Watch out: Religion, humor and free expression

[trotsky]

http://www.abqjournal.com/526452/upfront/watch-out-religion-humor-and-freedom-of-expression.html

I’m an Episcopalian. You can always tell when you’re in an Episcopal Church’s kitchen. There is no can opener, but there are four corkscrews.

...

It wasn’t that long ago that religious jokes were taboo in polite society. Religious displays on public property continue to provoke protests and lawsuits. The anti-gay rallies at the funerals of armed service members staged by Westboro Baptist Church members are both sickening and protected by the Constitution.

There is no way to resolve this tension. Faith is personal and private, but free expression is public. People of faith, myself included, just have to risk being offended or outraged from time to time when we venture out into the public square. The alternative is to allow terrorists or the government or the politically correct to stifle free expression, and that is unthinkable.

Our nation’s founders protected both religious practice and free expression in the same constitutional amendment because they knew that they are different manifestations of the same human impulse. Kill one and you kill both.

A believer who gets it! Compare and contrast to the leader of the RCC who says that no one should say anything that offends the religious.

[libdem4life]

1. Hahahahah...4 corkscrews!! n/t

[DreamGypsy]

2. My mother was an Episcopalian. She often remarked: Whenever three or four are gathered together...

...you're pretty sure to find a fifth.

She was very serious about her religious beliefs, including the humor.

[msongs]

3. religion suppresses free expression 24/7 thanks to people of faith. nt