Is the Bible compatible with Western values?

Dutch YouTube series Dit Is Normaal recently conducted a social experiment that probably should be repeated throughout the West: They disguised a Christian Bible as The Holy Koran, and had people on the street read troubling passages within it:

The result is all kinds of troubling prejudice bubbling quickly to the surface:

What's compelling about this to me is that, as a Canadian, I've always felt an affinity for the Netherlands. (Perhaps that's how I ended up writing for a Dutch marketing blog!) Like Canadians, the Dutch pride themselves on being a tolerant and open-minded society. But I can imagine some of the same reactions happening on the streets of Ottawa.

The thing is, many of the world's religious texts were written in more violent and intolerant times. But as  L. P. Hartley wrote (in 1953) "The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there."

To take almost any ancient holy text literally, as a whole, and consider it a guide for modern living is religious extremism. And that's what we really need to be afraid of.

Christ The Redeemer in a soccer jersey provokes anger, possible lawsuits

Via abcnews.go.com

It's not the first (or the worst) example of Rio de Janeiro's monumental Christ The Redeemer statue being used in an ad campaign. But maybe the context of the World Cup has people particularly jumpy.

In one example, from Australia, involved a giant inflatable Jesus hovering over Melbourne, sporting a Team Australia soccer jersey with the logo of bookmaker Sportsbet and the hashtag #KEEPTHEFAITH.



While Australia is known for edgy advertising, this stunt upset Reverend Tim Costello, chair of the Australian Churches Gambling Taskforce. He told the press, "One of the great statues in Rio is Jesus, and Brazil is a Catholic nation that takes its faith seriously and its football fanatically."

Indeed, Brazil's church was deeply offended. But by another campaign that had Jesus join Team, Italia:

Via NY Daily News

NY Daily News reports that The Brazilian Catholic Church  threatened to sue Italian broadcaster Rai after it showed the statue in an Italian jersey in its promotional video for its coverage of the World Cup.



While this upset the The Archdiocese of Rio on religious grounds, the issue could actually be one of intellectual property. The Archdiocese has image rights over the statue. After they threatened to sue Rai for $5.4 million, the network pulled the ad.

My own sensitivities are not too bruised by poking fun at The Jesus, since he's so embedded in secular western culture. But the intellectual property argument for this particular representation could be a real headache for cheeky advertisers.

UPDATE: Ad Critic Joe La Pompe informs me that it is a well-worn old idea!

Christian college prof appears on beer label, gets canned

Daily Mail

Holy City Brewing is a microbrewery in Charleston, South Carolina. This is one of their beer labels.

Daily Mail

And this is Paul Roof, who until recently worked as an associate professor of sociology at a Christian liberal arts college in North Charleston.

Charleston Southern University apparently told Dr. Roof that appearing on a beer can was "not representative of a Christian environment" and they fired him.

He claims that the picture, which was taken at a beard competition, was used without his knowledge and without compensation. However, Dr. Roof has a longstanding relationship with the beer brand. According to live5news, he founded the Holy City Beard and Moustache Society in 2007, with Holy City Brewing as a name sponsor. Charleston Southern was aware of his relationship with the company, but didn't have an issue with it until now.

The professor told NBC, "I was told that it was not representative of a Christian environment. And for me a Christian environment entails two things: looking out for other people and forgiveness of others who've transgressed you."

Dope-smoking Jesus hawks cheeseburgers

Adland's Kid Sleepy shared this dumb little attention-getter from Seattle with the comment, "Ads like this are designed only to shock. but that's the funny thing about shocks. The shock wears off quickly.. And shock value in terms of advertising equals a dingleberry."

I don't care much about the blasphemy, but is that cheese on that burger? It's Passover for God's sake! At least let Yeshua Ben Yosef eat kosher.

And now, we can forget we ever saw this.

"Jesus is Muslim" ads provoke Ohio Christians

According to Yahoo! (via Fox News, obviously) these boards are posted in Ohio. Who could possibly take issue?

