Muslim cartoon controversy prompts SBS reversal on South Park

Cathnews ^ | 02/16/2006

[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.'"

[JohnnyZ]

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

Going in and out of the pews -> one is supposed to genuflect, kneel before the Lord who we believe is present in the Eucharist. The tabernacle (a possibly gold container with a red candle or other light next to it, should be front and center but may be front and off to one side) contains the Body of Christ -- the transfigured Host. When someone enters the sanctuary they genuflect toward the tabernacle before entering the pew; when they're done for the day, they genuflect toward the tabernacle when leaving the pew. This is usually taught as "kneel before you go into the pew" without explaining about the Real Presence of Christ, so it's not surprising that you'd hear some creative explanations.

[fromscratchmom]

And your view of decency laws, then … is what? There should be no such thing? Anything goes in the name of free-expression? Maybe what is decent and what is not decent should be decided by the poor oppressed minorities? I am certainly looking forward to living in an America where kiddie porn is legal but government employees are not allowed to read the Bible on their coffee breaks, where it is illegal to insult Muslims, but it is still the holy grail of the media and other groups to do everything in their power to come up with bigger and better ways to offend Christians and portray them as evil, especially those awful white Christian men.

"Our Constitution was partially created to protect the rights on the minority against the tyranny of the majority"

It is a shame that it is not doing such a good job of protecting the majority from the tyranny of the minority, in recent history.

"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’m pretty sure that there is no one going to stop you from burning all the Bibles that you want. But if you do it on TV, the people who make the money in that business might care whether or not their potential audience is going to grow or shrink as a result, so you might want to choose a different venue. You can probably set it up so that you can do it inside an art gallery with people watching and call it performance art, and then my tax dollars will pay you a salary to spend your time this way, in the name of free expression (thank goodness for socialism in America). I certainly won’t start rioting and murdering non-Christians when you do it, or even write my congressman to encourage him to make a law that would cause you to be thrown in jail if you persist. It’s a shame that you may eventually lose your right to burn copies of the Koran, probably be prosecuted for hate crimes if you try it, because you know it is only decent to move forward with communism’s political correctness movement and the only politically correct group that you can persecute or rail against is Christians, especially those awful white Christian men. Imagine the gall of such a group to dare to start speaking up for themselves finally. Someone better put a halt to their growing exodus from the public schools and fast, before their kids grow up and it is too late to indoctrinate those kids into the religion of humanism. Generation upon generation might be lost to the cause. Oh the horror. How many more decades it might take to regain the lost ground, if Christians start growing in numbers again or heaven forbid even devout Christians? Somebody do something fast. What if those future generations all understand that there is such a thing as indecency and they don’t restrict their view of that word so as to only apply it to Christians, especially those awful white Christian men? This is such a disturbing idea; I’m going to have to take to my bed for a while.

[DoughtyOne]

I would not have suspected that. Thanks for the comments. Interesting...

[Ciexyz]

This is good news. First good news in this entire controversy. I'm sure it's 'devastating' to all the diehard South Park fans who defended this ep on these FR threads.

Remember all the abuse that Christians have taken over the years from creative people throwing their hatred in our faces: the Virgin Mary artwork covered with dung, the crucifix stuck in urine. Nobody has taken Christian sensibilities into account until they are absolutely forced to.

[dpwiener]

I'm sure it's 'devastating' to all the diehard South Park fans who defended this ep on these FR threads.

I'm not sure why you would consider this to be "devastating". After all, it's happening in Australia, not the United States. Other countries, even many relatively free countries, have far greater limitations on free speech than we do. That may be unfortunate, but hardly devastating.

As long as South Park remains free to offend everyone in sight in this country (and make me laugh while doing so), I'm happy. Half the fun is in observing the sputtering complaints of those thin-skinned people who find themselves perpetually offended by South Park but can't seem to find the television "Off" switch.

[Panerai]

I am starking to think there are more Catholics pissed of at South Park, than there are at all those priests turning altar boys in to their afternoon delight.

[Oztrich Boy]

But it accomplished it's objective.. 9 out of 10 missed the moral of the story completely, and focused on the "blasphemy"...

