Liberal hypocrisy: Fine to mock Mormons but most certainly not Muslims

bigtexxx · Sep 18, 2012

Brilliant piece completely exposing the liberals hypocrisy on this.

Some of the excerpts:

The film, the administration says, is "hateful and offensive" (Susan Rice), "reprehensible and disgusting" (Jay Carney) and, in a twist, "disgusting and reprehensible" (Hillary Clinton). Mr. Carney, the White House spokesman, also lays sole blame on the film for inciting the riots that have swept the Muslim world and claimed the lives of Ambassador Chris Stevens and three of his staff in Libya.
Click to expand...

Meanwhile, Hillary attended the Book of Mormon play without even registering a complaint...

President Obama came to office promising that he would start a new conversation with the Muslim world, one that lectured less and listened more. After nearly four years of listening, we can now hear more clearly where the U.S. stands in the estimation of that world: equally despised but considerably less feared. Just imagine what four more years of instinctive deference will do.
Click to expand...

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390444450004578002010241044712.html
Why is it OK to mock one religion but not another?

'Hasa Diga Eebowai" is the hit number in Broadway's hit musical "The Book of Mormon," which won nine Tony awards last year. What does the phrase mean? I can't tell you, because it's unprintable in a family newspaper.

On the other hand, if you can afford to shell out several hundred bucks for a seat, then you can watch a Mormon missionary get his holy book stuffed—well, I can't tell you about that, either. Let's just say it has New York City audiences roaring with laughter.

The "Book of Mormon"—a performance of which Hillary Clinton attended last year, without registering a complaint—comes to mind as the administration falls over itself denouncing "Innocence of Muslims." This is a film that may or may not exist; whose makers are likely not who they say they are; whose actors claim to have known neither the plot nor purpose of the film; and which has never been seen by any member of the public except as a video clip on the Internet.

No matter. The film, the administration says, is "hateful and offensive" (Susan Rice), "reprehensible and disgusting" (Jay Carney) and, in a twist, "disgusting and reprehensible" (Hillary Clinton). Mr. Carney, the White House spokesman, also lays sole blame on the film for inciting the riots that have swept the Muslim world and claimed the lives of Ambassador Chris Stevens and three of his staff in Libya.

So let's get this straight: In the consensus view of modern American liberalism, it is hilarious to mock Mormons and Mormonism but outrageous to mock Muslims and Islam. Why? Maybe it's because nobody has ever been harmed, much less killed, making fun of Mormons.

Here's what else we learned this week about the emerging liberal consensus: That it's okay to denounce a movie you haven't seen, which is like trashing a book you haven't read. That it's okay to give perp-walk treatment to the alleged—and no doubt terrified—maker of the film on legally flimsy and politically motivated grounds of parole violation. That it's okay for the federal government publicly to call on Google to pull the video clip from YouTube in an attempt to mollify rampaging Islamists. That it's okay to concede the fundamentalist premise that religious belief ought to be entitled to the highest possible degree of social deference—except when Mormons and sundry Christian rubes are concerned.

And, finally, this: That the most "progressive" administration in recent U.S. history will make no principled defense of free speech to a Muslim world that could stand hearing such a defense. After the debut of "The Book of Mormon" musical, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints responded with this statement: "The production may attempt to entertain audiences for an evening but the Book of Mormon as a volume of scripture will change people's lives forever by bringing them closer to Christ."

That was it. The People's Front for the Liberation of Provo will not be gunning for a theater near you. Is it asking too much of religious and political leaders in Muslim communities to adopt a similar attitude?

It needn't be. A principled defense of free speech could start by quoting the Quran: "And it has already come down to you in the Book that when you hear the verses of Allah [recited], they are denied [by them] and ridiculed; so do not sit with them until they enter into another conversation." In this light, the true test of religious conviction is indifference, not susceptibility, to mockery.

The defense could add that a great religion surely cannot be goaded into frenetic mob violence on the slimmest provocation. Yet to watch the images coming out of Benghazi, Cairo, Tunis and Sana'a is to witness some significant portion of a civilization being transformed into Travis Bickle, the character Robert De Niro made unforgettable in Taxi Driver. "You talkin' to me?"

A defense would also point out that an Islamic world that insists on a measure of religious respect needs also to offer that respect in turn. When Sheikh Yusuf Qaradawi—the closest thing Sunni Islam has to a pope—praises Hitler for exacting "divine punishment" on the Jews, that respect isn't exactly apparent. Nor has it been especially apparent in the waves of Islamist-instigated pogroms that have swept Egypt's Coptic community in recent years.

