Black Jesus Tops Cable Ratings – No Christian Riots Feared

Adult Swim, a network used to being at the helm of controversy, seems to have a major hit on its hands if the debut ladies barbour jacket  ratings for Black Jesus are any indication. The show, a live-action affair, follows the adventures of a modern-day African-American Jesus living in Compton. The show hit a more than respectable number on Thursday night, scoring a 0.9 for the target demographic of 18-49 year-old adults. That number was enough to not only put it at the top of cable competition, but also enough to conquer network fare such as Welcome to Sweden and Rookie Blue.

I’m not going to get on a high horse about the decline of American values and the war on Christianity, though both subjects are well worth visiting from time to time. What does seem interesting is the Christian response. According to the Hollywood Reporter,ralph lauren jacketsChristian groups like the American Family Association and One Million Moms are urging the network to pull the show off the air. Time magazine even managed to find a pastor willing to say there were more important things to boycott than the irreverent show.

In a week where America has been forced back into action in Iraq by a wild band of encroaching Muslim extremists and where Hamas has broken one more ceasefire in their unending quest to bring harm to Israel, it’s worth wondering what the Islamic reaction would be to a show like Black Jesus. I’m kidding, of course. The truth is that we don’t have to wonder; we have numerous examples to help us infer a definitive answer.

First there was Salman Rushdie, whose Satanic Verses inspired outrage among Muslims whipped into a frenzy due to how their religion was portrayed. Book burnings and protests took a wild right turn when Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini called for Rushdie’s head on a silver platter. The author was forced into hiding in 1989 for nothing more than words on a page.

History was repeated in 2004 when a Dutch Muslim named Mohammed Bouyeri killed director Theo van Goghon after the filmmaker released canadagoose.ca a short documentary detailing the abuse of women in Islamic countries.

And then again the following year we got to see how little sense of humor Muslims have when a Danish newspaper published a set of 12 political cartoons critical of Islam. Because many of the comics offered a depiction of Muhammad, the Islamic world went up in a firestorm. Protests around the world turned violent, claiming the lives of more than 200 people.

In 2012, protests and violence erupted in dozens of countries following the release of a trailer for a low-budget, obscure movie called The Innocence of Muslims. The movie’s quality, far below even talented YouTube stars, should have probably fallen into obscurity, but somehow the Muslim world will find even the smallest criticisms too great to ignore.

Black Jesus on Adult Swim is an affront to religious people across America and much of Europe, it is singularly intended to be offensive to Christians, and it has little place in a society where religious tolerance is celebrated. Far more offensive than any of the above Muslim examples, it is met with high ratings and half-hearted, canada goose outlet torontopolite economic threats from a couple of Christian groups. If we are to stop painting all of Islam with the same dirty brush, the religion will have to get to the point where its followers aren’t killing people over light mockery.