'Jesus with erection' ignites outrage (Oregon student newspaper response to Muhammad cartoons)

Cover of the Insurgent (image altered for propriety).

A Catholic activist organization has written to Oregon's governor and state lawmakers to protest a University of Oregon student newspaper for having published cartoons showing Jesus Christ naked and with an erection.

In its March edition, the Insurgent, an "alternative" student paper on the Eugene, Ore., campus printed 12 hand-drawn cartoons of Jesus as a response to rival paper the Commentator having published the controversial cartoons of Muhammad originally published in Europe that sparked Muslim riots worldwide. The Insurgent claimed it published the drawings to "provoke dialogue."

William Donohue, president of the Catholic League, says the university's president, John Frohnmayer, has been unresponsive to complaints about the drawings, so he has written to the governor, every state legislators and the chancellor of the Oregon University System, among others.

Drawing featured inside paper spanning two pages (image altered for propriety).

"The March edition of the Insurgent … was one of the most obscene assaults on Christianity I have ever seen," Donohue said in a statement. "To make sure that the persons I wrote to understand how vile this attack was, I sent a photocopy of the two most offensive graphics: one was a depiction of a naked Jesus on the cross with an erection; the other, titled 'Resurrection,' showed a naked Jesus kissing another naked man, both sporting erections."

Donohue also says there were other depictions of Jesus on the cross that were "so gratuitously offensive that only the most depraved would defend them." He also noted the paper published two commentaries attacking Catholicism.

"That all of this appeared in a student newspaper, during Lent, on the campus of a state institution, makes one wonder what is going on at the University of Oregon," added Donohue.

While not describing the more sexual drawings, the main student newspaper at the university, the Oregon Daily Emerald, also criticized the Insurgent.

"The Insurgent editorial indicates a desire to show Americans why the original cartoons were so offensive to the Muslim world," wrote the editor of the Emerald. "According to the editorial, 'What is "not a big deal" in the US (sic) is apparently a humongous big deal to others. Why should we assume it would not be?'

"However, printing home-grown cartoons depicting Jesus on a cross/pogo stick or Jesus on a cross/hangliding apparatus are not inflammatory in the same manner as the anti-Islam cartoons, and therefore fail to produce the intended empathy from Christians to Muslims."

Added the paper: "Unlike the Danish cartoons, the Insurgent drawings seem intended to simply incite controversy for controversy's sake rather than making specific social commentaries."

Calls to the Insurgent and Frohnmayer's office were not returned by press time.

As sickening and offensive as these cartoons are, there is still no concern that Christians are going to riot.

1 posted on 04/26/2006 5:02:59 PM PDT by wagglebee

Is that Muhammed kissing Jesus??? LOL!

2 posted on 04/26/2006 5:04:41 PM PDT by BossLady

3 posted on 04/26/2006 5:05:18 PM PDT by Michael Goldsberry (Lt. Bruce C. Fryar USN 01-02-70 Laos)

Nope. We're smart enough to know that we don't have to look.

4 posted on 04/26/2006 5:05:29 PM PDT by cripplecreek (Never a minigun handy when you need one.)

I guess that Mohammed needs to be shown the same way. Perhaps with the public needing a magnifying glass.

5 posted on 04/26/2006 5:05:33 PM PDT by doug from upland (Stopping Hillary should be a FreeRepublic Manhattan Project)

I've had it! I'm offended and not going to take it anymore! I'm going to France to burn some little cars.

6 posted on 04/26/2006 5:06:02 PM PDT by neodad (USS Vincennes (CG-49) Freedom's Fortress)

What is the issue here ? I mean we all know that this is how most liberals feel anyway . Showing disgust just encourages these morons.

7 posted on 04/26/2006 5:06:32 PM PDT by newfarm4000n (God Bless America and God Bless Freedom)

"As sickening and offensive as these cartoons are, there is still no concern that Christians are going to riot." Where do we riot? At the local 7/11 store?

8 posted on 04/26/2006 5:07:18 PM PDT by Bringbackthedraft

As I understand it Mohammed could not get erections unless it was with underage children.

9 posted on 04/26/2006 5:07:52 PM PDT by usmcobra (Those that are incited to violence by the sight of OUR flag are the enemies of this nation.)

As a Christian I am ***yawn*** very upset. Actually He can defend Himself quite well. He asked that my defense of Him is to love my enemies & forgive others. And the secret is I can't do it, so He does it thru me!

10 posted on 04/26/2006 5:07:54 PM PDT by feedback doctor (Liberalism is like a religion....islam)

When us Christians don't start burning the country down can we get Bush and the Media to stop using that "Islam a religion of Peace" lie.

11 posted on 04/26/2006 5:08:09 PM PDT by Conservative Actuary

Don't forget the livestock.

12 posted on 04/26/2006 5:08:28 PM PDT by wagglebee ("We are ready for the greatest achievements in the history of freedom." -- President Bush, 1/20/05)

This whole thing is so completely juvenile. Has the whole world collectively gone back to eighth grade?

13 posted on 04/26/2006 5:08:51 PM PDT by Northeastern_Realist

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA...you are correct, sir!

14 posted on 04/26/2006 5:09:53 PM PDT by Pharmboy (Democrats lie because they must)

The morons are going to completely make our point that Islam is not the Religion of Peace(tm), however, Christians are not the violent evil religion the leftist whackos believe.

In short:

zzzz

15 posted on 04/26/2006 5:10:25 PM PDT by Crazieman (The Democratic Party: Culture of Treason)

Maybe we won't riot .. but we will be mad as hell. And .. if the "insurgent" was planning on making a statement - it did - the statement is: WE HAVE NO RESPECT FOR YOU OR YOUR RELIGION. Aaahhhhh! The tolerant bunch show their stripes again.

In no other cartoons is the diety portrayed NAKED - or with an erection. This portrayal is just over the top.

16 posted on 04/26/2006 5:11:04 PM PDT by CyberAnt (Drive-by Media: Fake news, fake documents, fake polls)

To: Northeastern_Realist

This whole thing is so completely juvenile. Has the whole world collectively gone back to eighth grade?

Back?!

Most of them never leave.

17 posted on 04/26/2006 5:11:08 PM PDT by Trailerpark Badass

If you are not spiritually prepared, be afraid, be very afraid.

18 posted on 04/26/2006 5:11:28 PM PDT by Integrityrocks

The individuals responsible for this are truly depraved, indeed I submit that they are demonic; and yet as perverse as they are, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords loves them anyway and if they were to seek Him and repent, asking Jesus Christ to wash away their sins and be their Saviour, He would immediately do so and tell them "You are forgiven".

Now if it were Mohammed?

They would get the Nick Berg treatment with no anesthetic.

19 posted on 04/26/2006 5:11:38 PM PDT by mkjessup (The Shah doesn't look so bad now, eh? But nooo, Jimmah said the Ayatollah was a 'godly' man.)

Seeing as I have seen more pictures and statues of Jesus in a loincloth then any the other so called deities, I have to say Scoreboard Christ.

20 posted on 04/26/2006 5:12:25 PM PDT by usmcobra (Those that are incited to violence by the sight of OUR flag are the enemies of this nation.)

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