{"id":162,"date":"2011-07-30T21:38:56","date_gmt":"2011-07-30T21:38:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/preacherskid\/?p=162"},"modified":"2011-07-31T20:08:09","modified_gmt":"2011-07-31T20:08:09","slug":"bad-karma-when-you-dis-others-holy-persons-places-or-things","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/preacherskid\/2011\/07\/bad-karma-when-you-dis-others-holy-persons-places-or-things.html","title":{"rendered":"Bad Karma when you ‘dis’ others’ holy persons, places or things"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mess with someone’s scriptures, holy sites, holy figures, sacred symbols and icons or even their blessed undergarments (shout out to my Mormon friends, and the antics of Latter-day Saint underwear tossing street preachers at Salt Lake City’s Temple Square), and you can get yourself into trouble.<\/em><\/p>\n

It could be trouble, as in stern scowls or maybe a punch in the nose, or it could be Trouble<\/em>, as in bloody riots, protests and midnight torches and mobs in the streets.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Really, you didn't expect me to show an "illustrated" Kama Sutra cover, did you?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Latest example:<\/em> Famed India fashion designer Suneet Varma had the ill-advised (however accurate) audacity to remark that the Kama Sutra is the most celebrated<\/em> <\/a>Hindu text on the planet. Not coincidentally, Varma recently released his” Kamasutra” clothing line. That rather upset Rajan Zed, president of the Universal Society of Hinduism.<\/p>\n

You see, probably most Westerners — especially men — will connect the word “Hindu” with what they vaguely recall is a multi-position sex manual called the Kama Sutra<\/em><\/a>(actually, it is much more than just that; more on that later). Few people outside of India, however, will think of the weightier Hindu texts such as the Vedas, Upanishads, Bhagavad-Gita and others.<\/p>\n

So, Zed wants Varma to apologize. First, for giving a relatively minor, if steamy, text a place over the more-revered scriptures, and second, for commercializing Hinduism<\/em><\/a>, an ancient faith of nearly one billion adherants.<\/p>\n

So, back to the Kama Sutra<\/em>. Hindus will tell you that the text’s illustrations of various love-making techniques are indeed many, in context the Kama Sutra<\/em> is meant as a poetic guide to just part of a poetic guide to Dharma (virtuous living), Artha (material wealth and Moksha (liberation), as well as Kama (pleasure).<\/p>\n

As a Christian teen, awash in testosterone, I found the Old Testament’s Song of Solomon<\/em><\/a> made my heart beat a little faster (even without illustration<\/em>). It was not a frequent (well, ever<\/em>) choice for Bible study or congregational reading in my Dad’s churches. Pentecostals tend to flush beat red when reading about “kisses”<\/em> and “chambers,” “beds,” “desire”<\/em> and “lying betwixt my breasts.”<\/em><\/p>\n

But you know, it was, uh, all allegorical.<\/em><\/a> To Orthodox Jews, I’m told, it is Solomon’s symbolic representation of Israel’s relationship to God. Christians took that a step further, applying it to Christ’s relationship to his church, the body of believers.<\/p>\n

I don’t know, but there are a few things that make we wonder, especially about that last bit — Solomon reigned almost 1,000 years before the advent of Christ, for one; and the guy, by tradition, had 700 wives and 300 concubines.<\/em><\/p>\n

That just tends to make me think this work of prose, albeit rich in imagery and metaphor, just may boil down to a literary love song penned by a passion-sick Middle Eastern king. And I’ll tell you this, there aren’t a few fundamentalist Christian (or Catholic, or Jewish, or Muslim<\/em>) scholars out there who would likely demand an apology from anyone, by implication, stripping deep theological meaning<\/a> from Solomon’s song.<\/p>\n

Hey, I could be wrong. Probably am. There’s no reason not<\/em> to use a beautiful poem as a literary, theological framework. Done all the time with other scriptural passages. But I’m just saying: You don’t “dis” people’s sacred things or people or places.<\/em> Seems simple enough.<\/p>\n

If you do, more than righteous indication and verbal condemnation can result. Consider that many Muslims believe it is explicitly forbidden to visually depict Muhammad. So, when a Danish newspaper published editorial cartoons a few years ago depicting Muhammad as a terrorist, violent riots<\/a> ensued in the Middle East. There were even plots to assassinate one of the cartoonists.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
"Dogma" movie's "Buddy Christ"<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

(By the way, depictions of holy figures also cause angst outside of Islam. When the “Buddy Christ”<\/em> parody icon (see picture to right) appeared in the 1999 movie “Dogma,”<\/em> <\/a>the Catholic League was none too thrilled, condemning the film and its fast-and-loose comedic\/sacrilegious romp through Catholic beliefs. Makers of the film reported receiving 300,000 pieces of hate mail, including death threats.)<\/p>\n

More recently, a small-time Florida pastor made himself into a worldwide pariah <\/a>to most, and a hero to like-minded bigots, when he held a mock trial of Islam, convicted the faith and then carried out his sentence by burning a Qu’ran<\/a> in a portable fire pit. Enraged mobs killed more than a dozen people and injured scores more in ensuing Middle East rioting.<\/p>\n

I know, freedom of speech<\/a><\/em>. Just saying, there’s a cost to be paid, and sometimes it is the blood of innocents<\/em><\/a>.\u00a0 It’s seldom the speakers, either, who pay that price. Death is real; what is rhetoric worth?<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mess with someone’s scriptures, holy sites, holy figures, sacred symbols and icons or even their blessed undergarments (shout out to my Mormon friends, and the antics of Latter-day Saint underwear tossing street preachers at Salt Lake City’s Temple Square), and you can get yourself into trouble. It could be trouble, as in stern scowls or…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":432,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[134,14,128,8,45,81,55,80,83,77,89,7,3,16,1,56],"tags":[137,136,147,140,139,135,143,138,146,144,145,573,141,142],"class_list":["post-162","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-catholic","category-ethics","category-evangelical","category-faith","category-fundamentalist","category-hinduism","category-info-ethics","category-islam","category-jesus","category-muhammed","category-muslim","category-pop","category-pks","category-tolerance","category-uncategorized","category-vatican","tag-artha","tag-dharma","tag-garments","tag-hindu","tag-kama","tag-kama-sutra","tag-koran","tag-moksha","tag-mormons","tag-quran","tag-song-of-solomon","tag-street-preachers","tag-suneet-varma","tag-terry-jones-quran"],"yoast_head":"\nBad Karma when you 'dis' others' holy persons, places or things - Preacher\u2019s Kid: Honest Faith, Real World<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/preacherskid\/2011\/07\/bad-karma-when-you-dis-others-holy-persons-places-or-things.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Bad Karma when you 'dis' others' holy persons, places or things - Preacher\u2019s Kid: Honest Faith, Real World\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Mess with someone’s scriptures, holy sites, holy figures, sacred symbols and icons or even their blessed undergarments (shout out to my Mormon friends, and the antics of Latter-day Saint underwear tossing street preachers at Salt Lake City’s Temple Square), and you can get yourself into trouble. 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