Finally, it need be said that the whole purpose of free speech is to protect unpopular, heretical, vulgar and stupid views. So far, the Obama administration's approach to free speech is that it's fine so long as it's cheap and exacts no political price. This is free speech as pizza.

President Obama came to office promising that he would start a new conversation with the Muslim world, one that lectured less and listened more. After nearly four years of listening, we can now hear more clearly where the U.S. stands in the estimation of that world: equally despised but considerably less feared. Just imagine what four more years of instinctive deference will do.

On the bright side, dear liberals, you'll still be able to mock Mormons. They tend not to punch back, which is part of what makes so many of them so successful in life.

Sweet Lou 4 2 · Sep 18, 2012

Seriously, you are comparing Book of Mormon to that crap? Wow - you really are clueless.

QdoubleA · Sep 18, 2012

Hey, missing you in the election threads. Come on back now ya hear!

mc mark · Sep 18, 2012

this aught to be good

BTW did you see Peggy Noonan's new article in the WSJ?

Time for an Intervention

PS --Book of Mormon ROCKS!!!!!

CometsWin · Sep 18, 2012

Definitely Obama's fault. He should shut down Broadway immediately! Those hateful bastids!

white lightning · Sep 18, 2012

http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/2011-03-18-Mormon_Broadway_17_ST_N.htm

By Douglas C. Pizac, AP
Mormon Temple in Salt Lake City is the best known symbol of the faith that is core to a new Broadway musical, 'The Book of Mormon.'
"Salvation has a name — Salt Lake-y City," croons Nabalungi (played by Nikki M. James) in The Book of Mormon, which opened for previews at the Eugene O'Neill Theater in February and ended with a standing ovation.
The lyrics are ironic, of course, as is much of the story written and directed by South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone, in conjunction with Robert Lopez, who helped compose the award-winning musical Avenue Q."
Sure enough, the production, which opens March 24, is bawdy and irreverent. Many believers would see it as a blasphemous assault on scriptures, much like the pair's animated TV series. But the satire and tone were not as hostile as many Mormons feared.
"I was expecting to be offended," said Anne Christensen, a 22-year-old LDS New Yorker, "but was pleasantly surprised by how incredibly sweet it was."
Her mother, Janet Christensen, added: "It's not G-rated, but they treated us with affection. And they did their homework."
The play is a story about faith and doubt, with actions and themes that will be familiar to most Utahns, no matter their religious tradition.
The set includes the outside frame of an LDS temple, with a spinning Angel Moroni on top. There are brief appearances by LDS Church founder Joseph Smith, his successor, Brigham Young, Book of Mormon figures Mormon and Moroni, and Jesus himself.
The main characters, though, are LDS missionaries in white shirts, ties and those ever-present name tags.
The first scene shows about a dozen missionaries happily ringing doorbells and claiming all answers "are in the book," holding up copies of The Book of Mormon.
For the next two hours, these young men sing about being temptation, sexuality, guilt and fear, and about believing sometimes-ludicrous doctrines. They deal with differences and egos and doubt.
One mismatched pair, Elder Price (played by Andrew Rannells) and Elder Cunningham (played by Josh Gad), is sent to Uganda, where AIDS has decimated the population and the locals believe having sex with a virgin is the only cure. A local warlord is threatening to attack and circumcise all the women.
Price, a by-the-book leader who thought Orlando, would be a perfect place to do his two-year stint, is convinced that he can change the world by baptizing the most people. He is confident and cocky.
Cunningham, a geeky but eager misfit, just wants to be liked. He hasn't actually read the Mormon scripture but loves the stories of Star Wars and Lord of the Rings and mixes them into his preaching.
In one powerful number, I Believe, Price belts out a string of peculiarly Mormon teachings — that ancient Jews sailed to America, that God lives on a planet called Kolob, that in 1978 "God changed his mind about black people" and that the Garden of Eden was in Jackson County, Mo.
Later, Price begins to doubt those stories, which triggers a "spooky Mormon hell dream," in which he sees serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer and Genghis Khan, among other figures. Price is also haunted by two giant cups of coffee, which is prohibited by the church's health code.
That leaves Cunningham, who has a "problem" with lying, alone to convert the Ugandans and leads directly to some hilarious antics and miscommunication.
Chris Bono, a spokesman for the producers, said that "this is not just a spoof of Mormons, and it's not cynical."
In response to media requests before the musical's preview, the LDS Church released the following: "The production may attempt to entertain audiences for an evening, but the Book of Mormon as a volume of scripture will change people's lives forever by bringing them closer to Christ."
Parker and Stone have said they love Mormons "and it showed," said Graceann Bennett, a Mormon from Chicago. "It was like loving teasing. I don't think you could get to that sweetness in today's world without a serious dose of irreverence."
Bennett especially liked the fact that the characters were "real Mormons," not fringe groups such as polygamists. There was not a single mention of plural marriage, "Big Love," Mitt Romney or Proposition 8. And, though there is a glimpse of "Mormon underwear," there are no jokes about it.
"Americans think Mormons are all the same," Bennett said. "This shows diversity and that Mormons can grow and change in their faith."

