Aint religion a funny old thing? Now when I was growing up as a kid in a Roman Catholic household, I went to church every week and I went to St Vincents RC Primary School on the Ridgeway. We were taught that Jesus loves you and you've got to be nice to your neighbours. We were taught to turn the other cheek and we were taught that the early church members were led, singing hymns, to be eaten by lions in Roman auditoriums. I really couldn't understand why anyone wouldn't really want to be a member of such a marvellous religion.The first little doubt crept in when I was talking to my friend Suzi who lived up the road. I guess I was seven or eight at the time. Her family were Jewish and along with all of the other families in the road (of all denominations) we were in and out of her house and didn't give it any thought. One day she said a rather strange thing to me - "My dad said that the pope says that jews eat babies". She was rather concerned about this. I didn't really know too much about the Pope then. He was a bloke who lived in Rome and wore a funny hat. My parents used to say, if I was naughty the Pope would be cross. Anyway Suzi didn't really know who the Pope was, except that he was the top bloke in the Catholic church. She was worried by this. I promised to make some enquiries. I asked my Dad "Dad, if the Pope says something, is it true". My Dad replied "Yes, he's infallible". This was bad news indeed. Now it was quite clear that Suzi didn't eat babies (given that she was disturbed by the comment her Dad made). I was pretty sure her mum and dad didn't either, so why had the Pope said it?
Anyway, we held another discussion on the subject. I lied "I asked my Dad and he said the Pope wasn't talking about your mum and dad, he was talking about someone else". Now Suzi was a bit worried, could it have been one of her uncles? Her Dad had clealry said it for a reason. There was someone in her family who her Dad didn't talk to. She said "I think I'd better ask my Dad who it is". The conference was adjourned for a couple of days. When it reconvened, she'd got the full facts. Her dad had been talking to a mate of his and made a flippant remark, not knowing she was in earshot. When he'd found out she'd heard and she'd been really upset, he was mortified. Although she was only a kid, he sat her down and explained how lies had been spread about Jewish people and one of these was that they hurt babies. He assured her that the modern Pope didn't think this, but in history there were some rather naughty popes who did bad things, especially to jewish folks. He said that now we all got on fine and were friends. He told her that lots of bad things happened in the past and we had to move on.
Anyway, Suzi duly reported this back to me. Now I was troubled by the fact that my Dad had said the Pope was infallible, but clearly there had been some naughty Popes if Suzi's Dad was telling the truth. Later I asked him "Dad, were there some Popes a few hundred years ago, who were bad people". Now my Dad was always pretty honest and this troubled him. He didn't really want to tell his eight year old son that there had been bad popes, but he didn't want to lie. "The Pope is only human, he can make mistakes. A few hundred years ago there were problems, but they changed the rules and now we've got a good pope". Well that sorted that out, but the whole incident planted a little seed of doubt. It's fair to say that as I learned more about the history of the Church, I realised that, yes there had been some naughty popes.
So what has this conversation from 40 years ago got to do with today? Well there is a massive row going on about a page on facebook called Lets Draw Mohammed. This has 200+ followers. In response an Everybody who is against Lets Draw Mohammed facebook page has sprung up. This has 9,500 + followers. This is an interesting conundrum. The supporters of the first of these pages are exercising their right to free speech. This is perfectly legal and is one of the reasons why Western Society is the choice of the vast majority of people who have a choice. However the supporters of this page are deliberately insulting 1 Billion + people. To a Muslim, this is a blasphemous and deliberate insult. Now most Muslims are actually pretty sensible about such matters. In the Islamic religion, it is blasphemous to show the image of any prophet. As Jesus is also recognised as a prophet, theoretically every Roman Catholic church is blaspheming against Islam, as every church will have images of Jesus. Muslims don't go around demanding churches are shut or starting facebook pages calling for a ban. The reason they have reacted against the Facebook page is because it is a deliberate insult. I once sat through a day in Hendon magistrates court. A Scotsman was up before the beak for punching a Policeman. He was lying on the ground in a state of inebriation when the copper kicked him and said "get up you drunken Scottish B*****d". The drunken Scottish B******d did just that and thumped him, immediately getting arrested. His defence was that if the officer had simply asked him to move along, he would have moved. As he insulted Scotland, he felt he had to thump him for the "Honour of Scotland". Both sides agreed on the facts of the case. I suspect that the magistrate was Scottish, as he said "normally I would impose a harsh custodial sentence for striking a police officer, but as I do understand how your National pride would have been insulted, I am only going to impose a £100 fine". The police were furious. The point is that if you deliberately set out to antagonise someone, bad things happen. We can all make silly comments that can have profound effects. My friends Dads comment to his friend was one such example. He not only worried the hell out of his daughter, but had the potential to cause bad feelings. When he realised she'd heard, he sensibly defused the situation. I can remember telling my Dad about the drunken Scotsman and his lucky escape from jail. My Dad laughed and said "Now there's a lesson for us all, if you don't want to get thumped, don't go around insulting people." With regards to the facebook pages, I rather think a few people have to grow up a little bit.
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