s a lazy trope and an offensive one, too.\u00a0 And I\u2019m always amazed that editors and writers and producers and screenwriters and photographers don\u2019t see that.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Father Martin\u2019s piece is all an interesting critique I\u2019m more interested in the media\u2019s curious decisions to avoid talking about the fact that we denigrate religious beliefs \u2014 sometimes in incredibly high-profile ways \u2014 all the time in this country. There\u2019s been a general problem with the media coverage of what happened in Benghazi, Libya, but most of that is political or relates to approaching that story politically. But there are, of course, some overlap issues with religion news.<\/p>\n

I think the only mainstream outlet article I saw that even critiqued the administration\u2019s line on free speech in recent weeks came from the New York Times<\/em><\/a>, and while it was certainly good, it didn\u2019t get into the religion angle.<\/p>\n

Protecting the rights of atheists, skeptics, and believers to criticize and denigrate the religious beliefs of others is a huge issue in this country. While we\u2019ve seen some hypocrisy in how denigration of religious beliefs has been covered, have you seen any good articles exploring this vital First Amendment issue? If so, please pass them along.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Back when the Obama administration was still claiming that they believed the assassination of the United States ambassador to Libya was in response to a YouTube video, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said: \u201cThe United States deplores any intentional effort to denigrate the religious beliefs of others. Our commitment to religious tolerance goes back to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":605,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[69,25,3,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-95308","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-atheists","category-catholicism","category-politics","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nSome religious denigration is better than others<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Back when the Obama administration was still claiming that they believed the assassination of the United States ambassador to Libya was in response to a\" \/>\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\/getreligion\/2012\/10\/some-religious-denigration-is-better-than-others\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Some religious denigration is better than others\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Back when the Obama administration was still claiming that they believed the assassination of the United States ambassador to Libya was in response to a\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/2012\/10\/some-religious-denigration-is-better-than-others\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"GetReligion\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-10-09T13:37:34+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/wp.patheos.com.s3.amazonaws.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/files\/2012\/10\/1223-ew-cover_300x400-225x300.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"mollie\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"mollie\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/2012\/10\/some-religious-denigration-is-better-than-others\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/2012\/10\/some-religious-denigration-is-better-than-others\/\",\"name\":\"Some religious denigration is better than others\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2012-10-09T13:37:34+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2012-10-09T13:37:34+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/#\/schema\/person\/74ed2f03f6e3aa3c3c4c3ce885b10255\"},\"description\":\"Back when the Obama administration was still claiming that they believed the assassination of the United States ambassador to Libya was in response to a\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/2012\/10\/some-religious-denigration-is-better-than-others\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/2012\/10\/some-religious-denigration-is-better-than-others\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/2012\/10\/some-religious-denigration-is-better-than-others\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Some religious denigration is better than others\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/\",\"name\":\"GetReligion\",\"description\":\""The press . . . just doesn't get religion." - 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