Friday, December 16, 2016

"If I Only Had the Nerve"

"Let the wookie win". If you know Star Wars, you know the scene this quote is referring to. In this scene C-3p0 advises R2D2 to let this wookie win because it is known the wookie will fight while the droid will not. Recently, Hollywood has been called a coward because they pick more and more on Christianity than any other religion. Letting the "wookie" win. But is there a legitimate reason behind it? 
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Seth McFarlane was brought up for his mockery of Christians in his beloved show, Family Guy. But it has to be said that Christianity is not the only religion mocked on the show. He has numerous episodes type casting other religions, and him "picking" on the Christians isn't, in my opinion, a show of weakness by Hollywood, too scared to mock other religions. Seth is known for his dislike of Christianity, and HIS personal opinion shines through. This one instance doesn't mean there is intentional over mocking of Christians enticed by Hollywood, there definitely is. I'm simply bringing it up to try to explain that not all shows are under the "mock Christians" thumb of Hollywood, Seth just doesn't like them. Family Guy was compared to the other, equally raunchy show, South Park. South Park experienced their own run in with "don't mock my religion" when one of the main voices on their show threatened to quite after an episode was aired mocking Scientology. The creators, instead, ran the episode and simply got rid of the character. Too harsh or right? Hayes, the voice of Chief (the character that was removed from the show) said,"there is a place in this world for satire, but there is a time when satire ends and intolerance and bigotry towards religious beliefs of others begins." Which is totally true and I 100% agree with that statement. But, you cant sometimes live by that and other times don't. The writers said Hayes, "has no problem – and he's cashed plenty of checks – with our show making fun of Christians, Muslims, Mormons, or Jews." Stone adds, "[We] never heard a peep out of Isaac in any way until we did Scientology. He wants a different standard for religions other than his own, and to me, that is where intolerance and bigotry begins." And I agree with that as well. You cannot say, "don't mock what I believe, but you can totally mock what others believe. Hell I'll join you!" I don't think it is right to mock one religion and just rail on it until it is a cliche joke. But it's not any better to defend your religious beliefs and hate on others. Pathetic and a hypocrite, awful combination. That's the definition of cowardness.
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Now to discuss the lack of fight from the Christian community. If someone has an issue with something but won't do anything about it then why are they constantly surprised that nothing has changed. If Christians want to pick a fight with Hollywood about the "special" attention they are getting then do it. Don't have a fit about it and how nothing is being done yet you yourself aren't doing anything either. But I don't think they should do anything drastic quite yet. The other question raised is, "why are Christians mocked the most?". But I believe it is quite clear. 

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"You have heard that it was said. And eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. But I tell you not to resist an evildoer. On the contrary,whoever slaps you on the right cheek, turn the other to him as well." Christians have been raised to turn the other cheek when faced with advisory. Not back down, roll over and take it, but simply stand with what the believe and turn the other cheek. But quite frankly, they've run out of cheeks. So why is the Christian faith ridiculed so much? Because there is no threat. Other religions would, and have, threatened and killed writers who mocked them. Christians will just complain and think its unfair, but not kill. That's not their way, that's that what they stand for. And I think that speaks wonders of them. 
So to answer the question asked before, does Hollywood have a legitimate reason for choice ridicule? Yes and no. Yes because Hollywood has tried to pick on other religions and ended with some awful consequences. Example, the movie The Interview. The producers and actors who participated in the movie were sent death threats and the theaters scheduled to show it were sent bomb threats if they did. Christians, real Christians, would never do that. And if they did they would get ridiculed for not having a Christian attitude towards the event. And its not all Hollywood's fault either. Who goes and watches the movies and TV shows? Who gives them positive reviews? Why stop doing the thing brining in the views right? I say no because Hollywood is basically kicking Christianity when their down. Their practically beating a dead horse at this point. They know they wont get much, if any, backlash from the Christians. The Christians are waiting for their moment to rise and show everyone their beliefs shouldn't be the center of all the comedic digs. But the fight isn't in their favor. So why waste their voice yelling and bashing Hollywood for bashing them? They are living, in my opinion, by the words of John Mayer, "It's not that we don't care. We just know that the fight ain't fair. So we keep on waiting (waiting). Waiting on the world to change" And how will it change? It wont start up top with the "big dogs" like Hollywood. It starts with you and me and our neighbors, our friends. So I guess the real question through all this is, how do we get this constant hate of Christianity, of anything, of everything, to change? We can't all wait for the world to change to make a move. Then nothing will ever happen. And something, anything, must change.

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