Joe: I too agree with you about RO1SIN's jokes (and let me add that the allusions to sexual perversion in them are quite unfunny). I agree that the GUEST who began one of the CatholicShopper threads (Phil, who posted the "was Jesus a white American?" thread) has some bigotry toward Catholics... and quite possibly toward white Americans of other faiths, too. However, the other CatholicShopper thread seems to have been started innocently enough, perhaps by another GUEST, without references to bigotry.

I agree with Greg that poking fun at the merchandise on the CatholicShopper.com site isn't anti-Catholic, any more than the "Christ's head in a potato" thread series was. As I said to Chip in one of today's threads, I don't think anyone's making fun of the faith of Catholics, just of the discrepancies between that faith and the portrayals of Jesus (and angels) in this merchandise. Obviously some Catholics find these figurines and this t-shirt art inspirational, but I doubt that the message they imply is canonical!

Also, I think that this is just an example of some people doing anything for a buck, and of other people (us) shaking our heads over it incredulously. I don't see the harm. There are businesses like Archie McPhee that sell the same sort of merchandise and poke fun at it at the same time! The difference there is that they poke fun at the kitsch of several major religions – see their Laptop Buddha squeaky-toy and their Totem Pole bank in addition to the boxing-nun puppets and other Christian-based stuff – while they give the same treatment to the rest of their line of merchandise!

You may ask, is nothing sacred? My answer would be, if it's not a thing that's an actual relic or meant to be reverential (like a prayer card), but instead a thing that crosses the line into the territory of exploitation, then that thing shouldn't be above ridicule. IMO, by ridiculing the thing, one is laughing at the impropriety of skewing religion to make a buck, not laughing at the religion itself.