Someone Offer The Pope A Cookie; Freedom Made Him Cry

They’re at it again.

You’d think that Europe, long famed for generally being a place of civil libertarian badassery, wouldn’t succumb to shit like this. Alas, no.

From CNN:

Prosecutors plan to keep an eye on Madonna’s weekend concert in Duesseldorf to see if the pop diva repeats the mock crucifixion scene that has drawn fire from religious leaders.

Johannes Mocken, a spokesman for prosecutors in Duesseldorf, said Tuesday that a repeat of that scene during Sunday’s concert could be construed as insulting religious beliefs.

Madonna, who is known for her theatrical, action-packed shows, wears a crown of fake thorns while performing on a mirrored cross.

The stunt, which has been included from the outset of her worldwide “Confessions” tour, has been criticized as an act of hostility toward the Roman Catholic Church.

Oh boo fucking hoo. I’d expect guys with funny hats to be all over the banning freedom thing in, say, Iran. But it’s happening here in the West; and moreover it’s coming from the same source. Remember that the Catholics were knocking the right of free expression back during the whole Mohammed cartoon thing.

No offense, Catholicism, but this Ratzinger dude sucks at freedom. Give us John Paul II back-at least he was more of a moderate. And get with it on the whole “freedom of speech” thing. The Inquisition was so 16th century.

posted Aug 16th, 2006 by Stuart Richards
  • http://www.mainstreamlibertarian.com Eric Dondero

    This totally sucks. Completely agree. But why no Home Page story about Paris banning nude and semi-nude sunbathing on the River Seine, so as not to offend Muslim sensibilities?

    What’s really going on here, is not that the Germans are turning Prudish. The government is just trying to be “equal handidly prudish.” This way when they go after Sunbathers, Gays and Lesbians, Marijuana users and Nudists so as not to offend the rising Muslim population in Germany, they can point to this Madonna incident and say, “See, this has nothing to do with anti-Islam.”

    That’s all that’s happening here. You would think that Libertarians would have been smart enough to figure it out.

  • http://freelancify.com Nigel Watt

    Eric Dondero criticizing anyone’s intelligence, particularly through text, is a good five minute’s entertainment.

  • disinter
  • Trevor Southerland

    Eh, I only wish my fellow Romans would storm the stage while she does her stunt.

  • http://www.mywaronpoverty.com Becky

    I’m half German, so I can say this: We’ve got a German pope and German authorities–what do you expect?

  • jeffrey smith

    Didn’t you notice? The whole Roman Catholic Church is so 16th century.
    There are in fact very few things which are more authoritarian in structure and discipline than the RC Church.

  • Stuart Richards

    I dunno… some of the Protestants are starting to go that way with the whole Shepherding Movement.

  • Trevor Southerland

    I’d rather be right than Protestant.

    :-)

    BTW, the Catholic Church isn’t really all that authoritarian… if you did very much research on the church you’d know that.

  • Stuart Richards

    I’m Orthodox myself. *shrug*