An unfunny “joke,” but I’m sad, not mad
Commedian Kathy Griffin won a Creative Arts Emmy for her cable show, “My Life on the D-List.” I’ve never seen it, but that isn’t the point. (J mentioned this in an earlier post.) During her taped acceptance speech, she said:
“A lot of people come up here and thank Jesus for this award. I want you to know that no one had less to do with this award than Jesus … Suck it, J*sus. This award is my god now.”
She said backstage that she hoped she offended someone, because “I didn’t want to win the Emmy for nothing.”
Well, how charming.
The speech drew fire from a leading Roman Catholic group, the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, which condemned Griffin’s remarks as “obscene and blasphemous.”
“It is a sure bet that if Griffin had said, ‘Suck it, Muhammad,’ there would have been a very different reaction,” Catholic League president Bill Donohue said in a statement posted on the group’s Web site. He called on TV academy president Dick Askin to denounce Griffin’s “hate speech” and on Griffin to apologize.
An edited version of the Creative Arts Emmys is set to air on cable television’s E! Entertainment Network on Saturday, the night before the live Fox network broadcast of the main Primetime Emmy Awards.
Griffin’s defense? “Am I the only Catholic left with a sense of humor?”
Really. “Suck it, J*sus.” That’s supposed to be funny? Where’s the joke?
Let’s pretend for a minute that Griffin is a Catholic who believes wholeheartedly in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. Would she seriously think that saying “suck it, J*sus” would constitute a joke?
When she dies and mets the Lord, will she say, “Hey, J*sus, you had nothing to do with my success, so suck it”?
Yeah, right. I’ll tell you what will really happen. No, in fact, Isaiah will tell you. Here’s a man who was one of God’s most prominent prophets, a man who worshiped the Lord and turned his back on sin as best as he humanly could. In those days, no one was closer to God than Isaiah. But when he was brought face to face with the Lord (Isaiah 6:1-5):
In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him were seraphs, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. And they were calling to one another:
“Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty;
the whole earth is full of his glory.”At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke.
“Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty.”
As powerful a servant of God as Isaiah was, he believed himself “ruined” to merely be in God’s awesome presence. Do you think someone would truly have the temerity to say, “suck it!”?
(Yes, of course, I know, athiests believe we bad ol’ Christians tell such stories of the afterlife to frighten our children. Well … boo!)
Instead of condemning Kathy Griffin for her stupid “joke,” or come out swinging with cries of “blashemy!” as the Catholic League did, I wonder if someone in Hollywood-land or elsewhee in the public eye has tried witnessing to her. Share Jesus’s good news of salvation, forgiveness and God’s grace that we don’t deserve yet is freely given.
Sadly, probably not. Tinsletown is a hedonistic place that continually assaults Christ and the cross; yet remember, even Lot was declared righteous in Sodom.
Written by Truman
~J~ Says:
September 15th, 2007 at 12:31 pmVisit ~J~
Truman,
At first I was speechless and outraged. Now I’m more disturbed and sad than anything else to see that this is acceptable behavior in our society.
Our country is rejecting Christ and God and it is because we have always honored them that we have been so blessed.
To watch the video of her “performance” and see all the people behind her laughing and listening to the audience laughing at it puts fear into my heart that the blessing from God that we have enjoyed as a nation since its inception will be withdrawn.
Thank you for this post.
Guss Says:
September 15th, 2007 at 6:46 pmVisit Guss
In the first part of her statement, I kind of agreed with her that God doesn’t have anything to do with treating certain people special over others. The rest of her statement was totally outrageous and I can understand why it would offend people. What can we do about it? Probably nothing. People have a right to say anything they want in this country no matter how offensive. I just won’t watch anything that she acts in.