hate speech in the name of Jesus
A friend received an anonymous envelope this week with a cartoon tract inside. He was very offended and brought it to show me.
I winced as I flipped through the cartoons, remembering a time in my younger life when I was first introduced to cartoon hate speech. Back then it was comic books that showed the Pope as the anti-Christ, now it is hateful misrepresentations of Muslims. This little tract which purports to invite devotion to Jesus is filled with the vile suggestion that Muslim children are raised to be suicide bombers.
Without having seen this tract, I would be hard pressed to believe that such poison was published much less purchased. But clearly it is. And clearly someone took the time and spent the money to send these tracts (with full postage) to strangers.
I went to the website referenced on the tract. It is filled with tools for witnessing to Jesus Christ. At the website you can also read about the apostacy of the Roman Catholics and the evil of the Masons. But the section reserved for the Muslims is unmistakable.
Having just come from the website, I find myself feeling ill. I wish I could feel anger; I write well with a touch of anger. But I’m caught between the urge to throw up and the one to cry. And too a cold sense of dread.
Dread that our religious bigotry is leading us nowhere good. Dread that this vile pamphlet will find it’s way into the hands of a Muslim child. Dread that the loathing directed towards American Christians might not be misplaced after all.
And I don’t know what to do with this piece of evidence. Do I save it to prove the existence of this hate speech? Or do I destroy before it can promulagate more hate?
Maybe the anger will come in the morning…
but tonight I just feel sick.