 In a press release sent to Christian Newswire, [Christian radio host Dave] Daubenmire wrote, “Although we support the Islamic community's right to free speech, as well as their right to post messages on billboards, we do not support the hi-jacking of the name of Jesus Christ in their attempt to lure uninformed Christians into their religion.” Operation Save America was less diplomatic about the rally, writing on their website, “It appears that the Muslim community in Columbus, Ohio, is becoming increasingly arrogant in spreading its monstrous religion, with its false book, and its false prophet, right in the face of the Church of Jesus Christ in Columbus. It has purchased space on three billboards around the city spreading lies about the Gospel of Christ.”

Dave, you may want to look up "free speech". It's the same concept that lets "Operation Save America" spew their intolerance.

Ironically, the Ask A Muslim campaign is all about unity among the Abrahamic religions. On its web site, it says "Adam, Abraham, Jesus, Muhammed: One Message, One God". (However, later in the slide show, it also states rather exclusively "Islam: The Religion of The Only God".)

The Ask a Muslim site claims to invite discussion, saying "We believe that clearing up the many misconceptions about Islam will make this world a better place. A place with less violence and hatred, filled with mutual respect and understanding."



But in the end, this just seems to be an attempt to poke the bear of Christian fundamentalism in the United States by a brand of Islam that is equally intolerant of dissent. Makes me wish both groups would just "let god sort it out," since they're both into fatalism:

Sigh.

Ontario Catholic schools play "holier than thou"

Update: The video has been removed from the official YouTube channel. The replacement embed is from the Globe and Mail.

Whenever I get into smug internet arguments with Americans about their religious craziness, I am always afraid they'll trot out an obvious problem with Canada's secular la la land. That problem is publicly-funded Catholic schools.

The reason for their existence is complex, and has to do with Canada's history as a state of compromises. In our early days, both the Anglican and the Roman Catholic churches received land and special rights — including separate education systems. This was partly because Canada was essentially a French colony conquered by the English, and religious, linguistic and legal accommodations had to be made to keep the place together. As well, Canada had large populations of Anglophone Catholics who regularly fought with their Protestant neighbours.

Education is under provincial jurisdiction in Canada, and in Ontario the "Protestant" school system evolved into a secular public system, while the Catholic one remained religious. This has caused continuing debate in Ontario, but the provincial parties tend to shy away from addressing the issue. It is interesting to note, however, that in the recent teacher labour disruptions the Catholic elementary school union was quick to accept a deal from the Premier while the public teacher's union fought long and hard. Another compromise for continued support?

I won't get into all the reasons why I believe that separate religious education needs to be ended in Ontario as soon as possible. In skipping over this, I hope I don't cause too much offence among friends who have graduated from the system, and have sent or are sending their children to it. I'm not judging you, I'm just pointing out that the separate system goes against the secular nature of our modern world, and having parallel boards of education is a massive waste of taxpayer money when the government tells us they can't afford the status quo.

This is an advertising blog, so obviously this short rant was inspired by an ad. Here it is:



There are lots of things that bother me about this video, but the worst thing about it is how it directly attacks the public system by claiming the religious values in Catholic schools make them "better."

Michael Barrett, president of the Ontario Public School Boards’ Association, is quoted in the Globe and Mail:

“There’s certainly always been a partnership that exists between the two boards, and I think that the message that is being sent certainly would indicate that the public school board somehow does not have a values-based education because it’s not religion-based. I find it hard to believe that the only way you can have a values-based education is indeed within that context.”

Me too. And I'm further annoyed that school systems are spending their funds to compete with each other for students. Yet another waste resulting from clinging to outdated educational separatism.

Disclosure: I am married to a public school teacher.

Terrifying demon child defends Christmas

 St. Mary's Church, a Catholic congregation in New Jersey, recently released this bizarre and confusing PSA about the "War on Christmas":



It was actually aired on Fox News and MSNBC. Its equally confusing YouTube description states, "Happiness can be expressed through a smile or a religion. Will negative people try controlling the way we smile next?"

The narrator, Jim Flood, sounds a little like Leonard Nimoy. And the girl, whose name is kept secret (thankfully) sounds like a banshee from the darkest depths of superstition.

