Posted on 02/18/2006 2:48:35 PM PST by Panerai
SBS TV has "deferred" an episode of the cartoon series South Park that caused outrage in church circles in the US and New Zealand.
Dubbed "Bloody Mary", the episode features a statue of the Virgin Mary that bleeds "out her ass".
It was screened in the US before Christmas, and its scheduling in New Zealand has caused heated controversy in New Zealand.
The Australian reports that the statue sprays blood over everyone who walks behind it, including Stan's father Randy, who declares it a miracle as it stops him drinking. Pope Benedict XVI turns up to investigate and is also sprayed.
In the US, the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights was outraged and called for the episode to be scrapped. It was not run in the season end wrap-up.
Melbourne's Archbishop Denis Hart recently wrote to SBS and asked that they not screen the episode, scheduled for 6 March. According to The Diary in the Media section of today's Australian, he received an unpleasant reply from the network's programming director Matt Campbell, "telling him to mind his own business".
But, The Australian's columnist D.D. McNicoll says, "someone clearly overruled Campbell".
"When Diary called yesterday to check what was happening, Campbell replied: 'Given the current worldwide controversy over cartoons of religious figures, we've decided to defer this program and give some more thought to its scheduling. It's an entertainment program so timing of broadcast is not a critical issue as it might be if it were news and current affairs.'"
(Excerpt) Read more at cathnews.com ...
I think you're giving them far too much credit. SBS' attempt at moral equivalency is deplorable.
Were it not for "the current worldwide controversy over cartoons of religious figures", this episode would have been aired as scheduled. IOW, they have no more respect for Christianity than before (note reaction to the archbishop). The freedom they enjoyed derived directly from Christians not engaging in deadly demonstrations, $1M bounties on artists, open threats to further murders and world domination, etc.
The Left's leader, BJ Clinton, has declared that the Danish cartoon artists should be convicted. What logical extrapolations should his followers derive from that?
To find cover for their cowardice toward muslim response, SBS has chosen to extend their self-censorship to their anti-Christian lampooning. Such skewed, self-interested behaviors will not help the good guys win the coming culture war.
HF
Oooo, you had to say that didn't you. While I do like diversity to a point, I do not like the full emersion version.
Please pardon the mistake. My husband who used to be a Catholic, also hates it when anybody says anything about Catholics and what they believe, because they are always wrong. Of course usually it comes from what a Catholic once said they believed or said they do. But it is always either something that is out of date or something that some Catholic thinks but doesn't really reflect the teaching of the head honchos. For example: all of the Catholic masses where I've been to and seen people appear to worship Mary and had it explained to me, after my asking, that yes, they do pray to her. But I guess I can never see anything in mass and know what it means or hear anything that a Catholic says they do and really know anything about it-a most confusing religion and most frustrating to hear come up in conversation. Usually I just keep my mouth shut since I have long been aware of this difficulty of knowing what is real and what is not with respect to the Catholic church. Every single thing my Catholic grandfather ever told me about it has been refuted by my husband as out of date or just misunderstood. But for the record my mother in law who is the most devout Catholic I have ever come in contact with does pray to Mary; and praying is an act of worship. So what is your take on Mary? I'm always willing to listen and try to learn.
South Park is on the backside of the bellcurve.
For that you need to go HERE
and just to be fair, lets do Tom Fing Cruise and the wacked out Scientologists! right HERE!
In the face, Tom Cruise!
Yeppir, it's about cowardice, not respect for religion.
I should disclaim that if your skin is thin, don't go there. :)
I hope you don't mean to suggest Catholics "worship Mary as a diety," because it's not true.
Now that was funny. I will say that the inclusion of the 'Jesus' comment at one point could make me a hypocrite, but I thought that was handled with humor and did not reach the level of what was described on this thread. Still it was off color.
That was a pretty good production. Thanks for the link.
Dear fromscratchmom,
"Please pardon the mistake."
Sorry, I just couldn't resist. Sometimes I get a little mischievous. Or at least my wife tells me. ;-)
"For example: all of the Catholic masses where I've been to and seen people appear to worship Mary and had it explained to me, after my asking, that yes, they do pray to her."
Please tell me at what point during the Mass that people worship Mary. I go to Mass every Sunday, and ordinarily, the Mother of God gets a quick mention or two, and that's about it. During the Eucharistic Prayer, she is mentioned briefly, but no prayers are directed toward her.
Occasionally, we say a "Hail Mary" at Mass, but there we are mainly quoting Scripture. I'm sure you have no problem in us repeating the words of the Archangel Gabriel, do you?
"But for the record my mother in law who is the most devout Catholic I have ever come in contact with does pray to Mary; and praying is an act of worship."
Ah, there's your difficulty. For Catholics, prayer can be involved in worship, but prayer is not worship. If we're praying to God, that might be worship. But if we're praying to a saint, we're merely asking their intercession with God. We're asking them to pray for us. That's it.
