Varvel: John Oliver, Jim Carrey use art to mock Christians

In this age of tolerance, there is one group that the preachers of tolerance will not tolerate – Christians.  

Jim Carrey and John Oliver are just the latest examples of this anti-Christian bigotry. In recent days, they attacked White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders and Vice President Mike Pence by mocking their faith,

Public figures are not immune to political ridicule. I've made a career out of it. But an individual's faith has traditionally been off limits. That is until now.

Carrey tweeted out his portrait of an angry woman many thought looked like Sanders.

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A convervative's view:What motivated Pence to run with Trump?

Sanders, the daughter of former Southern Baptist pastor-turned-GOP-governor Mike Huckabee, has been mocked and ridiculed for her looks by Cher, Chelsea Handler, Rosie O’Donnell and now Carrey. Sad.

"This is the portrait of a so-called Christian whose only purpose in life is to lie for the wicked. Monstrous!" Carrey tweeted.

I like Carrey's movies, but someone needs to hide his paint brushes because his portrait and tweet are "dumb and dumber."

Why did Carrey call Sanders a “so-called Christian?" He is questioning Sanders' faith because she works for "wicked" President Trump.

Christian-shaming is a popular tactic these days. Almost weekly I receive emails calling Pence a hypocrite for being Trump’s vice president. But I have a good explanation for Pence's decision to run on the GOP ticket, which I wrote about last year. 

On Oliver's show "Last Week Tonight," he went on a profanity-laced rant about Pence. Oliver hates Pence for a whole host of reasons, but he specifically loathes Pence for saying that "marriage was ordained by God." This is a position held by tens of millions of Americans, but it's unacceptable to the all-wise-cracking Oliver.

Even though Pence denies it, Oliver is convinced Pence supports gay-conversion therapy because he is friends with Focus on the Family founder James Dobson, who Oliver calls a “famous homophobe.” 

He wasn't done.

Pence’s wife and daughter Charlotte have co-written a children’s book about their pet rabbit Marlon Bundo. It’s called, “Marlon Bundo’s Day in the Life of the Vice President.” Proceeds from the book will aid victims of human trafficking and promote art therapy.

With dripping sarcasm Oliver said, ”It turns out, in a complete coincidence, we also wrote a book about Mike Pence’s rabbit that has also been published.” He pointed out that his rabbit differs from Pence’s. In Oliver's book, Marlon Bundo is gay and wants to marry another male bunny.

Question: Do you think Oliver would have attacked a Muslim for having the same beliefs? 

Charlotte Pence by the way handled the mockery with far more class than John Oliver has ever shown. 

“I think, you know, imitation is the most sincere form of flattery in a way, but also…his book is contributing to charities that I think we can all get behind,” she said Tuesday during a Fox Business interview. “So, we have two books that are giving to charities, that are about bunnies, so I’m all for it.”

It's not just comedians who show their disdain for Christians. After Trump tapped Larry Kudlow to be his economic adviser, Stephanie Ruhle of MSNBC said, “If you noticed when Larry Kudlow spoke on CNBC yesterday, he ended by saying, ‘However things work out, it will be God’s will.’”

Then she added incredulously, “That’s an interesting way to talk about being the national economic adviser to the president, God’s will?”

She closed by saying, “Well as Larry Kudlow says, it’s God’s will.”

Her facial expression spoke volumes. It said, if Kudlow believes that God is active in the affairs of people, his mental state must be a few dollars short of balancing.

Last week, Joy Behar apologized for saying on "The View,"  ”It’s one thing to talk to Jesus. It’s another thing when Jesus talks to you. That's called mental illness, if I'm not correct. Hearing voices." As I pointed out earlier, her mea culpa came after a month-long campaign by the Media Research Center in which 43,000 phone calls were placed to ABC and its advertisers.

If left unchallenged, how far will religious intolerance go? Will biblical principles be banned as hate speech? 

That's what happened in the United Kingdom in 2017. Gordon Larmour, 42, a Christian evangelist was accused of a hate crime and jailed after telling the story of Adam and Eve to a 19-year-old who asked him about God’s views on homosexuality.

Travis Weber, director of the Center for Religious Liberty at the Family Research Council, said, “While free speech law in the United States is relatively stronger than that of Canada or Western Europe, we can’t relax our vigilance. Law is perpetually only several steps behind culture, and as our prevailing cultural norms increasingly demand only ‘correct speech’ be permitted, the law won’t be far behind.

Turning the other cheek could be costly. 

Contact Varvel at gary.varvel@indystar.com.  Friend him on Facebook at Gary Varvel and follow him on Twitter: @varvel.