Here's two of their other contributions to the weird video literature of religious fundamentalism:

e-book campaign takes a shot at the Bible

Via Ads of The World

Copy reads:

"The Holy Bible has been printed more than 6 thousand million 96 billion) times.
Download the e-Book."

The campaign, by DDB, Bogota, goes after The Little Prince and Don Quixote as well, but neither is as as potentially (and amusingly) poignant as this one. It was possibly the first book printed in the west (using movable type) and is celebrated for being the best-selling nonfiction book of all time.

Interestingly (from a mythological point of view) if Adam and Eve really had denuded the forests that quickly, they would have been spared both the forbidden fruit and the fig leaves.

Hmmm...

Unintentional Christian hilarity of the week #FdAdFriday

Via Facebook (obviously stolen from College Humor)

According to manta.com:

Ram In The Bush Christian Center Inc in Memphis, TN is a private company categorized under Non-Denominational Church. Our records show it was established in 2002 and incorporated in Tennessee.

Who doesn't fancy a godly ram in the bush on a Sunday morning?

Progressive church sign of the day

Via UCC on Facebook

I love this sign in front of Toronto's Jubilee United Church. While I don't believe in god, I sure do believe in my family's sect, The United Church of Canada, and their determination to remain relevant in the secular age through social justice and progressive faith.

Well done!

Top 10 Posts of 2011, Part Two

Yesterday, I started my countdown with the the most-read posts from #10 to #6. Here are the top five, based on total visits from Jan 1, 2011, to today.

#5 Interview with FEMEN's founder, Anna Hutsol 

This post wasn't even original, it was a repost from a Facebook interview I did with Anna through her translator/community manager, Eugene Smirnov, on Osocio. It was short and sweet, as she picked and chose the questions she would answer, but any FEMEN post immediately gets the interest and support of their global activist community and associated voyeurs.

And yes, the post contained boobs.


#4 Nude activism continues to take over the internet

No, my posts are not all about nudity and sexuality. But it's a testament to the power of those primal forces, in activism as well as advertising, that my top posts mostly involve naked people.

This one was both interesting and amusing. After Chinese dissident artist Ai Weiwei's assistant Zhao Zhao was legally harassed for "spreading pornography online" with this picture, supporters started a nude protest blog called "Listen, Chinese Government: Nudity is NOT Pornography".

It's pretty weird. But in the tradition of PETA, FEMEN and "nude photo revolutionary" Aliaa Magda Elmahdy, it certainly gets them noticed.


#3 He's a straight talkin' PETA with a letter for the U of M...

Speaking of PETA, my distaste for their shock-and-eww tactics is a common topic here. But the PETA post that was my third most read of 2011 was neither. It was a personal appeal by one of my personal rock gods, Iggy Pop, to his alma mater to stop using live animals to train students in field medicine for the survival flight course.

It was a very well-written and rational appeal from a man who once described himself as "a street walking cheetah with a heart full of napalm". He even signed off with "Thanks for your time"!

Iggy has gone on to do more radical stuff for PETA, but to me this was his shining moment of elder statescraft.


#2 Disney's The Little Mermaid's sexual coming-of-age story, as told by her hipster meme

This was something I did on a winter weekend out of boredom. The Hipster Little Mermaid was a thing at the time, and I thought it would be fun to try to make a narrative out of it.

Yes, writers are sick people. But the internet is even sicker, and apparently any content that combines a teenage Disney Princess with the word "sex" is enough to bring them in like fruit flies on red wine. Even if there is no actual sex in the post, just a lot of English Major tomfoolery.

You can read the whole thing here.

#1 NZ church keeps up its irreverent Christian holiday ad tradition

As much as people love a good post about sex or nudity, blasphemy was the draw of the year. Despite being less than two weeks old, this post about the latest Christmas billboard by St Matthews in the City Church in Auckland, NZ, quickly took the lead in pageviews.

It's a beautiful ad, with an important message. According to Vicar Glynn Cardy:

"It's real. Christmas is real. It's about a real pregnancy, a real mother and a real child. It's about real anxiety, courage and hope. This billboard portrays Mary, Jesus' mother, looking at a home pregnancy test kit revealing that she is pregnant.   Regardless of any premonition, that discovery would have been shocking.  Mary was unmarried, young, and poor.  This pregnancy would shape her future.  She was certainly not the first woman in this situation or the last."

