Tuesday, July 14, 2015
You can strip in church, but not on the mountain
A few
weeks ago, British tourist Eleanor Hawkins and some of her friends decided to
strip on top of Mount Kinabalu and, as a true tourist is supposed to do, to
post the pictures on Instagram. Since the mountain is a sacred site for
Malaysians, the authorities’ reaction was swift and decisive: all were
arrested, spent three days in prison and had to pay a fine of $1000. I happened
to be in England at the time, and what surprised me most was the reaction of
most of the UK’s media. In one talk show the host called Eleanor “stupid and
irresponsible” for not respecting the culture and religion of an Asian nation.
When Russia arrested the rock band “Pussy Riot” after they played an obscene
song inside an Orthodox church, the Western press was up in arms about such
undemocratic behaviour of Putin’s regime.
So what
distinguishes the two events? Why is one acceptable, the other not? I can only
find one explanation: in Russia, it is Christianity that is being mocked, in
Malaysia it is ancestral religion, and a number of years ago the West has declared
open season on Christians. No Christian symbol has remained sacred (see Madonna’s
CD cover touching her private parts while holding a rosary), and the values and
convictions of Christians are considered offensive and intolerant. So it seems
that Christianity can be freely made fun of, while others are off limits. Nobody
would dare to make similar jokes ab out Jewish symbols lest they be accused of anti-Semitism,
and those who mock Islam often have to deal with violent reactions, such as
Charlie Hebdo.
My
concern about these developments is twofold. First there is the tendency,
within democratic societies, to discriminate against those who do not fit the
post-modern mould. The call for tolerance has morphed into the tyranny of the silent
minority. The second is the inability of people to see how important religion
is to the majority of human beings: whether they are Muslim, Hindu, animist or Christian,
a vast number of the world’s population still believe that there is a spiritual
world out there, and it behoves human beings to respect it. Eleanor Hawkins’
act was first and foremost an act of pride, desiring to show the world that enlightened
human beings are not bound by traditional notions of fear and respect toward the
gods. But Eleanor and her friends reap far more for their act than a $1000
fine; they deliberately refuse to be open to a reality beyond the material.
They are the poorer for it, and so is their society. And, even though they don’t
know it, they undermine the very values that made the UK what it is:
hospitality, education, love for the poor, care of the sick, all these are
things that Christendom brought to this country; even now for example some of
the most prestigious schools are those which teach Christianity and its ethics.
Driving Christians into the underground will not cause a Charlie Hebdo
reaction; but it will leave the public square naked, and Richard John Neuhaus
used to say, and thus open for totalitarian forces. May the gods forbid that
such a thing should happen…
