News source: Pirating Songs of Praise (via Religion News Blog)

Apparently many feel quote "conflicted" about 'sharing' Christian music … Here's a quote from the article that rather shocked me:

Take Matthew, a 13-year-old who attends Hewes Middle School in North Tustin and attends youth programs at nearby Red Hill Lutheran Church. Asked if it’s wrong to take songs for free, he answered: “No, because the artists are making billions of dollars anyways.” Another kid at Red Hill, 16-year-old Mike, a student at Beckman High, said that music is beyond commerce or at least beyond the cash register: “They should give it away ’cause it’s art anyways.”

Okay, so I've downloaded some pirated music in my 'day. I also own nearly 200 legit CDs so I'm no slouch in supporting the music industry. And I have deleted all (or at least almost all?) of the pirated music on my computer. What do you think about "file sharing"? Do we agree that the kids above don't "get it"? Is anyone teaching morals in church anymore? (Or how about some basic philosophy for that matter, so kiddies will know when they're making dumb arguments like those above?)

Link to news story: Christian Post

“The Christian response to the disrespect shown for Jesus has been far tamer obviously than the response of sacrilegious depiction of Mohammed,” said Michael Cromartie, vice president of the Washington-based Ethics and Public Policy Center and director of the Religion & Media program on Thursday.

“While Christians are bothered by these depictions of Jesus, you don’t see anybody issuing threats of violence and if there are any protests they are protests of non-violent form – namely boycotting products or something like that,” Cromartie noted. “But it is never the case that these people threaten violence because we do believe in freedom of speech and freedom of expression.”

The creators, Trey Parker and Matt Stone, [creators of the South Park cartoon TV show] were recently interviewed on ABC “Nightline” about the show and its upcoming 10th season.

“That’s where we kind of agree with some of the people who’ve criticized our show,” said co-creator Matt Stone on Sept. 22. “Because it really is open season on Jesus. We can do whatever we want to Jesus, and we have … But Mohammed, we couldn’t just show a simple image.”

To which I say: well, duh. This isn't intended to make blanket statements about all Muslims, but the different responses (could you imagine if the South Park creators treated Mohammed the same way they treat Jesus?) makes us wonder about the reasons for the different reaction. As I noted in my previous post Religious Evil: Separating the Faith from the Followers:

"The word “jihad” is certainly used in the Qur'an to mean “personal spiritual struggle”, but it is also used to indicate “holy war”. Muhammad himself was engaged in and led military campaigns. Please don’t misunderstand me, I don’t mean to imply that all Muslims are terrorists! The vast majority are not, and are decent people! But the facts need to be considered regarding what the Qu’ran teaches and how Muhammad acted in war, since although Muhammad is not worshipped he is still held up as the role model of sorts for Muslims to follow."