A Statement by ACM’s Executive Director, Anthony Horvath, Calling for the Resignation of Whoever Apologized for Free Speech–And Other Complaints
Watching the Obama administration try to get their messaging right regarding whether or not Christians are to blame for Muslim violence or if the Muslims are to blame for Muslim violence admittedly serves as a form of entertainment for me. Unfortunately, this time, people were seriously–fatally–harmed. Nothing entertaining about that.
I have been involved in Christian apologetics for nearly twenty years, and I’ve seen this type of thing many, many times. Here is the apology:
The Embassy of the United States in Cairo condemns the continuing efforts by misguided individuals to hurt the religious feelings of Muslims – as we condemn efforts to offend believers of all religions. Today, the 11th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States, Americans are honoring our patriots and those who serve our nation as the fitting response to the enemies of democracy. Respect for religious beliefs is a cornerstone of American democracy. We firmly reject the actions by those who abuse the universal right of free speech to hurt the religious beliefs of others.
I hereby call upon whomever wrote this release to resign immediately, or barring that, be fired. No person this out of touch with reality should be permitted to represent our country in such an important role.
But that is not the main reason for issuing this statement.
It is pretty common in my experience to have people denounce all things religious, and Christianity in particular, because ‘religion is so violent’, only to have them then produce examples of specifically Islamic violence to demonstrate their point. A good illustration of this, is Richard Dawkins’ arguments in his book “The God Delusion” in a section titled ‘Undeserved Respect’ where he targets the specifically Christian concept of God and to ‘prove’ his point, proceeds to give case after case of Muslim atrocities. Apparently, in the atheistic mind, Christians filing lawsuits is equivalent to murdering filmmakers–and storming embassies and slaying American diplomats.
While some people are rightly denouncing the state department’s knee-jerk apologizing for ‘misguided individuals’ who ‘hurt the religious feelings of Muslims,’ I noted with particular interest the skewed notion of ‘respect for religious beliefs’ that their press release says is ‘a cornerstone of American democracy.’ No doubt, such respect really is a cornerstone of our democracy, but the idea that respect means remaining silent or that resorting to violence in response to an ‘abuse [of] the universal right of free speech’ is appropriate, is not only absurd, but is clearly out of touch with what respect for different beliefs has meant in America.
In America, ‘respect’ does not mean condoning, remaining silent, or even speaking kindly about someone. It may mean boycotting something, but it doesn’t mean blowing it up. There have been exceptions, but this is a case where the exceptions prove the rule.
The thing that gets me with this is that, once again, Muslims get a ‘pass.’ And of course, the media describes them as ‘ultra-conservative’ Muslims, playing into the sentiment that a conservative is anyone who actually believes what they say they believe. The idea that there is something within the particular belief system of Islam itself that drives such behavior never seems to register.
The whole attitude exhibits a profound lack of a sound sense of proportion. The press release by the embassy in Cairo exhibited the same distorted sense of proportion: the speech of some American Christians is ‘bad’ but the violence of the Muslims was understandable and forgivable. But as they say, ‘It’s all fun and games until someone gets hurt.’ It is reasonable to suspect that the latest ‘stop’ on the apology tour emboldened the assailants in Libya.
It is time for atheists, secular humanists, the media, and those who are tasked to defend us from real threats–the government–to exhibit a little common sense. Some people may be religious, but they aren’t Christians. Stop using the violence of Islamicists to argue against Christianity. In the meantime, it seems to me very likely that our cowardice on this point is leading us into even more danger.
But I don’t expect this to happen. After all, what am I going to do? I’m a Christian; the worst I’m doing is calling for someone’s resignation. The other folks may very well cut off their heads.
