The Financial Times today has a story about this week's controversial New Yorker cover. The cover depicts Senator Barack Obama as a Muslim and Michelle Obama as a terrorist. The New Yorker says it's satire.
An item presented as satire can, of course, at the same time be offensive. Given the amount of prejudice and violence in our country, past and present, I think that the cover shows poor judgment.
The FT reports that 19 percent of rural voters believed Sen. Obama was Muslim. If the fact that Sen. Obama practices Christianity cannot penetrate into this group of people, how likely are they to believe that this cover is satire?
The person cleaning my teeth last week told me she couldn't vote for Obama because he'd take the oath of office with his hand on the Koran. I sat up and corrected her, yet have been ashamed ever since that I felt the need to proclaim a candidate's Christianity.
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