Please try not to overlay your religious beliefs on ours. We are not worshipping Mary or any other saint when we ask for them to pray for us. We're just asking them to pray for us. If you disagree with our asking for their intercession, then you're free to do so. But you mischaracterize it badly when you call our actions "worship."
Even if you don't make the same distinction, we distinguish between the veneration, the honor owed to the saints who have gone before us, and the worship due to God alone.
sitetest
Yes I am sure we will see Catholics running around beheading non-Catholics and burning effigies.
Then again probably not as most Catholics live, and like the 21st century. Unlike muzzies who burn and behead over a cartoon.
That Cruise production seemed to be a bit over the top, but I'm not sure exactly how much. Some of the humor was a bit sketchy on facts and sources.
Pretty funny though...
"Please tell me at what point during the Mass that people worship Mary."
I should have been more clear. The actions I was referring to are on the way in and on the way out of the pews, probably not considered part of the mass. But the act of kneeling and making the sign of the cross is what prompted me to ask my question, to which two different friends and now my husband have told me that it is directed toward a statue of Mary and then also that yes they do pray or in the case of the two friends they did say "worship" her. But your last post clearly explained what your view is on this. Thanks.
Dear fromscratchmom,
"The actions I was referring to are on the way in and on the way out of the pews, probably not considered part of the mass. But the act of kneeling and making the sign of the cross is what prompted me to ask my question, to which two different friends and now my husband have told me that it is directed toward a statue of Mary..."
Really? Do you know what the Sign of the Cross is? Do you know what we Catholics (and Orthodox) say when we make the Sign of the Cross?
Forgive us this terrible blasphemy, but what we say when we make the Sign of the Cross is, "In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen."
We touch our foreheads, our chest, and our shoulders to trace the Cross of Christ on our bodies, so that we acknowledge that we are praying in the name of the Trinity, and especially of the Divine Son Who was crucified for us.
We often start and finish our prayers with the Sign of the Cross. That is whether we're saying a prayer of intercession to Mary or another saint, or whether we're praying to God Himself. It is our confession of our faith in the Trinitarian God, that all our prayers are prayed out of our faith in the Most Holy Trinity.
As for "worshipping" Mary, well, perhaps your husband and two friends should go find a different Church, as "worshipping" Mary with the worship due to God alone is considered idolatry in the Catholic Church.
I don't know where your husband and friends got their ideas, but their ideas certainly aren't Catholic.
sitetest
Now now, that only happens during Crusades and, well, everybody knows it was okay to do it back then…
Our Constitution was partially created to protect the rights on the minority against the tyranny of the majority.
We are a Republic, not a mobocracy. I have just as much right to burn a bible as you do to boycott me for doing so.
I would imagine that if this particular episode gets much play there'll be a Moslem hit-team out to get them.
Besides...
Luke 8:19-21
19Now Jesus' mother and brothers came to see him, but they were not able to get near him because of the crowd. 20Someone told him, "Your mother and brothers are standing outside, wanting to see you."
21He replied, "My mother and brothers are those who hear God's word and put it into practice."
Everybody else spends longer in Purgatory, or they are just waiting around for Judgment Day (in that particular belief system.)
Then there are those who think EVERYBODY waits around for Judgment Day and nobody is in Heaven but Jesus (and Whoever else was already there). And finally, there's the crowd who believe that NO ONE GETS OFF THE WHEEL until Judgment Day (or "whatever" if you are a Buddhist), so you just keep getting recycled over and over and over and over.
Anyway, with only a modest sized instrument in Antarctica, they (meaning physicists) believe they have seen evidence of two additional dimensions to time. Presumably we will eventually be able to "sense" those dimensions in some manner, and that will probably help all of us straighten out who is in Heaven, who is just waiting, and what Judgment Day might hold out for our futures, or pasts!
I think the writers do this on purpose..
They present a "morality play", a commentary on societal beliefs and perceptions, which would normally be ignored or complained about for being "preachy"..
But they then introduce a "hook", something so blatantly outrageous as an example or illustrative point, that 90% of the audience is distracted from the actual message..
And that's their game...
They are looking for the "triggers" that set people off.. A simple statement, an illustration, an opinion, that will get the greatest reaction out of the masses..
It is an excellent illustration of Mass Psychology..
It is also an excellent study into the reactions of society to certain stimuli...
I am sure there were at least a dozen alternatives to the bloody Mary character/figure used in the story..
Any one of them could have been used, with more or less effect..
But it accomplished it's objective.. 9 out of 10 missed the moral of the story completely, and focused on the "blasphemy"...
Using the "South Park method of Diplomacy", the U.S. should be able to tell Iran the exact day, time and method by which we will destroy their Nuclear Weapons sites, and they will only pay attention to the part that jokes about Muhammed's bed partner being a goat.. because camels are too large for the bedroom..
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