How is your God doing? Is He under attack? Not by the shoe-throwing journalist. I mean, real attack. Does He need your protection? Is He crying under His bed? Do you feel called upon to protect your God?
Not like the way SSS protected President Bush when the shoes flew by. I mean, really putting yourself out there, your body, your soul, your life all in the protection of your God?
Do you fear that those attacking your God could kill Him? Is the attack embarrassing you and your God? Is it making you feel that your religion is inferior to others? Does your God rejoice when you fight for Him? Does He feel ashamed of you for demeaning Him, making him look weak to fight for Himself?
Really, what is your God’s problem? Let me rephrase it. What is your problem? Why do you care? Why worship a God that cannot fight for Himself?
I am saying all these because today, the United Nations renewed a resolution called “Combating Defamation of Religion.”
In general terms, it says, respect other religions.
But what does respect mean? Who defines respect? Is throwing a shoe at the God or the messenger or the holy book of another religion respect? Does drawing a cartoon of the prophet of another religion disrespectful? Who decides what is and what is not? Where is the list?
Can you fight the defamation of religion without first granting freedom of religion? Can you stop people with bad taste from expressing them without tampering with their rights? Does converting from one religion to another amount to defamation? Does it warrant a death sentence?
Who is fooling who?
One hundred years from now, a new generation of people will inhabit this earth. From Johannesburg to Sydney, from Seattle to Mumbai, from Rome to Siberia, from Kingston to Gaza, they will read about our thoughts, our actions and our words and marvel at how stupid we all are.
To them, our time will obviously be the dark ages when mere mortals arrogate unto themselves the right to fight for their God.
I say, let the Gods fight for themselves. Those Gods who cannot stand the heat should resign, retire, or file for bankruptcy. Anything short of this is blasphemy.
