Today’s Jesus and Mo, called “Defy,” came with the email message, “It’s not funny because it’s true.” And indeed, it’s both true and not nearly as rib-tickling as other strips:
Jesus ‘n’ Mo ‘n’
June 10, 2015 • 8:30 am
21 thoughts on “Jesus ‘n’ Mo ‘n’”
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Democracy in it’s true state is about as likely as Communism in it’s original form.
Democracy and Republicanism will not be found in Islam, Christianity or Judaism. The closest you get is celestial appointments by the deity.
Ironically, democracy is deeply flawed and ill defined. I for one would be afraid to live under a true democracy in the USA. From Winston Churchill, “The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.” Yet it is the best of alternatives: “It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all that have been tried.”
Funny you should mention that – afraid to live under a true democracy. The founders were certain it would not be a good thing at all.
Divine law is just human opinion cloaked in religion.
Very nicely put!
I think “freedom of religion” would have made the point better than “democracy.”
I like Karl Popper’s commendation of democracy. A way of changing government without the spilling of blood.
The really astounding thing is that IMO, there are still many conservative churches that don’t get panel 2. Many sects or individual conservative bishops are still under the mistaken impression that they have a messaging/PR problem, not a content problem.
Yes, but as panel three says – cannot defy divine law. The message cannot be flawed.
Religion is fundamentally totalitarian.
+1
Of all arguments against it. That is the best, most basic, argument. I think it was the favorite of the Hitch.
Christian groups who approve of democracy are a minority and many seem to be so due to a backlash against the Catholic abuses of the late Middle Ages.
Similarly, Roger Williams’ (founder of Rhode Island) strong defense of church-state separation is due to his seeing what the Puritans from Plymouth Rock did in Salem, Mass. (He’s one of the few strong Christians who often shows up on various secularist organization’s lists of free thought heroes.)
Some defend democracy on the grounds of maintaining balance of powers in the context of a discussion of human sinfulness. Reinhold Neibuhr is a theologian many atheists have admired in the past. His book “The Children of Light and the Children of Darkness: A Vindication of Democracy and a Critique of its Traditional Defense” is worth a look.
The modern Swiss seem to have a good mix and balance of local democracy and Federal laws.
Churches view voting the way the Soviet leadership did – voting is a great thing as long as there is only one choice on the ballot.
That’s kind of like what a teacher at my Catholic high school said to me when I told him I had a problem accepting a certain article of faith: it’s okay to question your beliefs, as long as you come around to the church’s position in the end.
sub
Not sure where to put this comment but here seems best.
The Indonesian province of Aceh has just passed a law banning women from
“working or attending entertainment venues late at night, legally requiring them to be home by 11pm, Banda Aceh’s mayor says.”
They can neither work in late night venues or attend them, with being accompanied by a male family member.
This is, allegedly, to stop sexual assault but is really just implementing sharia.
They recently banned unmarried men and women riding on a motorbike together.
Riding motorbikes there is a very common mode of transport, everyone does it.
But, this is the place where a women was recently gang raped by 8 Sharia vigilantes, one as young as 13, and her partner beaten and degraded and then they were caned for the offense.
Indonesia is supposed to be a moderate modern Islamic country. Ask Reza Aslan. They are not. How many stories would we never hear from a place with attitudes like that.
I did just come across a few more nasty accounts of rape and harassment by sharia police, including one that led to suicide.
The place is a hell hole by the sounds of it.
I’ve actually run across people on Catholic message boards claiming that Catholicism is the only religion that could have an effective theocracy because of its nature.
Right…because that’s worked so well for the last two millennia, and works so well now in places with de facto Catholic theocracies such as the Philippines. But there’s no shortage of historical revisionism when it comes to these topics, even if that history was 2 seconds ago.