The National Council of Churches announced today that Christians too are easily offended by derogatory treatment from the media.
“Our members take great offense at any pictures or other portrayals of God, Jesus, Mary, Joseph, and any of the saints,” the Council said in a statement. “Our members also take great offense at any discussions of their religions that are in the least bit disparaging.”
The United State Conference of Catholic Bishops issued a statement along similar lines, stressing that Catholics in particular took great insult at disapproving or critical treatment of Church hierarchy.
“The bar is low on this one,” said a spokesman for the Council. “Pretty much anything will make our members fly off the handle.”
"That goes double for anything relating to priests," added a spokesman for the Conference of Catholic Bishops. "Lawsuits, church closings, inappropriate behavior -- it's all off limits."
Media organizations around the country were quick to take notice and vowed to change their policies as a result. The Associated Press, which has refused to publish cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed because it won’t “distribute content that is known to be offensive,” said that in the future it would no longer publish any photos or drawings of Christian religious figures and would carefully vet all stories to make sure they are inoffensive to any members of one of the affected religions. The St. Louis Post Dispatch, which also refused to publish the cartoons “out of respect for possible sensitivities of some readers,” said it would follow suit, as did other major newspapers, radio stations and television networks.
The changes are bound to have profound effects on media treatment of religions. At a minimum, work by artists such as Andres Serrano (“Piss Christ”), Renee Cox (“Yo Mama’s Last Supper”) or Chris Ofili ("Holy Virgin Mary") would no longer receive any coverage whatsoever. In all likelihood, stories about religion or religion's influence on politics either would no longer be published or would be reworded to remove critical references. Even seemingly harmless work, such as the inevitable editorial cartoon showing some recently deceased society notable appearing at St. Peter’s Gates, would probably be banned under the new policies. Unknown would be the effect of the Christians’ sensitivities to portrayals of quasi-religious figures such as Santa Claus or angels. “At a minimum,” said the spokesman for the National Council of Churches, “We think the Los Angeles Angels need to find another name.”
The spokesman added the sensitivities were not new. “Christians have always taken umbrage at negative portrayals in the media,” he said. “It’s just that, up until now, we had no idea anyone cared.”
“We really didn’t know this stuff bothered them,” said a spokeswoman for the Associated Press. “Now that we do, of course, we’ll stop. And while we’re at it: Please, if there’s anyone else out there who’s upset by anything we’re doing, just let us know. We don’t want to offend.”