The idea of an atheist ‘movement’ “on the march” is not, I confess, something that fills me with great joy, but running through a recent story in the London Independent on this topic, it’s possible to detect at least one important theme, growing irritation with repeated attempts (most often pushed in the UK by more extreme Muslims or those, like Tony Blair, set on appeasing them) to criminalize some lines of criticism of religious belief or practice.
As if on cue, we then find this story from the Daily Telegraph about complaints by the Vatican about an Israeli TV program. Judging by the report, the program in question (I’d need to see it to come to any proper conclusions) appears in some respects to be somewhat sophomoric, and the Holy See is, of course, entirely within its rights to criticize it as blasphemous, but two things stand out.
The first was that the Vatican chose to raise these criticisms with the Israeli government (the program was shown on a private TV channel) a move that was, if only by implication, an attempt to involve the state (and its coercive powers) in what should have been a purely private controversy.
The second was this:
“The Vatican said that, in the clip, Mary and Joseph were “ridiculed with blasphemous words and images” that amounted to a “vulgar and offensive act of intolerance toward the religious sentiments of the believers in Christ.”
Now, what was shown may well have been blasphemous (as the Vatican defines it) and it may well have been “offensive” (to some and simply stupid to others), and, as I mentioned above, the Vatican is fully entitled to say so (in fact, debate on these topics is no bad thing). What is revealing, however, is the way that a part of the program is also described by the Holy See as an act of “intolerance.”
“Intolerance” these days is a trigger word, designed to bring down the wrath of the PC state on the heads of offenders, but (again, judging only by the report) I see no signs of intolerance, merely criticism, rather crudely expressed; the normal hurly-debate of debate in other words, designed to open up discussion rather than suppress it. If anything, this is the antithesis of intolerance.
How sad it is to see the Vatican playing the mullahs’ game…
