The Jesus and Mo artist sent this cartoon with the caption: “A Chrismassy Friday Flashbacck today, from 9 years ago.” Jesus is beefing about the nonexistent “war on Christmas” in the UK:
Jesus ‘n’ Mo ‘n’ the War on Christmas
December 6, 2025 • 9:15 am
Not sure that that one has aged well, what with people being arrested for silent prayer in public.
Most American complaints about British censorship are entirely valid, but this one is not. The law puts a buffer zone of 150 metres around abortion clinics, so that women can approach them without encountering protesters or people “praying for” them or people wanting to engage them in discussion. This seems reasonable, protestors still have 99.999% of the public space to do their praying in.
Now, if you want to complain about a Christian street preacher who was prosecuted for saying “We love the Jews” then I’ll entirely support you. (Yes, really, a Christian was indeed prosecuted for saying that out loud and in public, since some Muslims claimed that it offended them. The jury took only 10 minutes to acquit. Of course, when some Muslims drove around with a loudspeaker proclaiming “Fuck the Jews, rape their daughters” the police decided that, in the interests of “community relations”, they would not press charges but simply “have words” with those concerned.)
There seems to be some motte and bailey argumentation going on here.
If the claim is that people are being arrested for Christian prayer, the response is that no, it’s harassment they’re being arrested for, which is defensible.
But then if it is pointed out that the prayer is silent, and the police had to ask questions to even ascertain that it was prayer in the first place, the fallback seems to be “well, all prayer in such a place just is harassment whether it has any of the normal properties of harassment or not”.
As for 99.999%, the same argument would validate blasphemy bans within 100 m of a cathedral (or more realistically, a mosque). Freedom of expression in the remoter parts of the Orkneys is useless. People need to be able to express things in the places that shape public opinion.
Matthew 6:5 – And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.
Matthew 6:6 – But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.
Cronus¹ forbid that any of his celebrants be guilty of hypocrisy.
. . . . .
¹ The Greek god Cronus got appropriated by the Romans as Saturn, whose annual week-long festival (17-23 December) much later got approbated by a newer god’s celebrants to be something rather similar (wild parties, gift giving, etc.). “Hypocrisy” doesn’t remotely begin to cover it.
Er, no. That’s a story about campaigners deliberately seeking out abortion clinics and standing outside them to intimidate women trying to access those clinics. It is not a story about eroding religious privilege of which there is still plenty to go round.
To be totally fair, while christians have no grounds to complain about being persecuted in the UK or anywhere in the west really, having companies “suggest” to ditch “merry christmas” for fear of not being inclusive is stupid. Let people feast – or not. But do not lean into those who are afraid or upset by a jolly comment on the holliday happening…
I get the sense that during the intervening nine years, the creator (of the strip, not the universe) has come to terms with Islam being less liberal and more dangerous than Christianity, even if both are based entirely in the imagination. Today’s offering has a distinctly dated feel. As it should. Nine years is a long time. Could it be that Richard Dawkins’s confession to be a cultural Christian moved something?
Analysis of facial expressions is far from a science but Sadiq Khan’s facial expression in recent viral video footage when he almost sang a Christian-ish Christmas lyric clearly looked like real fear to me.
If you agree, the question is who he was afraid of.