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Olmert apologizes for Christian satire

[additional-authors]
February 23, 2009

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert—didn’t know he was still around?—has apologized for a late-night TV sketch that aired in Israel earlier this month and angered the Vatican:

A Vatican statement released Feb. 20 said the skit, broadcast earlier this month on a late-night show, had “ridiculed—with blasphemous words and images—the Lord Jesus and the Blessed Virgin Mary.”

The skit made a sarcastic reference to Mary becoming pregnant at age 15 by a school friend, and said Jesus could never have walked on water because “he was so fat he was ashamed to leave the house, let alone go to the Sea of Galilee with a bathing suit.”

More here from JTA.

I understand that coexistence is always influx in Israel, but I really don’t think the actions of a private television station warranted a governmental response. With the ridicule Christianity often receives here in America, I didn’t even realize apologizing was an option.

Bill Maher and Christopher Hitchens sure would keep President Obama busy.

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