A sacrilegious display

A story today reported that a picture showing Jesus Christ holding a beer can and a cigarette was discovered in primary school handwriting textbook in India. M. Ampareen Lyngdoh, an education minister in the Meghalaya government, said, “We strongly condemn such a blasphemous act. Legal action has been initiated against the publisher.” English-language daily The Shillong Times said New Delhi-based publisher, Skyline Publications had apologized for “hurting people’s religious sentiments,” but had offered no explanation as to how the error occurred. Efforts are underway to recall all copies of the book, the publisher was quoted as saying.

This type of insulting caricature is nothing new, but it is still sad that some people see Jesus in this way. Revelation 19:16 calls Jesus the “KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.” When John saw the glorified Jesus (and he was the last person on earth who ever saw Him), he fell at His feet as a dead man (Revelation 1:17). He is not someone to be trifled with! He deserves our respect.

There have been several stories in the past few years about the outrage of Muslims regarding caricatures of Muhammad. I personally have not promoted or endorsed those kinds of images because of the “Golden Rule.” Jesus said, “Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them” (Matthew 7:12). I don’t want these images circulating about Jesus, so I don’t advocate inappropriate images about Muhammad, Confucius, Buddha, etc.

Kyle Campbell