Relativism’s hypocrisy

Pope Benedict explained, exposed and condemned relativism with far more eloquence and grace than I could ever hope to achieve. But let us consider one example of the error. Relativism in its most blatant and banal form; or in other words, sheer hypocrisy. The media, political and social treatment of two religions and how those religions react to such treatment.

In mid-September, a hideously bad film entitled The Innocence of Muslims was discovered on YouTube. It was little more than 10 minutes of a trailer, and nobody knows if the entire film even exists. It mocked and insulted Mohammad and his followers, although some of the incidents portrayed were authentic. The Islamic world, as we know, reacted with horrific violence, people were murdered and there were calls throughout the Muslim world for blasphemy laws and for the filmmaker, an Egyptian Christian who had experienced Islamic persecution, to be executed.

At the very time that this furnace of anger and destruction was beginning, the Venice Film Festival gave a special award to a movie that showed a devout Catholic woman masturbating with a crucifix. Ten days later, a New York art gallery displayed an exhibit from more than 20 years ago showing Jesus on the cross soaked in the artist’s own urine.

Frankly, that two-week period was not remarkable in the world of anti-Catholicism, and there are myriad plays, pictures, books and songs that libel and abuse all things Catholic all the time. In some circles, art is only considered viable if it is presented through the filter of Church hatred. Nothing new there, and nothing that could in any way shake our faith.

Yet the reaction says so much. While the Islamic world creased double in venom and revenge for what was really quite tame and mild, the Catholic world issued a few press releases and then went on with its life. And please don’t give me any of those, “Muslims live in poverty, under dictatorship, etc.” defences. The oil wealth in many Arab states is breath-taking, many of the countries where deadly riots occurred are democracies and ask why Christians who live in impoverished or brutalized areas alongside Muslims do not react in the same manner.

No, there is something far more significant and meaningful here. Just as political ideologies differ, just as people differ, religions differ as well. At its least Christian and most troubled, the Catholic Church did not command mass slaughter. Even the Inquisition insisted on legal representation for the accused, chances for contrition and forgiveness, and set free most of those it questioned. Of course crimes have been committed by Catholics, but always in spite of Church teaching. I challenge you to prove to me that the same applies to Islam, and that the teachings of the Quran and the example of Mohammad prohibit death for apostates, advocate equal treatment of non-Muslims and respect for disagreement.

The mainstream media played their usual game of political hide-and-seek when all of this happened. Now you see my liberalism, now you don’t. Hardly any of the networks showed clips from The Innocence of Muslims, even though it was the alleged premise for most of the world’s main news. They have never shown such restraint in presenting plays that accuse Jesus of homosexuality or pictures of the Virgin Mary covered in elephant dung. Catholics don’t issue fatwas. More than this, many in the media are still convinced that the Church’s opposition to gay marriage and abortion are the causes of much that is wrong in the world, and if you spend any time speaking to them you will be stunned by their naiveté and malice.

It was this media culture that produced people like the late and gifted Christopher Hitchens and the living and talentless Sam Harris, who insist that religion doesn’t matter. They mean that it doesn’t matter to them, which is something entirely different. It matters perhaps more than it ever did before, and what matters most of all is which religion you follow and which triumphs in a culture war being waged with more dedication than the secular world will ever comprehend. The Innocence of Muslims? Nothing compared to that of relativists.