timeimmortal

GuyInCT writes in with a wistful reflection on the current state of freedom of expression in Canada.

The thing you have to realize is that the Leftists are basically cowards and bullies. Like any bullies, they capitulate in the face of bigger bullies. Thus Christians calling for their natural and legal rights are ignored or ridiculed. Similar calls from Islamists have the unspoken threat of physical or economic harm behind them. So like true cowards, the Left backs down and turns on the other guys even harder.

There is definitely a correlation between the actions of the average modern progressive and the actions of the average schoolyard bully, and I think one could even make the case that the mentalities are similar, as are the relative levels of emotional maturity. The fact is, progressives are very quick to pounce upon what they see as being the “traditional” values of a nation like Canada, which inherit (heavily) from Judeo-Christian tradition and the moral law of the Church (and/or its various Protestant offshoots). Stepping on, transgressing, offending, and pushing the boundaries of those values — preferably in ways which are so offensive as to elicit a response from those who still find value in said values — are the highest virtues of leftist philosophy.

And those “traditionalists” who do complain can, for the most part, be denigrated as rubes, as backwards, as being opposed to (take your pick…) modernity, progress, human rights, etc.

It really is a bully-esque mentality, and much like a bully the average progressive cowers in fear when someone more aggressive shows up on the scene.

The fact is, Rome doesn’t issue fatwas. Sinead O’Connor tearing up a picture of the Pope, art like Piss Pope and Piss Christ, or depictions of the Blessed Virgin made out of elephant dung will not inspire murderous riots around the world in regions where Christians comprise the majority population segment — when you offend Christians, most of the time the worst that Christians will do is shake their head, maybe tell their friends to not bother going to the museum this week, and then offer prayers for you and whatever issue is your beef with Christianity. But if you draw a scribbled cartoon of Muhammad, rampaging throngs of tens of thousands will take to the streets worldwide, burn your national flag, burn you in effigy…and perhaps even murder a priest or a nun, just for good measure. Oh, and call for the extermination of the Jews.

And there have been numerous instances, in recent months, of so-called “cutting edge” artists actually admitting that while they have no problem maligning Christ or Christians, they are in fear for their life when the issue of Islam arises, and so produce no similar mockeries of the Koran or the (false) prophet Muhammad. Is this blatantly hypocritical? Yes, it is…but then, one tends to expect no less from bullies, or from liberals/progressives.

Still, this must all come to pass — Jesus foretold that we who believe in Him would be hated for that exact reason — and pass it will. The Christian victory is already assured, which (I think) is why the post-modern world is so harsh toward Christians. The secular world can be driven by nothing other — and can have no greater “good” — than power, and the average post-modern fears those who, by their actions, exert more power than s/he. That is why transgressive artists fear the violence of Islam.

But even more than that, the average post-modern fears something more than power — s/he fears those who do not fear. Post-modernism fears that we — Christians, assured in the victory that Christ has not only promised but in fact already delivered — see no need to fear. That makes us something to fear not in the way that leads those who array themselves against us to cower, but in the way that leads those who array themselves against us to lash out, desperate for any means by which they might push us aside.

I think all Christians can take heart when someone maligns us. They are, after all, just a desperate coward, a fact which they almost always demonstrate even as they attempt to insult us.