Today’s issue of the University of Virginia’s student paper, The Cavalier Daily, featured a cartoon depicting a naked man smoking a cigarette in bed. Standing beside the bed, a woman in her underwear buttons up her shirt and asks, “Come on God, be honest—Did you really get a vasectomy? I can’t let Joseph find out about this.” The man replies, “Well, Mary, you’re F***ed.” Yesterday’s paper ran a comic portraying a crucified Jesus telling jokes onstage.
Catholic League president Bill Donohue had this to say:
“The hate-mongers typically come out of the woods in the days leading up to Holy Week. Easter can’t come and go without someone taking aim at Christianity. This has been a relatively tame Lent thus far. Until, that is,The Cavalier Daily decided to once again dip into the well of bigotry.
“In the Fall of 2006, we wrote to the paper requesting an apology for cartoons that mocked the crucifixion and indicated that the Virgin Mary had an ‘Immaculately Transmitted’ venereal disease. (This apology was originally denied, though eventually the vile cartoons were removed from the paper’s website and a statement of regret was posted.) And now The Cavalier Daily has returned to its old tricks, just as we approach the holiest time of the Christian calendar.
“Even more telling of the attitude of those at the University of Virginia’s paper is the hypocrisy at play. Today’s issue also shows a cartoon that acknowledges that any and all depictions of the Muslim prophet Muhammed are banned. Last year, the paper’s editorial board forced a cartoonist to resign after the campus chapter of the NAACP objected to a cartoon mocking Ethiopians. And in 2005, the paper was quick to apologize to homosexuals for remarking that the crane is the ‘gayest-looking of all birds.’
“It’s clear that there’s a double-standard at play in the offices of The Cavalier Daily. Tell the paper’s editor to afford Christians the same consideration shown to blacks, Muslims and homosexuals.”
Write to Elizabeth Mills at editor@cavalierdaily.com
