What White has done here is not humor.
It is vile. It is reprehensible. It is despicable. It is outrageous. If White were thinking rationally, he would see this.
Hence, White has lost his mind when it comes to this. He is not functioning as a rational agent on this topic.
Then, a little later, he continues his rant,
Discussion over.
James, you lose.
If you were Catholic, I’d tell you to go to confession.
What you did was vile, unacceptable, and childish. You have reduced yourself to the status of a troll.
If you can’t immediately see that and make amends then no one, knowing that you are capable of this, should engage you in debate or discussions of any kind. (source)
Thus the lead apologist of Catholic Answers, a man who has been documented to have promoted errors in his arguments for Rome repeatedly over the years, feigns shock and horror while ignoring the point of the gross hypocrisy he fosters at his blog and in his comboxes—and, as a staff member in high standing of Catholic Answers—in the Catholic Answers forums. He has not only refused to acknowledge the reality of the double standards displayed with regularity by Roman Catholics in his comboxes, but he himself has promoted it, ignoring the truth so as to promote the claims of Rome. Read the lengthy rants on his blog. Does he step in and point out the obvious double standard of his fellow followers of Rome? No, he lit the match to start the conflagration, just as the imams in Islamic countries whip up the fervor of their followers. I know Jimmy Akin is more than intelligent enough to get the biting irony of “behead those who lack charity.” It is a graphic, and utterly truthful, demonstration of the double-standard of his followers who can ravage others without reason while insisting that they do so out of charity. And the frightening part is, that’s exactly how those who served Rome in the Inquisition viewed their work. They were so wedded to Rome as the Mother Church that they felt the imprisonment, torture, and even execution, of “heretics” was for the good of the church and of the heretics as well! And once someone becomes that warped, there is nothing they won’t do in the name of God. Rome engaged in that kind of butchery for centuries, and while her followers today lack the political power to continue that kind of activity, the mindset has not been banished.
The hypocrisy of Akin’s behavior should be noted. If he were truly so offended, he would not re-post the pictures which he finds so offensive. But he did. Why? Simple. He knows what the pictures are about, and he knows that to take them the way he pretends he has is absurd. But he doesn’t care about that. He has an audience to impress and to excite, and so he knows if he appeals to the emotions of that group he can use the pictures to his own advantage. (There might also be a bit of “I’ll cover for you, Frank…you get out of the limelight for a while, I’ll draw White’s fire!”)
By the way, Akin tries to connect these pictures to horrible actions of jihadists around the world. I had posted both of these pictures on my blog before, and pointed out that both were almost laughable: they are of the very same kinds of people that Akin is whipping into a frenzy now (just different false religions): those who are easily manipulated into acting in irrational fashions for no serious reason at all. In fact, I had originally posted the first picture and noted it was about a bunch of folks all hopped up about Salmon Rushdie and I noted that I bet not a one of them had an actual clue about what they were so upset about. Which was the point. The second guy is in the UK and is hiding his identity–another act of cowardly hypocrisy. Hence the point of both pictures: those who are ranting and raving about me while ignoring the issues and the arguments I have presented are no different than these wild-eyed zealots. Irrational zealotry is not limited to Islam. Service to any false religion, including Romanism, can create it. Historical illustration: C R U S A D E S. And one other thing: if Akin is so righteously indignant about Islam, why isn’t he doing what I am doing to refute the claims of Islam? Actions speak louder than words, even when those words are hysterically written or spoken.
Of course, Akin has been avoiding doing a real debate since he lost the only one we have done (on KIXL), and he seems to likewise be using this so as to have an excuse to keep hiding from that challenge. I had just last week begun examining our BAM encounter from 1995, documenting where he failed to respond to my very first statements in the program, so possibly he is aware that the challenge is going to be repeated by others who likewise wonder why the “lead” apologist for Catholic Answers continues to avoid those challenges? Maybe he realizes I will be pointing out his errors and inconsistencies in the “BAM Debate” as CA likes to call it, showing how he stands against even Roman Catholic scholarship in saying what he did about the e;comen / e;cwmen variant at Romans 5:1, and I likewise intend to find time to document his amateurish errors regarding his comments about the proper translation of ivdi,aj evpilu,sewj at 2 Peter 1:20. Akin pretends expertise in these areas he simply does not possess, and makes his living off of so doing. He needs means by which to avoid having to be exposed before his audience on matters such as these, and he has chosen to fan the flames of angry and venomous hatred of his audience against (note the irony here) his “separated brethren” so as to provide himself “cover.”
Some have wondered why I am not allowing these kinds of vitriolic, hypocritical attacks to go by in silence. Simple. This is nothing less than intimidation, an effort to shut up those who would dare question Rome and, in this case, her newest prize “convert.” And I will have none of it. I have been consistent from the first day I blogged about Beckwith’s reversion to Rome. This isn’t about him, and as much as Akin and the many others who join him in attacking me personally want it to be, it isn’t about me, either. I have been spot-on-focus from the start, and that fact is documented, too. I knew exactly what the Roman apologetics community would do with his actions. And I knew the faith of many might well be upset as well. So what did I do? From the start I put the spotlight on the key issues. Gospel and authority. Would Beckwith say anything more than Rome has been saying all along? Would this be just another opportunity to once again edify the saints by reminding them of the firm foundation that has stood the test of time despite all the best efforts of Rome and every other form of false religion to undermine it? And in those very first posts I warned anyone with ears to hear: this is about things much larger than Frank Beckwith or James White or anyone else. The Gospel is the power of God unto salvation, and it is more precious, more important, than any man, his wealth, status, and reputation. Today in our society we think on such a small scale, with such a focus upon ourselves and our little world of interests that we struggle to see the bigger picture, the things that are of so much more value. I will not be intimidated into silence by those who scream and shout while covering their ears. The issues are too important.
—in the defense and confirmation of the gospel
