In Praise of Blasphemy

Orthodoxy demands conformity. Without it, the power seeps out like a teenage girl's self esteem while scrolling through Instagram.

Blasphemy is a speech crime and religious crime usually defined as an utterance that shows contempt, disrespects or insults a deity, an object considered sacred or something considered inviolable.

My heroes from growing up were the blasphemers of their day. Monty Python, George Carlin, Lenny Bruce, Frank Zappa. Robert Mapplethorpe, Andres Serrano, Karen Finley, Holly Hughes. Their influence became a blunt instrument of saying and doing shocking things, skewering anything anyone found to be sacrosanct and untouchable. Those of us on the Left celebrated these caustic and hysterical attacks on the establishment and those who pushed it too far. Above the theater I co-founded in Chicago was the warning "Nothing is Sacred. Not Even You."

I'm almost exclusively a fan of blasphemy. I'm not really that clever so my specific kind of blasphemy is somewhere in between a smartass with a smug grin and a four-year -old saying 'fuck' to shock his teachers. The aforementioned theater was my way of shocking people because getting a reaction—even an angry one—is better than boring people. With shows like Christmas, My Ass with its reliance on dildos in boxes of toys and an actor starting a monologue as Jesus slowly transforming in Charles Manson, we were definitely not boring. Boorish, maybe.

In order to truly dive into blasphemy, one has to find a belief so embedded in society that to speak the opposite or disagree with the belief is to cause hysteria among the powers that be. Orthodoxy demands conformity. Without it, the power seeps out like a teenage girl's self esteem while scrolling through Instagram. The original blasphemers challenged the orthodoxy and beliefs of religion. In the earliest days, religion had enough power to have these blasphemers killed outright for the crime of criticizing or mocking their god of choice. Some religious zealots in parts of the world today hold onto to 'death to the infidel' practice but here in the (not so) United States we prefer to destroy the livelihoods of those we determine have uttered a blasphemy. These days we choose to ban books by black and gay authors, pass laws to restrict abortion (not so much for the babies but because women should suffer the consequences of having unmarried sex), and fetishize the 1950's as our zenith as a society.

There's also the secular religions and the desire to force orthodoxy down the throats of the rest by demonizing disagreement. What used to be blasphemy against the Christian Right is now considered to be unassailable dogma to the Secular Left.

I know that I'll never change the mind of someone virulently anti-abortion. No science or explanations or reason can change a moral stance. That's not how it works. Once an idea becomes a moral absolute it is beyond discussion or contention. Which is why, if I'm confronted with someone absolute in their position against abortion, I tell them I'm pro-choice and explain that I think all people should have the right to kill babies. In fact, I'd say folks should be able to kill children right up until they can talk. After that, they might have something interesting to say (but probably not). Do I believe that? Who knows (and I ain't telling) but it sure shuts down the debate. It isn't even original. Jonathan Swift made a similar argument in favor of eating unwanted Irish children. Really pissed off a lot of the British with that one.

That's the fun of blasphemy. Moral high ground is stiff and unreasoning. It is a guarantee that the person claiming it has no sense of humor regarding certain subjects and few things are more enjoyable than poking at the humorless. When the humorless have power blasphemy becomes both fun and dangerous. To blaspheme against the powerful is equal parts foolish and courageous.

In 1964, at the height of incredible tensions between black Americans and the bigoted establishment, comedian Dick Gregory published his autobiography. The title? Nigger. Gregory commented on his choice of title in the book's primary dedication, addressing his late mother,

Dear Momma -- Wherever you are, if ever you hear the word "nigger" again, remember they are advertising my book.

Blasphemy against the bigots of the South in the sixties is now blasphemy to the racial identitarians of the 21st century. In 2016, the Dean of Matteo Ricci College at Seattle University was forced to resign after students protested her recommending the book to an African-American student. While the controversy was ongoing, Dick Gregory published an article supporting her against the protesters.

"I am not offended by Dean Kelly's use of the word “nigger.” In fact, I am pleased that she has the foresight to want to give these young men and women the knowledge, insight and experience of a civil rights activist that might just help them understand life a little better. I am disappointed that they seemed to have stopped at the title instead of opening the book and reading its contents. Years ago my mama told me, “Son, sticks and stones can break your bones, but names will never hurt you.” I grew up thinking that Richard was what they called me at home, but my real name was Nigger.

That’s why I named my autobiography Nigger, because it only echoes what “they” called me -- it doesn’t define who I am. People called me nigger in 1964 when I marched with Martin Luther King Jr., when I sat in the Birmingham jail with him and when I walked across the Pettus Bridge in Selma, Ala. When I fasted for 72 days protesting the Vietnam War, the white folks and even some black folks said, “Look at that crazy nigger.”

I have frequently said that sometimes black folks focus on the wrong injustices. For example, black folks tolerate Howard University being named after General Howard, who became famous for killing Indian children, and Spelman College being named after the grandmother of Nelson Rockefeller. Many times we rise up for injustices that are not the most oppressive. I frequently speak on college campuses and explain that we were fighting for liberation, not education. A liberated mind requires a deeper historical and analytical understanding about the good, bad and ugly regarding America’s past, and its future."

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"A liberated mind." Blasphemy is a method to force the mind to confront the conformist dogma at play at any given time. To crack open the calcified bone cages of concrete certainty and challenge the mind so happy to be imprisoned. To speak which is not to be spoken is a defiant act and those who do it best make us laugh while doing it.

Martin Luther was a blasphemer. One night, sitting in his cloisters (whatever the fuck a cloister is) he thought to himself [imagine this in German]

"Wait. What? As long as you can pay a priest to absolve you of sin, you can sodomize children every day? 'Hey, father, I raped another kid. Yeah. I know. Here's a ten-spot. Can you give me church approved pass? Thanks. Hey, look at that toddler...' That's a load of crap. That means that poor people can't rape and rape is the right of every man!"

He was so pissed, he started the Protestant Church. I mean, replacing one set of conformist dogma with another but, hey, it was a start.

The single greatest blasphemer is Nature itself. Designed to kill us to make us food for other creatures, Nature gives no fucks for our belief systems. In the midst of the body positivity movement, Nature allowed COVID to explode across the world and (mostly) kill fat people. You can't cancel Nature. You want to deny that the climate is changing because of our indulgence in fossil fuels? Great. Hang on to that belief as your home is burned in a wildfire only to be put out by historic snow the very next day. It's grim but if you can't find that funny on some level, Nature will level you in some way like taking out Jim Fixx with a heart attack while jogging at age 52—the perfect follow-up to his starting America's fitness revolution by popularizing the sport of running and demonstrating the health benefits of regular jogging.

What is orthodoxy today will be shunned tomorrow. We have blasphemy to thank for that.