The Only Reason That Doesn't Happen Here is Football

LGF accurately points out how Islamic Rage! is often delayed from the release of the offending statements or pictures.

From the mosques to the streets would seem to be a pretty standard trajectory for these events, plus it takes time to print up all the materials and manufacture the effigies.

Just as Islamic Rage! is predictable, so is an utter lack of Roman Catholic rage in churches across the United States after services on Sunday.

You could argue that the reason there is no Christian Rage! similar to Islamic Rage! after being whipped into a frenzy by their respective clerics is that as Pope Benedict XVI pointed out in the offending speech, from the very beginnings of the church there has been an intellectual tradition of trying to balance reason and faith with its roots in pre-Christian Greek philosophy. The process of reconciling these to seeming opposing forces helps define Christianity to this day, and I believe as the Pope has claimed, that this process of applying reason to faith has strengthened both reason and faith.

Islam has had similar attempts at reconciling faith and reason in their past, and even in their present, but right now the voices that marry fury with faith are far louder and seemingly numerous in Islam than those that attempt to marry reason with faith. That's nobody's fault but Muslims. Rather than an occaison to engender Islamic Rage!, the Pope's statements could have been a chance for dialogue as he stated initially, but the reflex towards Islamic Rage! is too strong and too unopposed to deny. The Pope is a punk for apologizing, though. Unless he said something to the effect of, "I'm sorry you are a bunch of thin-skinned, small-minded bullies who can't accept simple historical facts and engage in a reasoned dialogue about our shared desire to glorify the spiritual side of humanity", then no apology was necessary.

UPDATE: Seems like the Pope's statement expressing 'regret' isn't being considered an apology, maybe he's not a punk afterall. Basically he is saying, 'I regret that you are a bunch of reactionary fools', that's a statement I can stand behind.

Alternately, you could explain away the lack of effigies burning, and street protests here as a result of our love of football. Our potential Christian Rage! angry mobs are too busy rushing from their pews to their TV sets to catch their favorite football team on TV to engage in street mobs and violent protests.

I'll leave it up to you to decide which explanation is most likely, that Christians thirst for a balance between reason and faith, . . . . . or Christians thirst for watching the NFL.