across110thstreet · Sep 19, 2012

this is about musical that won 9 Tony Awards?

bwahahaha

Mathloom · Sep 19, 2012

Why are certain people obsessed with the idea of making people fear them?

basso, even if what you're saying is true, is fear from Muslims a goal of US foreign policy?

dachuda86 · Sep 19, 2012

bigtexxx said: ↑

Brilliant piece completely exposing the liberals hypocrisy on this.

Some of the excerpts:

Meanwhile, Hillary attended the Book of Mormon play without even registering a complaint...

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390444450004578002010241044712.html
Why is it OK to mock one religion but not another?

'Hasa Diga Eebowai" is the hit number in Broadway's hit musical "The Book of Mormon," which won nine Tony awards last year. What does the phrase mean? I can't tell you, because it's unprintable in a family newspaper.

On the other hand, if you can afford to shell out several hundred bucks for a seat, then you can watch a Mormon missionary get his holy book stuffed—well, I can't tell you about that, either. Let's just say it has New York City audiences roaring with laughter.

The "Book of Mormon"—a performance of which Hillary Clinton attended last year, without registering a complaint—comes to mind as the administration falls over itself denouncing "Innocence of Muslims." This is a film that may or may not exist; whose makers are likely not who they say they are; whose actors claim to have known neither the plot nor purpose of the film; and which has never been seen by any member of the public except as a video clip on the Internet.

No matter. The film, the administration says, is "hateful and offensive" (Susan Rice), "reprehensible and disgusting" (Jay Carney) and, in a twist, "disgusting and reprehensible" (Hillary Clinton). Mr. Carney, the White House spokesman, also lays sole blame on the film for inciting the riots that have swept the Muslim world and claimed the lives of Ambassador Chris Stevens and three of his staff in Libya.

So let's get this straight: In the consensus view of modern American liberalism, it is hilarious to mock Mormons and Mormonism but outrageous to mock Muslims and Islam. Why? Maybe it's because nobody has ever been harmed, much less killed, making fun of Mormons.

Here's what else we learned this week about the emerging liberal consensus: That it's okay to denounce a movie you haven't seen, which is like trashing a book you haven't read. That it's okay to give perp-walk treatment to the alleged—and no doubt terrified—maker of the film on legally flimsy and politically motivated grounds of parole violation. That it's okay for the federal government publicly to call on Google to pull the video clip from YouTube in an attempt to mollify rampaging Islamists. That it's okay to concede the fundamentalist premise that religious belief ought to be entitled to the highest possible degree of social deference—except when Mormons and sundry Christian rubes are concerned.

And, finally, this: That the most "progressive" administration in recent U.S. history will make no principled defense of free speech to a Muslim world that could stand hearing such a defense. After the debut of "The Book of Mormon" musical, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints responded with this statement: "The production may attempt to entertain audiences for an evening but the Book of Mormon as a volume of scripture will change people's lives forever by bringing them closer to Christ."

That was it. The People's Front for the Liberation of Provo will not be gunning for a theater near you. Is it asking too much of religious and political leaders in Muslim communities to adopt a similar attitude?

It needn't be. A principled defense of free speech could start by quoting the Quran: "And it has already come down to you in the Book that when you hear the verses of Allah [recited], they are denied [by them] and ridiculed; so do not sit with them until they enter into another conversation." In this light, the true test of religious conviction is indifference, not susceptibility, to mockery.

The defense could add that a great religion surely cannot be goaded into frenetic mob violence on the slimmest provocation. Yet to watch the images coming out of Benghazi, Cairo, Tunis and Sana'a is to witness some significant portion of a civilization being transformed into Travis Bickle, the character Robert De Niro made unforgettable in Taxi Driver. "You talkin' to me?"

A defense would also point out that an Islamic world that insists on a measure of religious respect needs also to offer that respect in turn. When Sheikh Yusuf Qaradawi—the closest thing Sunni Islam has to a pope—praises Hitler for exacting "divine punishment" on the Jews, that respect isn't exactly apparent. Nor has it been especially apparent in the waves of Islamist-instigated pogroms that have swept Egypt's Coptic community in recent years.

