Originally Posted by
Elke
I also think it's at least in part about two cultural concepts that are completely opposite: irreverence and reverence.
At the heart of our western 20th century idea of critical thinking is the idea that irreverence is a good thing, that taking a step back from your own feelings about a subject and daring to mock the silly (and sometimes the serious) aspects of it is a good thing. Just think of the Holocaust, something Europeans especially still remember with a lot of gravitas and shame. Yet half of my arsenal of jokes is about WWII, and most of those are along the vein of 'What's a jew with a gas oven? A big fan of DIY'. Not taking yourself, your ideas and ideals, very seriously and subsequently not taking much of anything else very seriously is a very serious aspect of our democracy. The more we mock something, the more important we know it to be.
The idea of reverence, however, is extremely important to certain groups of people. Think of the Bible belters in the US, or those people on the streets burning flags. The simple act of burning flags shows how important reverence is to them: they can't think of a more offensive thing to do than to burn a flag. This symbolic act holds a great significance to them, as much as making a picture of the prophet or - God forbid - God. For them, taking things seriously starts with taking yourself and your ideals seriously, and spreads to taking everyone else seriously.
I've noticed this clash in my own classroom: I'm extremely irreverent, constantly making jokes about Jesus and God. There's a deep faith and a genuine affection for them in everything I say and do, but some of my religious students can't see beyond the words themselves because they take me very seriously. When I mock God, I mock God - it's not a playful attempt at speaking about him in a way that I'm comfortable with, it's sacrilige.
Many of my muslim students in the first months that they're in my class have difficulty taking me seriously as a religion teacher and a religious person because I don't take anything too seriously, while for them being religious means taking everything exceptionally seriously.
I don't know if I'm making any sense here, but I can't come up with a better way to explain what I mean.