This is how you get a new Crusade.

Just a heads up: I’m not moderating my language in this one. If you can’t handle the existence of profanity, just skip this one. I’m not going to entertain discussion on my choice of words on this one.

[FYI, I put the really raw stuff below the ‘read more’ tab]

I don’t talk a lot about my faith here because, frankly, I’m so bad at practicing it. I’m a terrible example of a Christian, but I try to be open about that while also improving myself to be better at practicing my faith.

It ain’t easy.

I also happen to be a free speech guy. People have a right to say things I have moral objections to. I’ve written about how the most fundamental right we have is the right to be an asshole.

And I’m not about to change that.

However, there’s a difference between opposing laws that try to moderate what people can and cannot say and actually being supportive of them saying some of those things.

You may have a right to be an ass. You do not have an obligation.

Especially when you’re projecting a double standard by doing so.

For example, how many people remember the Charlie Hebdo terrorist attack? The French publication was targeted because they published a satirical rendition of Mohammed on the cover. While few would actually celebrate the attack publicly, plenty of people argued that the publication sort of was asking for it by mocking Islam.

Mocking Islam here is likely to get you canceled. The usual suspects will term you as racists and Islamophobic—even though Islam isn’t a race and “Islamophobic” is a nonsense term and, arguably, justified in light of numerous terrorist attacks throughout the world—and call you a terrible person.

But if you mock Christianity, it’s fine.

There are a complete of prime examples.

Helena Stone recently wrote about Cynthia Erivo being cast as Jesus Christ in a production of Jesus Christ Superstar.

Now, as Stone notes, the original production was controversial, to say the least. People thought it was sacrilegious and, well, it probably is. Christians protested it, even if one member of the Catholic clergy supported the album when it came out.

I’d also argue that despite the potentially sacrilegious nature of the musical, it probably inspired a lot of people to seek out God, Christ, and the redemption of their immortal soul.

But Erivo is a different animal entirely.

She damn near sunk Wicked before it even came out with her inability to stop actin like Rachel Zegler. She didn’t, but it was close.

Stone, though, focuses mostly on her role as Jesus Christ.

There are compelling reasons to believe that the casting decision was motivated not by artistic intention or the desire to illuminate the Passion, but ideology. Previously Erivo portrayed Mary Magdalene in a two-part album of the musical recorded by an all-female cast, orchestra, and engineers. It was given an inflammatory new title, explicitly feminizing the Scripture: She is Risen.

The album cover is vaguely sapphic and doesn’t even mention Jesus Christ Superstar. It is patently obvious that this project was designed to further an ideological agenda rather than honor the original, or least of all pay attention to the biblical story. These women hijacked the musical – ironically written by two men for a predominantly male cast – and remarketed the Passion in order to put across an ultra-feminist message.

An interview with the producers makes this clear. One mentions “how powerful we all are”, arguing that the album “goes hand in hand […] with the strides we have made as women”. Morgan James, the mind behind She is Risen, also claimed that “we are so in need of female voices and leadership right now”. Erivo’s 2025 casting can therefore be seen as part of a broader political trend. (Notably, her Wicked co-star Ariana Grande released the hit song “God is a Woman” in 2018. A pattern is emerging, and one which has no problem commandeering Christianity.)

There are clear double standards here. Christians are fed up with watching people play fast and loose with their faith while having to tiptoe around certain other religions. The 1979 Life of Brian was the focus of the same concerns about blasphemy, although its emphasis is more towards satire than illumination.

It was Khomeini’s death sentence fatwa on Rushdie exactly a decade later in 1989 which breathed new life into the concept of blasphemy in our culture, and in a more sinister way. We are now all painfully aware that we are not allowed to mock all religions equally, whether for fear of causing social outrage, undercutting our public allegiance to multiculturalism, or crucially risking our safety. The fear of terror lurks.

Therein lies the rub: the cognitive dissonance of revering some religions while trampling on others with impunity. See, for example, the grotesque Paris Olympics stunt last summer. The opening ceremony evoked da Vinci’s “The Last Supper”, parodying Christianity with drag queens. Producers felt confident in opening the Olympics by mocking Jesus on a global stage. Did no one voice a whimper of dissent? Could you imagine the international outcry if Islam had been treated this way in so public an arena?

Indeed.

But the issue of taking a dump on Christianity is far from relegated to just these two examples.

Take Bernie Sanders (Please?) for a moment.

He ruffled more than a few feathers at a rally recently when a transgender performer sang a song that asked, “Does your God have a big fat dick? Because it feels like he is fucking me!”

Honestly, click the link. It gets worse, if you haven’t heard it before.

And these are just some of the big things we’ve seen lately. I can’t begin to document the millions of more petty insults to Christianity I’ve seen over the years, and the millions more yet to come.

Then we have the left’s invasion of the clergy of seemingly every denomination on the planet, all abandoning the Gospel and being of the world, not just in it. However, a lot of Christians aren’t fooled. They see it and they reject these unbiblical teachings; this attempt to pervert the Word to justify their politics.

But what these folks really don’t seem to grok is that no group can be treated like this indefinitely. You can’t continue to belittle a people’s faith while ignoring others before they start to recognize that violence from those other faiths tends to keep mouths closed.

Once upon a time, Christianity wasn’t a faith built on timidity, at least not in practice. Sure, the meek would inherit the Earth, but that wasn’t going to happen on that day, nor the day after. Someday, but not then.

And, really, not now, either.

Sooner or later, Christians may start to remember that and decide enough is enough. Whoever is left at the time will step out of the shadows and start to assert their right to expect to be as respected as every other faith, especially Islam.

Keep it up, and people who like to throw The Crusades into any discussion of modern Christianity as if it’s a reverse card in Uno will suddenly discover exactly what a new Crusade would look like.

No people can be pushed indefinitely without them pushing back.

I don’t want blasphemy laws or anything of the sort. I’m just sick of seeing my faith mocked while one like Islam is ignored. The fact that Islamic terrorists are so prolific isn’t lost on many of us, nor is the fact that they get called “the religion of peace” by the same people who mock Christ and Christians.

It’s simple math.

If you don’t like the sum, then maybe it’s time to change your behavior, and if you’re going to mock faiths, mock them all. If you’re going to show restraint, then show restraint for them all.

We don’t need laws. We need people to stop being assholes just because they figure they can get away with it.