The Theatre du Rond Point on the Champs Elysees is running a play from by Argentinian director Rodrigo Garcia named "Golgota Picnic" which is attracting protests from Christians, especially Catholics. The play is very critical of consumer culture, but it's also of Christianity and some are calling it an example of "Christianophobia". Because, you know, any sort of criticism of any ideology is a "phobia".
"This is a peaceful protest," said the auxiliary bishop of Nanterre, Nicolas Brouwet. "All we want is for our faith not to be ridiculed." ...
Answering a rallying call by the Archbishop of Paris Cardinal Andre Vingt-Trois, some 4,000 Catholic faithful, including some 200 priests, joined a prayer vigil at Notre Dame Cathedral in protest at a play which the archbishop says "insults the figure of Christ". ...
The Institut Civitas traditionalist movement has warned on its website that Christians will picket the Paris theatre for as long as the play is shown there, from December 8 to 17.
Source: Yahoo
Nicolas Brouwet may want his religious beliefs to not be ridiculed, but he has absolutely no right to demand that his religious beliefs not be ridiculed, He has no right to expect the government or any other institution to censors others in order to protect his delicate sensibilities from being offended.
What's more, I'd argue that the more Catholics like Nicolas Brouwet complain that they should be protected from being offended and the more they insist that their religion should be protected from being ridiculed, the more their religion deserves to be ridiculed. One of the purposes of using mockery, satire, and ridicule against powerful ideologies and institutions is to take away some of their assumed, implicit power in culture.
Demands for protection from ridicule are demands for protection for cultural power. This is a sign that the ridicule is either working or has strong potential to work -- institutional leaders who feel secure aren't as likely to seek legal protection against satire or mocking. It's also a sign that the ridicule is needed because the targets are trying to place themselves above other institutions and ideologies in an inappropriate manner.
The Champs Elysees theatre was braced for a showdown after Catholic fundamentalists -- who have been campaigning in recent months against works they perceive as blasphemous -- vowed to disrupt the play.
Two men linked to the fundamentalist Catholic movement were arrested in the basement of the theatre Saturday as they tried to disable its alarm system.
"These people are crazy," theatre director Jean-Michel Ribes said before the play began. ...
France counts an estimated half a million traditionalist and fundamentalist Catholics, according to the Christian newspaper La Croix.
Usually it's Muslim extremists we hear about, but Christian extremists have been growing far more assertive recently -- especially in France. I already wrote once earlier this year about Catholics destroying art in Avignon. France, it seems, is starting to develop a real problem with extremist Catholics -- not just extreme in the sense of seeking to censor anything they disagree with, but extreme in the sense of willing to use violence in order to get their way.
Remember this sort of thing the next time a Christian tries to argue that atheists like Richard Dawkins are "militant". Maybe you can ask them what sort of label then should be applied to Catholics in France like those discussed above.
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