God is Tetchy

Protectors of the Almighty's itsy-bitsy feelings have achieved a victory in Sydney where, in the wake of much pious indignation, a parodied religious painting has been removed from an exhibition, the mayor having balanced freedom of speech with freedom of religion by ordering the abandonment of both. Apparently Christ's words at Matthew 5 xi-xii have been misreported by the Evangelist; and the perpetrator of the painted blasphemy demonstrated a similar penchant for re-writing history when he claimed that violence and intimidation against the impious are "not at all Christian." Assuming that the purpose of a religion consists in what it preaches and practises, two thousand years of crusades, witch-hunts, pogroms, purges and inquisitions provide a rather emphatic indication. Indeed, as at least one eminent theologian has pointed out in all humility, the Saviour Himself spent the greater part of His ministry proclaiming eternal torment for anyone He disliked.