Here are some random thoughts this misty Saturday morning while I'm reading the free-speech fallout on the wire services.
• I think that all over America, in zip codes blue and red, evangelical megachurches should get organized and have thousands of people pile into church buses and head over to their local NBC affiliates with signs and bullhorns and march around and around in a peaceful, nonviolent manner, chanting: "God made you special and he loves you very much! God made you special and he loves you very much! God made you special and he loves you very much!"
Won't that scare some sense into people? Can you imagine NBC letting anyone mention God on television? The next thing you know they'll be talking about letting Madonna hang on a mirrored cross while singing something offensive, right there on network television! Surely not. It isn't good to offend people's religious beliefs. The New York Times says so.
Why do I suggest this? Click here for a conservative editorial on the matter. Or click here for the views of Bob the Tomato, himself.
• And while I am on the subject of ironic forms of public protest, what would happen if leaders of the kicked-off-campus Georgetown University chapter of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship applied to the leadership of the Jesuit school for permission to hold a public forum this week in which students and faculty would be asked to read and then peacefully discuss the text of Pope Benedict XVI's actual speech text on faith, reason and jihad?
Perhaps the event could be held at the well-endowed Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding on the campus?
Just thinking out loud, you know. I am sure the campus administration would welcome such a request by the ousted Protestant groups to organize an ecumenical and even interfaith event focusing on the intellectual life of a man that Georgetown must realize is in the mainstream of Catholic intellectual life.
• Question: Does anyone here think that President Bush will say a word about the pope crisis? Just asking.
• Speaking of which, did you hear that the U.S. State Department has decided that Saudi Arabia isn't such a bad place after all, when it comes to religious liberty. The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom is not amused.
"The Commission is simply shocked that the Department removed longstanding and widely quoted language from its report that freedom of religion does not exist in Saudi Arabia," said Felice D. Gaer, Chair of the Commission. In July, the U.S. government confirmed a variety of Saudi policies to improve "religious practice and tolerance" -- many of which were first recommended in Commission reports. However, the new State Department report shows that such policies have not yet been implemented.
This did receive some coverage, but not much.
Back to reading the wires.