The progressive  Anglican church has long been known for its radical Christian messages of questioning tradition and acceptance of all people. What would Jesus do?

He'd probably go to St. Matts.

Happy New Year. I'll be back tomorrow with 2011's most effed ads.

Rick Perry's "Strong" ad just keeps giving and giving...

This one combines the "Brokeback Jacket" meme with the "Bad Lip Reading" one:



And in case you live in a rolled-up newspaper at the bottom of a lake, here's the original:



It's the most hated video on YouTube, apparently. So there's that, too.

Is your charity of choice charitable to your beliefs?

An old high school friend posted this screencap on Facebook, with the caption "note to self....find a different charity."

This got me thinking about how complicated charity and fundraising is these days, with our diverse and conflicting religious and secular agendas and beliefs.

The Salvation Army is, after all, a pretty conservative religious organization. I knew some Sally Anners growing up, and they had to sign contracts with the church that they would never do bad things like smoke or drink (which is why our neighbour stashed his smokes and beers in my parents' basement). I didn't really expect them to be down with the rainbow.

At the same time, I've learned from experience that the social media outrage of the day could be outdated, out-of-context, or just plain made up. So I did my own lookup. Here is the American Salvation Army's position paper on homosexuality, in full:

Homosexuality 

The Salvation Army holds a positive view of human sexuality. Where a man and a woman love each other, sexual intimacy is understood as a gift of God to be enjoyed within the context of heterosexual marriage. However, in the Christian view, sexual intimacy is not essential to a healthy, full, and rich life. Apart from marriage, the scriptural standard is celibacy. 

Sexual attraction to the same sex is a matter of profound complexity. Whatever the causes may be, attempts to deny its reality or to marginalize those of a same-sex orientation have not been helpful. The Salvation Army does not consider same-sex orientation blameworthy in itself. Homosexual conduct, like heterosexual conduct, requires individual responsibility and must be guided by the light of scriptural teaching. 

Scripture forbids sexual intimacy between members of the same sex. The Salvation Army believes, therefore, that Christians whose sexual orientation is primarily or exclusively same-sex are called upon to embrace celibacy as a way of life. There is no scriptural support for same-sex unions as equal to, or as an alternative to, heterosexual marriage. 

Likewise, there is no scriptural support for demeaning or mistreating anyone for reason of his or her sexual orientation. The Salvation Army opposes any such abuse. 

In keeping with these convictions, the services of The Salvation Army are available to all who qualify, without regard to sexual orientation. The fellowship of Salvation Army worship is open to all sincere seekers of faith in Christ, and membership in The Salvation Army church body is open to all who confess Christ as Savior and who accept and abide by The Salvation Army's doctrine and discipline. 

Scriptures: Genesis 2:23-24; Leviticus 18:22; Mark 2:16-17; Romans 1:26-27; Romans 5:8; I Corinthians 6:9-11; I Corinthians 13; Galatians 6:1-2; I Thessalonians 4:1-8; I Thessalonians 5:14-15; I Timothy 1:15-16; Jude 7 

Recommended for approval by the Commissioners' Conference
Approved for use within the USA by International Headquarters

So they don't accept any sex outside of heterosexual marriage as godly, but abhor discrimination based on the sexuality of others. It's actually a pretty friendly sort of hyperconservative sexual morality they've got there.

The Canadian version is even more smiley:

The Salvation Army upholds the dignity of all persons. For this reason, and in obedience to the example of Jesus Christ, whose compassionate love is all-embracing, The Salvation Army does not discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation in the delivery of its services. 

The Salvation Army believes that God’s will for the expression of sexual intimacy is revealed in the Bible, and that living fully in accordance with biblical standards calls for chastity outside of heterosexual marriage and faithfulness within it. We do not believe that same-sex attraction is blameworthy and we oppose the vilification and mistreatment of gays and lesbians. We believe that we are accountable for the ways in which we express our sexuality. 

