The pitfalls of a character named Jesus.

"So, what did you do to Erasure?"
"Which character had their name changed?"

Two of the questions I've been fielding over the last couple of days -- mostly arriving as part of the congratulations messages (messages that I remain completely humbled by, for the record).

What did I do? A lot, but nothing that in any way alters the structure or message that the original Erasure was based on.
Mostly, the changes have been about clarifying some of the components that were a little murky. The most obvious of which can be found in the prelude, which has been totally redone. The rest is just some subtle but important editing to tidy things up and aid the flow of the book.

The name change? Fans might not be at all surprised... Jesus is no longer Jesus. 

Why?

Because, four years on, I recognize that "Jesus" is a divisive name, despite there being literally no attempt to try at creating subtext or hidden message.

NPR doesn't want ALL of the opinions, apparently.

Photo courtesy of www.scenesofreason.com

I follow Hedayah  on Facebook -- an organisation that is doing some great work with regard to pushing back against religious extremism and radicalization.

Along with their official posts, they also distribute the work of others in their social media feed, like this one by Average Mohamed via the NPR website.

What is as interesting as the article is the comment stream that follows it. It's the usual fare: "You are the problem/they are the problem/tolerance is the problem...."

Strangely, NPR don't seem particularly interested in a broader point of view than the standard binary of "total war/total peace", and have refused to post my commentary.

So, I'll do it here instead.

(Makes more sense if you head over to the source of such consternation first, check it out, then take a peak at the commentary. Apparently "bombing things to hell" and insulting any religion that is not one's own is okay, but the odd redacted colourful word is not.)

Behold: the comment that NPR don't seem to want to publish.

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