Finally, it need be said that the whole purpose of free speech is to protect unpopular, heretical, vulgar and stupid views. So far, the Obama administration's approach to free speech is that it's fine so long as it's cheap and exacts no political price. This is free speech as pizza.

President Obama came to office promising that he would start a new conversation with the Muslim world, one that lectured less and listened more. After nearly four years of listening, we can now hear more clearly where the U.S. stands in the estimation of that world: equally despised but considerably less feared. Just imagine what four more years of instinctive deference will do.

On the bright side, dear liberals, you'll still be able to mock Mormons. They tend not to punch back, which is part of what makes so many of them so successful in life.
Click to expand...

All I got from this was RAWRRRRRR, liberals are all the sameeeeeee. WAAHHH.

atomicanderz · Sep 19, 2012

I will mock EVERY religion.

napalm06 · Sep 19, 2012

All of my mormon friends from both sides of the political fence were fans of this article, as am I. I will agree it's over the top. I'm never a fan of saying 'only one side does X or Y'.

It will inevitably be hated around here because BigTexxx presented it though. Them's the breaks.

The Book of Mormon play is ludicrous. But OH - it won Tony awards. My bad.

bigtexxx · Sep 19, 2012

napalm_black said: ↑

All of my mormon friends from both sides of the political fence were fans of this article, as am I. I will agree it's over the top. I'm never a fan of saying 'only one side does X or Y'.

It will inevitably be hated around here because BigTexxx presented it though. Them's the breaks.

The Book of Mormon play is ludicrous. But OH - it won Tony awards. My bad.
Click to expand...

The article thoughtfully and thoroughly breaks down the liberals' complete hypocrisy on the issue. The defensiveness from the left here is understandable, as they don't have a quality response to the article.

Regarding the initial response here, that's to be expected. When a thread gets posted, you have an initial wave of "dog pile liberals" (http://bbs.clutchfans.net/showthread.php?t=224450) come in and try to discredit it right off the bat. Guys like McMark, QdoubleA, CometsWin, Sweet Lou, etc. These guys are simply parrots for the daily Kos and huffpo talking points of the day, and aren't capable of original thought. They're also not interested in any kind of debate, as they see politics as an "us vs. them" competition and don't actually concern themselves with details and facts.

It's best to ignore this rabble -- once the knee jerk reaction fades, you'll get more serious posters engage on the topic.

NewRoxFan · Sep 19, 2012

bigtexxx said: ↑

as they don't have quality response to the article.

These guys are simply parrots for the daily Kos and huffpo talking points of the day, and aren't capable of original thought. They're also not interested in any kind of debate, as they see politics as an "us vs. them" competition and don't actually concern themselves with details and facts.

It's best to ignore this rabble -- once the knee jerk reaction fades, you'll get more serious posters engage on the topic.
Click to expand...

You don't get this level of comedy from stand ups anymore. Hilarious!

mc mark · Sep 19, 2012

napalm_black said: ↑

The Book of Mormon play is ludicrous. But OH - it won Tony awards. My bad.
Click to expand...

I'm guessing you haven't see it?

BTW it's a musical, not a play.

Dei · Sep 19, 2012

I sorta agree bigtexxx. I don't think left is unified regarding censorship.

I absolutely find the US government's stance absolutely appalling. Free speech is a personal right of American citizens. The government should be looking towards protecting these rights.

I personally wouldn't even talk to people who'd riot over something like this.

QdoubleA · Sep 19, 2012

Dei said: ↑

I sorta agree bigtexxx. I don't think left is unified regarding censorship.

I absolutely find the US government's stance absolutely appalling. Free speech is a personal right of American citizens. The government should be looking towards protecting these rights.

I personally wouldn't even talk to people who'd riot over something like this.
Click to expand...

Go ahead and post where the US government tried to shut down free speech in this situation. TIA.

Dei · Sep 19, 2012

QdoubleA said: ↑

Go ahead and post where the US government tried to shut down free speech in this situation. TIA.
Click to expand...

They requested that the video be taken down.

mc mark · Sep 19, 2012

Dei said: ↑

They requested that the video be taken down.
Click to expand...

No they didn't. They asked YouTube if the video conforms with their posting guidelines.

QdoubleA · Sep 19, 2012

Dei said: ↑

They requested that the video be taken down.
Click to expand...

Go check your facts homey.

djohn2o12 · Sep 19, 2012

bigtexx must hate his life

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