Stories of flag burning and death threats seem to be everywhere at the moment. Does the reaction by some Muslims to the recent offensive cartoons show Christians up as being less passionate and committed to their faith than those who follow Islam? What if it were a cartoon of Jesus – would Christians react in such a passionate and outraged way? In fact, in programmes like ‘South Park’, don’t cartoons of Christ already exist? Should Christians make such a public display of their disapproval and offence?
 
Being passionate is definitely not the same as spreading hate and threatening retaliation. The vast majority of Muslims would not condone the hate-fuelled reactions that have been so widely promoted in the media. Yet they are no less passionate about what they believe and no less hurt by the unfair portrayal of their prophet. It’s the same with Christians – just because they don’t threaten to kill anyone who takes the Lord’s name in vain, doesn’t mean that their faith doesn’t mean everything to them.
 
When the BBC screened ‘Jerry Springer: The Opera’, which contained some controversial interpretations of Jesus and Christianity, some Christians were accused of heavy-handed tactics but most believers distanced themselves from this kind of threatening protest. It was not that this musical wasn’t offensive but rather that people didn’t think the way to object to it’s content was to attack those who had shown it.
 
Jesus himself, was regularly ‘attacked’ and ‘accused’ while he was touring, speaking and healing people (see Matthew 12:22-37). But far from fling insults or retaliate, he would answer his critics either with Scripture, with actions or simply appeal to their common sense. He didn’t shy away from the issue, nor did he allow himself to be bullied. He even got angry on occasions (Matthew 21:12-13), but it was always anger aimed at the wrongs in society rather than the wrong-doers. Even when he did accuse people, he only did so to the religious leaders – the ones who should were supposed to be God’s own representatives and should have known better.
 
So, how then, do we show that we are passionate about what we believe and how do we respond to those who insult Jesus? Well, first of all, I do think that Jesus has ‘broad shoulders’ – in other words, he has received and coped with pretty much any insult and mocking that was thrown at him on the cross and so I don’t believe it is our job to protect him. We should not shy away from telling people that we find the way some people joke about our faith hurtful but it is not our place to fight back
 
We show our passion by living what we believe. By backing our words with actions – the actions of Christ. We shouldn’t be afraid to tell others about Him and we should fight for the things that Jesus fought – for love, mercy, justice and peace. If we aspired to this more and focused on the wrongs in the world less, I’m sure our passion for Christ would burn brighter than any bitter protestor.