While recognizing the challenge that this presents, The Salvation Army believes firmly in the power of God’s grace to enable all to live in a manner that is pleasing to Him. 

In keeping with our mission, we are committed to proclaiming the good news of salvation, the forgiveness of sins, and transformation by the Holy Spirit. We welcome all seekers of faith in Christ to explore Salvation Army church life. 

The Salvation Army, Canada & Bermuda, November 2011

It basically states that they don't believe in homosexual marriage or even sex (nor pre- nor extramarital het sex) but that they believe what you do in your bedroom is between you and god.

I can't really get mad at an organization that tries that hard to reconcile the impossible morality they impose on themselves with the desire to maintain a christlike relation with the outside world. I have certainly seen a lot worse.

So, in my moral opinion, you can choose to donate to a church that disagrees with your sexual ethics but will fight to protect them from discrimination, or not. That's between you and your own beliefs.

Update: Kerry sent me a link to an article about how Salvation Army organizations have, outside of policy, worked actively against gay rights.

Tea Party politician's ad says all Muslims want to kill Christians

“Do you really want someone representing you who swears an oath on a Quran? A book that undermines our Constitution and says you should be killed?”

These are the words of Gary Boisclair, who is running against U.S. Representative Keith Ellison in Minnesota's 5th congressional district. Ellison was the first Muslim to be elected to the United States Congress.

Boisclair allies himself with the Tea Party and the anti-abortion movements, and calls himself a Christian.

Here is his press release:

“It is common knowledge that Ellison is proud to publicize his devotion to the writings
contained in the Koran. 

This TV ad references several verses in the Koran which call for violence against Jews
and Christians. 

The call to violent acts against Christians and Jews within this ‘holy’ book should alarm
every American. The fact that a U.S. Congressman swore an oath on a book that calls for
most of us to be persecuted is an outrage. 

The Koran is a pillar in Islam’s ‘Sharia Law,’ which is a comprehensive code of ethics
governing both the private and the public behaviors of all ‘good’ Muslims.  Sharia law—
as seen in dozens of Muslims nations—leads to the oppression of its non-Muslim
citizens, and the loss of fundamental human rights for all.  

The fact that Ellison swore an oath to uphold the Constitution on a book that would
destroy the Constitution is as ludicrous as it is absurd. 

We did not pick this fight; Islam’s war against Christianity and human liberty has raged
against us for 1400 years. We are merely responding with the truth."

The truth... hmmmm.

Wikipedia has Ellison saying, "The district I represent is the kind of district where you can have a Member of Congress stand up for religious tolerance and against religious bigotry, against anyone, but also stand up for the rights of gays too." Not exactly out to kill, is he?

On the other hand, if we're going to accuse people of blindly following every policy in their religion's holy books, let's accuse Boisclair of supporting things like this:

"And they warred against the Midianites, as the LORD commanded Moses; and they slew all the males. And they slew the kings of Midian, beside the rest of them that were slain; namely, Evi, and Rekem, and Zur, and Hur, and Reba, five kings of Midian: Balaam also the son of Beor they slew with the sword.

And the children of Israel took all the women of Midian captives, and their little ones, and took the spoil of all their cattle, and all their flocks, and all their goods.And they burnt all their cities wherein they dwelt, and all their goodly castles, with fire. And they took all the spoil, and all the prey, both of men and of beasts. And they brought the captives, and the prey, and the spoil, unto Moses, and Eleazar the priest, and unto the congregation of the children of Israel, unto the camp at the plains of Moab, which are by Jordan near Jericho.

And Moses, and Eleazar the priest, and all the princes of the congregation, went forth to meet them without the camp. And Moses was wroth with the officers of the host, with the captains over thousands, and captains over hundreds, which came from the battle. And Moses said unto them, Have ye saved all the women alive? Behold, these caused the children of Israel, through the counsel of Balaam, to commit trespass against the LORD in the matter of Peor, and there was a plague among the congregation of the LORD. Now therefore kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman that hath known man by lying with him. But all the women children, that have not known a man by lying with him, keep alive for yourselves."

"I approve of this message"

 Okay, then.