{"id":184,"date":"2007-09-15T13:32:38","date_gmt":"2007-09-15T17:32:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/godandculture.wordpress.com\/2007\/09\/15\/kathy-griffins-statement-of-faith\/"},"modified":"2007-09-15T13:32:38","modified_gmt":"2007-09-15T17:32:38","slug":"kathy-griffins-statement-of-faith","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.godandculture.com\/blog\/kathy-griffins-statement-of-faith","title":{"rendered":"Kathy Griffin’s Statement of Faith"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"griffin1.jpg\"<\/a>The reactions from conservatives and the Christian community to comments made by comedian Kathy Griffin\u00a0during her Emmy award acceptance (taped on September 8 and aired on E! Entertainment Television on September 14)\u00a0have been swift and pointed. William Donohue of The Catholic League is leading the charge, characterizing Griffin’s speech as “obscene and blasphemous” and\u00a0a “vulgar, in-your-face brand of hate speech.”\u00a0\u00a0John Gibson of FOX News’ Big Story says Griffin “blasted Jesus.” Lauren Green, the religion correspondent for\u00a0FOX News, says Griffin insulted “a man who preached love and acceptance.” What, exactly, did this\u00a0comedian say that has the entire Christian community on the defensive?<\/p>\n

A lot of people come up here and they thank Jesus for this award. I want you to know that no one had less to do with this award than Jesus. He didn’t help me a bit. If it was\u00a0up to Him Ceasar Millan would be up here with that damn dog. So all I can say is, “Suck it Jesus! This award is my god now!”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Kathy Griffin is well known for her vulgarity and her obscenity.\u00a0There is a sense in which the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences is commending her profanity by recognizing her with this award. To their credit the Academy edited\u00a0 the offensive remarks when the Emmy’s\u00a0were broadcast,\u00a0 but why are we shocked that an atheist Hollywood actor would deny Jesus had anything to do with her talent, and would we really want her to give Jesus credit for such an act?<\/p>\n

Christians would\u00a0deny that Muhammad or Buddha or Confucius had anything to do with their talent. In doing so are we guilty of blaspheming another religion’s God, or are we just singularly committed to our own? Griffin’s comments are not blasphemous as much as they are creedal. When Kathy Griffin says, “Suck it Jesus! This award is my god now,” she is making a statement of faith, albeit a humanistic, atheistic one.<\/p>\n

Without question Kathy Griffin was “taking the name of the Lord in vain.” But Griffin herself admits He isn’t her Lord. I would argue that\u00a0some Hollywood actors who take the podium and thank Jesus for their award may also be guilty of taking the name of the Lord in vain – if it’s just mere words with no heart and no evident commitment to Jesus to back\u00a0them up.\u00a0 The name of Jesus doesn’t have to be used in a profane way to constitute a violation of the third commandment. It merely has to be used in an empty, meaningless way. We who live to honor Jesus are often guilty ourselves of taking the name of the Lord in vain in little and big ways every day. When, without thinking, we say things like, “Thank God,” or “Thank You, Jesus” in response to the\u00a0minor successes we experience ( i.e., we got the copier unjammed or we finally succeeded in getting an internet connection), are we not also guilty of using Jesus’ name vainly?<\/p>\n

Jesus words, “This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me,” come to mind in relation to some celebrities who tip their hats to Jesus in the way Griffin refused to do. Of course Griffin carried it a step further by profanely challenging Jesus to “Suck it.” That certainly goes beyond a flippant use of Jesus\u2019 name. Hers seem to be the words of a person who deep down knows she needs Someone besides herself to thank, and resents it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The reactions from conservatives and the Christian community to comments made by comedian Kathy Griffin\u00a0during her Emmy award acceptance (taped on September 8 and aired on E! Entertainment Television on September 14)\u00a0have been swift and pointed. William Donohue of The … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-184","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.godandculture.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.godandculture.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.godandculture.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.godandculture.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.godandculture.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=184"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.godandculture.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.godandculture.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.godandculture.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=184"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.godandculture.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}