{"id":856,"date":"2011-01-21T06:51:24","date_gmt":"2011-01-21T06:51:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/redletters\/2011\/01\/ricky-gervais-atheism-isnt-offensive.html"},"modified":"2011-01-21T06:51:24","modified_gmt":"2011-01-21T06:51:24","slug":"ricky-gervais-atheism-isnt-offensive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2011\/01\/ricky-gervais-atheism-isnt-offensive.html","title":{"rendered":"Ricky Gervais: Atheism isn’t offensive"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ricky Gervais, host of the this year’s Golden Globe Awards, is taking criticism for his pointed, and personal jokes. Including a bit where Gervais thanks God for making him an atheist.<\/a><\/h2>\n

Ricky Gervais<\/a><\/b> a brilliant comic mind, and the originator of the original British version of “The Office,”<\/a>continues to draw draw criticism from some who found his jokes offensive. <\/p>\n

Ricky Gervais refuses to apologize for his Golden Globe jokes, and for the most part, Gervais couldn’t care less what people are thinking and saying about him.<\/a><\/p>\n

One of those jokes<\/a> came at the end of the ceremony when Ricky Gervais thanked God for making him an atheist,<\/a><\/b> In a CNN Interview with Piers Morgan<\/a>, Ricky Gervais<\/a> explained that his atheism joke is no cause for offense because he’s not offended by people expressing their religion. See that clip here:<\/p>\n

<\/object><\/p>\n

But Ricky Gervais insists it was his job as host of the Golden Globes to roast the audience–not cozy up to them.<\/a><\/a><\/b><\/p>\n

Ricky Gervais maintains he does not care what people think of him<\/a> saying: “I don’t care what you think of me, I care if I’ve done a good job, and I care if I’ve told the truth.”<\/i><\/p>\n

Gervais asserts: “I’m not sorry for anything I said.”<\/a> Then kinda, sorta gets to “I hope no one was truly offended.”<\/a><\/p>\n

Well, I think the celebrities who were personally targeted by Ricky Gervais<\/a>‘ jokes at the Golden Globes<\/a> have more reason for offense than those who believe in God.<\/p>\n

Gervais claims, “Just because you are offended, it doesn’t mean you’re in the right.”
<\/a>
It’s hard for our society to exalt tolerance on the one hand, and then reserve the right to be offended on the other. <\/p>\n

Offense must be judged against a standard. But we have individualized those standards. As Christ-followers we should love what God loves, and hate what God hates. He determines the standard, not me. Whatever offends me must pass muster with His filter and His standards, rather than my own preferences.<\/b> <\/p>\n

And this gets really hard when we realize that the command to love our neighbor does not go away when they do awful and terrible things to us and others and the world. <\/p>\n

Love is the standard…both when it is easy, and when it is cripplingly hard. Love above all and for all. Only God reserves the right to judge the hearts and actions of us human beings. <\/p>\n

I don’t think God is offended by Ricky Gervais thanking Him for making him an atheist<\/a>. I think he is hurt. Just as we’d be hurt if one of our children said something similar to us as their parents. <\/p>\n

What do you think? <\/p>\n

Click here to subscribe to Red Letters.<\/strong><\/a> Click here to follow Tom Davis on Twitter.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

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

Ricky Gervais, host of the this year’s Golden Globe Awards, is taking criticism for his pointed, and personal jokes. Including a bit where Gervais thanks God for making him an atheist. Ricky Gervais a brilliant comic mind, and the originator of the original British version of “The Office,”continues to draw draw criticism from some who…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":87,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-856","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christianity","category-current-affairs"],"yoast_head":"\nRicky Gervais: Atheism isn't offensive - Red Letters<\/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\/redletters\/2011\/01\/ricky-gervais-atheism-isnt-offensive.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Ricky Gervais: Atheism isn't offensive - Red Letters\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Ricky Gervais, host of the this year’s Golden Globe Awards, is taking criticism for his pointed, and personal jokes. Including a bit where Gervais thanks God for making him an atheist. Ricky Gervais a brilliant comic mind, and the originator of the original British version of “The Office,”continues to draw draw criticism from some who…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2011\/01\/ricky-gervais-atheism-isnt-offensive.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Red Letters\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-01-21T06:51:24+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Tom Davis\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Ricky Gervais: Atheism isn't offensive - Red Letters","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2011\/01\/ricky-gervais-atheism-isnt-offensive.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Ricky Gervais: Atheism isn't offensive - Red Letters","og_description":"Ricky Gervais, host of the this year’s Golden Globe Awards, is taking criticism for his pointed, and personal jokes. Including a bit where Gervais thanks God for making him an atheist. Ricky Gervais a brilliant comic mind, and the originator of the original British version of “The Office,”continues to draw draw criticism from some who…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2011\/01\/ricky-gervais-atheism-isnt-offensive.html","og_site_name":"Red Letters","article_published_time":"2011-01-21T06:51:24+00:00","author":"Tom Davis","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2011\/01\/ricky-gervais-atheism-isnt-offensive.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2011\/01\/ricky-gervais-atheism-isnt-offensive.html","name":"Ricky Gervais: Atheism isn't offensive - Red Letters","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/#website"},"datePublished":"2011-01-21T06:51:24+00:00","dateModified":"2011-01-21T06:51:24+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/#\/schema\/person\/c78d22af30aa2e0860a621fadf855b92"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2011\/01\/ricky-gervais-atheism-isnt-offensive.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2011\/01\/ricky-gervais-atheism-isnt-offensive.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2011\/01\/ricky-gervais-atheism-isnt-offensive.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Ricky Gervais: Atheism isn’t offensive"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/","name":"Red Letters","description":"Christian, Christian Inspiration, Christian News, Christian Activism News","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/#\/schema\/person\/c78d22af30aa2e0860a621fadf855b92","name":"Tom Davis","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/b5c\/b5c5842c5b6dd6c51062873d0bb1dfafx96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/b5c\/b5c5842c5b6dd6c51062873d0bb1dfafx96.jpg","caption":"Tom Davis"},"description":"Tom Davis currently serves as CEO of Children's HopeChest (www.hopechest.org), a global orphan care ministry headquartered in Colorado Springs. A tireless advocate for fatherless children, Davis has spent most of his adult life calling U.S. believers to become the hands and feet of Jesus Christ to the 143 million orphans living around the world. Through those connections, thousands of orphans now have the bright and hopeful future--one that is filled with opportunities and the love of the one true Father. Davis speaks hundreds of times each year at churches and conferences, mobilizing the church to action on behalf of the poor. He is the author of four books. His most recent novel, SCARED is a fictionalized account of his first-hand experiencing living and working with orphans in Swaziland, Africa. Davis' blog is the premier resource for the latest developments in Christian orphan ministry. Davis also currently teaches courses as adjunct professor at George Fox University in Newberg, OR. When not traveling the globe, Davis resides in the mountains of Colorado in the small community of Palmer Lake. He and his wife Emily have seven children, including two adopted daughters from Russia.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/author\/tdavis"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/856","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/87"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=856"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/856\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=856"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=856"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=856"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}