Cheek-Turning May Be Necessary Here

As a Christian, I am naturally sensitive to any assaults--verbal or otherwise--on my chosen faith (“Gober Exhibit Insults Virgin Mary, Counterpunch, Sept. 22). As a humanist, I am also painfully aware that Christians initiate their share of the bashing. We might remind ourselves that Jesus’ admonishing us to “turn the other cheek” is not a call to weakness or subservience but rather a reminder that conciliation requires a first step.

EARL EAGER ALBERT

Temple City

What Robert Gober criticized was the veneration of Mary, a veneration based on a belief which, like all beliefs, is not above criticism. Works of art and religious teachings are expressions of ideas. None is more valid than another, and all are protected by the U.S. Constitution.

Father Gregory Coiro condemns “artists, and others, who desecrate sacred images with absolutely no regard for sensibilities of the people they know they will offend.”

But he also conveniently ignores over a thousand years of history in which Christians not only desecrated the sacred images and insulted the beliefs of others but sent millions to their deaths or into slavery.

From the beginning, what Coiro proudly calls the “tradition that has enriched the world for two millenniums” has insulted the beliefs and desecrated the sacred images of millions of its inhabitants.

Such enrichment!

When it comes to religion-bashing, Christians like to dish it out, but they can’t take it.

FORREST G. WOOD

Bakersfield