"Sell the Vatican, feed the world!" is the theme of Sarah Silverman's heretical new viral video:
(Warning: F-bombs)
Amusing stuff. Perhaps offensive to some. But not original — not by a long shot.
The argument over whether or not churches should hold wealth while the poor go hungry has always been there. Has she never seen The Name of the Rose?
(See the debate at the very beginning.)
So, while this is a cutely cocky video, Ms. Silverman has stumbled onto an issue that has been faced by Christian theologians since St. Francis' time. But at least today, nobody has to face an inquisition over it.
Of course Silverman's unoriginal in pointing out the innate hypocrasy of a church that professes compassion for the hungry while amassing huge riches. What's unique about Silverman is the way she self-effaces her audience by speaking the unspoken. It's the comments about not wanting to see the faces of the hungry on her hi def screen that's the most subversive: she's ridiculing the very audience that would choose to laugh smugly at her joke. I think she's a lot subtler a comedian than either what her persona or audience reflect.
ReplyDeleteArtistically, very funny.
ReplyDeleteIn real life, except in a temporary crisis like a flood or famine, sending food turns out to be an awful idea -- the major employer in most poor countries is agriculture, and flooding the country with free food drives those families out of business and off their land, to become yet more starving squatters living in city slums.
No offence to anyone but, if so much wealth is required for a belief system to stand on it's own two feet, then I would question it's effectiveness, or validity. I just consider it another corporation.
ReplyDelete