Is Addis burning sacred cows?

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer editorial writer D. Parvaz can understand why somebody might commit arson. In a recent article entitled "Arsonist or performance artist?" about Paul Addis and his latest failed "prank" attempt, she writes: "On the one hand, I can understand the power of the image to someone who sees the church as an oppressive institution."

One burner's sacred effigy is another Christian's sacred church. Parvaz sentiments have created a backlash by some conservative bloggers such as Jim Miller from Sound Politics and Warner Todd Huston from Newbusters. I'll also add this blog post in the mix "The Significance of the Man Burning Early", a play about cross-cultural communication by Tribe member Jenka.

UPDATE #1 (10/31/07): Cinnamon Stillwell who is a contributing columnist at SFGate.com and a member of Pajamas Media posts in her blog "Anti-Christian Sentiment in San Francisco Leads to Violence, Liberals Shrug". Here she asks "Imagine for a moment if the situation were altered and Addis had attempted to burn down or blow up a mosque. (I won't say a synagogue or other Jewish structures because that doesn't seem to engender much outrage these days either). Were Islam to be the targeted religion, does anyone think for a moment that the "hate crime" label would not be affixed?" Good question, Stillwell!


UPDATE #2 (10/31/07): From Ripclawe, who blogged this: "Seriously, I know the Seattle papers are leftist havens, but this is irresponsible journalism at its worst. If this was a conservative talking about mosques, everyone would go nuts. D. Parvaz should get a talking too, but given this is Seattle, probably get a promotion."


UPDATE #3 (11/01/07): Is this a cat fight? You be the judge. Sadly, No! posted "The Flying CinnaNun" in response to Cinnamon Stillwell's blog post saying: "Burning down a giant stone cathedral is, of course, easier to accomplish in an overheated wingnut’s imagination than in actual practice, particularly where Mr. Addis had not an explosives belt, but an ammunition belt with small explosives which, according to the police, would not have caused substantial damage, much less burned down the whole gigantic stone edifice. But let’s not rain on Cinnamon’s parade, because she’s just getting worked up about how no one is paying attention to this because it was a hateful Christian church and not a beloved mosque." Meow! Fft! Fft!


UPDATE #4 (11/01/07): From the Recliner Commentaries blog: "...So far the only one who appears to have covered it is Bill O'Reilly (It's even hard to find much about it on the internet!). If Paul Addis had been a Christian attempting to set fire to an abortion clinic you can bet that it would be the leading story on every news outlet in the country. If Paul Addis had been a Muslim, his attempt would have been called terrorism."


UPDATE #5 (11/01/07): 1RedThread also blogged on this. The blogger's bio states: "I am a Christian infidel, a card carrying member of the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy, conservative American, living in Canada, and I support Israel." OK!


UPDATE #6 (11/01/07): Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estés of the Moderate Voice weighs in with more questions than answers: "How does he fit in with the recent spate of people acting publicly when they a) know cameras are present (don’t tase me bro,) or when a show is being taped live (Bill Maher ran off the stage to help eject a screamer from his audience)? Performance art and threatening to do actual harm in real time context, are two different ideas, yes or no? How can street theater be used in time-honored ways, and where /when? Surely there are many analytic questions that could reveal context, teaching, learning, facts perhaps?"

So BURNcast readers, what do you think? Take the poll! Post a comment!