Many present and pressing global challenges are in the news these days, especially in the Middle East. But I’d like to remind us of last year’s news regarding a Pakistani woman, Asia Bibi, who was given a death sentence for blasphemy. Yes, under section 295-C of the Pakistani penal code, blasphemy charges carry a death sentence. This kind of thing is what worries us about the possible rise of extreme radical Islamic groups within transitioning governments that are now taking place in the Middle East.
Apparently, blasphemy laws generally target Christians. It’s said that if someone wants to settle a personal score and/or make life difficult for a Christian all they need do is accuse him or her of blasphemy. Thankfully, I understand that many who have been given death sentences have had their death sentence overturned. Nevertheless, it’s also said that the accused often spend years in prison even after being found innocent. Furthermore they find it next to impossible to return to a normal life afterward.
Minimally blasphemy is irreverent talk about God; but more pointedly, blasphemy is to deliberately insult God’s Name or Person in one form or another. But, the way most of us Westerners look at it, if I insult God, what is that to anyone else? The business is between me and God. Is it not?
“No! It is not.” I assume is their reply. If I insult God and/or His Prophet, I insult all his followers and believers as well. “And thus,” I imagine them saying, “it is an issue not only between me and God, but between me and all his followers.” Okay, I readily acknowledge that I know little about the Islamic faith. And so I am guessing here, trying to understand how it is that they could justify such laws, including the death penalty for blasphemy.
I don’t understand the social/political rationale, let alone the theological justification for a Muslim based society such as Pakistan to protect God from blasphemers by installing blasphemy laws and backing it with the death penalty. It seems to me that blasphemy laws are a sign of weakness of faith not strength of faith. It is evidence of little confidence rather than great confidence in their God. Rather than a display of great respect for their God, blasphemy laws seem to me to be more of an admission of fear and insecurity before their God; a lack of faith in their God’s ability to protect His own honor and bring humanity to final judgment Himself.
As for respect, all humans expect respect from others. Simple basic respect for our human dignity is due everyone. Few of us will passively tolerate rude behavior, disrespectful talk, and insulting words by another individual, especially if we believe the individual is “beneath” us in social status (and oh yes, all humans play that one-upmanship game in social status). And so, of course we’d expect that God will neither tolerate disrespect or rudeness toward Himself. It only makes sense.
But is it not true that the greatest respect we can give to a fellow human being is the freedom of conscience, to act of his or her own volition, to believe or not believe, to love or not to love of his own heart, as a matter of choice? And is this not also the greatest respect one could give to God, to freely choose to believe and trust God out of one’s own free will?
When humans take it upon themselves to police the conscience of their fellow human beings, in behalf of God, we have great trouble—persecution, oppression, and very strict and unjust religious laws—to say the least. To begin with, we all know that humans disagree as to the nature and character of God in the first place. So how can any mortal monitor and police the conscience and faith of another human being when he/she cannot even categorically prove that his/her God is the right, true, and only God to begin with?
For example, I will be the first to bear witness that I believe that Jesus is the Only Begotten Son of God; was smitten, died, and was raised again on the third day, true God of true God; and that the God of what we now call the Old and New Testaments is the only true God there is. And yet, for making this proclamation and confession, I would most likely be liable to be sentenced to death in many Muslim countries. And by what moral right, capacity, or power do they have to do so? They can no more prove that my faith is wrong any more than they can prove that their faith is absolutely right—or we wouldn’t be speaking of FAITH at all.
Really, the only One Person responsible for policing rude and disrespectful behavior toward God is God, God’s own self. Only God, the creator and maker of humanity, has the right to determine life or death for one who chooses to blaspheme His Name, Person, and/or His followers.
For one, God is big enough to take care of Himself and to protect the honor and glory of His own Name. God’s judgment may not be immediate as we count time, but it will come soon enough. And consider this, for a fellow human being to bring a case before another human being within a human court of law for the sake of determining whether one has offended God is to belittle God by placing God’s cause in human hands, making God’s case dependent upon human judgment. That is certainly upside down and quite backwards!
Finally, I would make this observation. It seems to me that self-righteousness is the worst form of blasphemy. Presuming to be superior, better, holier, and more righteous than others, simply because others do not believe as I do, is a step away from God not toward God. A mean-spirited, cruel, hardened, and condemning heart is the exact opposite of a patient, compassionate, and merciful God, as Christians and Muslims believe God is. Thus, a hardened, self-righteous condemning human heart in God's name, is far more blasphemous toward God than one who merely disbelieves or believes differently.
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