Shades of Desecration

As I said earlier, the idea of free speech in America is highly subjective to many in the press. James Taranto addresses the idea today in Best of the Web:

Still, by way of comparison, recall that three years ago Palestinian Arab terrorists occupied the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. Priests reported that "gunmen tore up Bibles for toilet paper," according to the Daily Camera of Boulder, Colo. The Chicago Tribune noted after the siege that "altars had been turned into cooking and eating tables, a sacrilege to the religious faithful."

Christians in the U.S. responded by declining to riot and refraining from killing anyone. They had the same response 15 or so years ago when the National Endowment for the Arts was subsidizing the scatological desecration of a crucifix and other Christian symbols. Indeed. This should also put to rest the oft-heard calumny that America's "religious right" is somehow a Christian equivalent of our jihadi enemies.

Yes, thank you. I don't think we can try hard enough to put that particular "oft-heard calumny" to rest. Because as far as I've seen, it's not yet resting. It still comes out all the time...and frankly, I'm offended by it.

But still, I'm not gonna riot.