And 7 out of the 9 never saw the episode but are reacting to what their decency guardians told them

[LibertarianInExile]

My take on it is that Catholics belief that you can pray to Mary, Jesus, and saints to intercede on your behalf with God. It's not idol worship so much as it is a result of Catholic assimilation of other religions that had gods for certain areas (think the Roman pantheon, where each god had his own bailiwick). Voodoo has taken a lot from Catholicism, and in a lot of countries, Catholicism has taken over the local religion--witness the Day of the Dead in Mexico, Easter just about everywhere, and Christmas in Europe where Yule traditions have spread. Heck, even the Mass ritual itself is essentially Mithraic religion with Christianity interjected.

Anyway, back to the point--"worship" of Mary (or the saints) in the way Catholics do today is essentially just prayer to a pal of the big guy in the sky himself asking them to nudge God for the poor mortal praying. Nothing more idolatrous about that than asking for you to pray for me, or for you to ask me to pray for my dying relative. But I'm sure some here will disagree.

[MonroeDNA]

As a recovering Catholic, I can say for sure that Mary is worshipped.

"Holy Mary, Mother of God..."

We had to say that a bunch of times after confession.

"Say 10 'Our Father's' and 5 "Holy Mary's" was the penance.

With great irony, it sure was a penance. I can't stand to hear either of them to this day.

Quite a few of the popes were corupt, too. The Catholic church teaches that they all are infallible, and that they speak with the voice of God. What a joke.

"Eat my body, drink my blood" is sung during mass. Canibulls.

[mastercylinder]

I did it was funny

[Flavius Josephus]

Well, Christians were rioting, looting, burning embassies, and murdering people left and right, so that was undoubtably a factor...

Yeah, at Mass today the Pastor was inciting the congregation to take revenge on those who would insult the Blessed Virgin. He had us chanting "Death to those who defile Our Lady... Death to those who defile Our Lady... etc., etc., etc."

[Flavius Josephus]

(pssst... we don't worship the Virgin Mary. What confuses people is that we believe that those who are in heaven are alive and that we can talk to them and ask them to pray for us. And we don't have to if we don't want to.)

[Flavius Josephus]

South Park presented something that is their right to present.

See, I think the SP guys are doing very important First Amendment work. They are absolutely rock solid in their position that no one is going to tell them what they can or cannot say. Not PC, not raging muslims, not outraged Christians. This was indeed in very poor taste, but I admire their determination to keep the envelope of free speech fully pushed out.

[LibertarianInExile]

As one who was raised Catholic and is agnostic on his best days, I can say without question that Mary is not worshipped in the sense that Catholic dogma promulgates her as some sort of God in her own right. There are plenty of people who think that dedication to her or a particular saint will gain intercession with GOD, but she's not a God to them any more than St. Christopher is. Since you read the "Hail Mary" in its entirety so many times, you know that it doesn't venerate her as a god at all but asks for her to PRAY for the sinner, not actually do anything as a God. If you saw worship of Mary, it was probably by the same kind of folks that the Catholic church adapted to convert, those who adhere to tradition so heavily they forget the actual point of the religion and whose ancestors probably DID directly worship a mother cult.

Unfortunately many religions adapt so much they forget their purpose. Some days, I think this is particularly true of the Catholic church. I doubt the infallibility of any Pope, and disagree with many of her doctrines, but I don't think the Catholic institution is altogether evil as you seem to. I believe it definitely needs a lot of real estate and art sold if its mission is to promote Christ's philosophy, however. Of course, I believe that about most organized Christian denominations. And I don't think I've ever read the Pope 'speaks with the voice of God' in a literal sense, which is how your post reads.

As to the 'eat my body, drink my blood,' that would be the Mithraic stuff I posted about earlier. But I don't think that's any worse than other religious ritual. It's all mumbo-jumbo to someone who's not that religion.

[DoughtyOne]

Along with power comes responsibility. I support a large portion of what they are trying to do, but there are times when it would be nice to see them show some sensitivity too. There are ways to get messages across without going over the line. I understand what you're trying to say, I just think our lines in the sand are at somewhat different places in that sand.

[Camel Joe]

Lets look at it this way shall we? The very fact that you have statues of the Virgin Mary makes you even more of an enemy to islam. Remember the taliban blowing up the Hindu statues from the cliff wall in Afghanistan? If you fail to uphold the right of Free citizens to express their opinions regarding religion then you are enabling the muslimes as they repress and persecute Christianity around the world. I would prefer the Virgin Mary without a burkha if its all the same to you. You don't have to like or agree with episode but we must all stand together in opposition to censorship, lest we at some time be censored ourselves.

[Centurion2000]

Stiull waiting for them to slam muzzies the way they deserve.