Bleeping out "God"
What a great post on a Sunday....
Does God offend you? Which god you ask? The Christian God? Does Allah offend you? In a multicultural nation we must be respectful of other cultures and religions but this has gone too far:
ATLANTA -- So much for God and country, at least during some in-flight showings of the Oscar-nominated movie The Queen.
All mentions of God are bleeped out of a version of the film distributed to Delta and some other airlines.
Jeff Klein, president of Jaguar Distribution, the Studio City, Calif., company that supplied the movie to the airlines earlier this month, said it was a mistake, committed by an overzealous and inexperienced employee who had been told to edit out all profanities and blasphemies.
Although Klein insists that it was an "overzealous and inexperienced employee" that did this, we should question beyond this. Was this employee trying to make a point? When given instructions to bleep out profanity did s/he really believe that "God" would be offensive to the other passengers? Did this employee contemplate it? Consult a supervisor? Was this employee male or female? What religion (if any) did this person subscribe to?
We won't ever get these answers, but it's good to ask these questions.
Let's flip it around. What if someone bleeped "Allah" from a movie? Would the employee be fired? Would s/he at the very least get a note in their file? As the last sentence indicates, the editor is still working.
Is this fair?
We cannot have two sets of rules or laws for freedom of religion/against hate crimes. I mean, really, the Bible has been constituted as hate literature. But few would dare name the Koran or any other holy book as hate literature.
So why is Christianity always open season?
Does God offend you? Which god you ask? The Christian God? Does Allah offend you? In a multicultural nation we must be respectful of other cultures and religions but this has gone too far:
ATLANTA -- So much for God and country, at least during some in-flight showings of the Oscar-nominated movie The Queen.
All mentions of God are bleeped out of a version of the film distributed to Delta and some other airlines.
Jeff Klein, president of Jaguar Distribution, the Studio City, Calif., company that supplied the movie to the airlines earlier this month, said it was a mistake, committed by an overzealous and inexperienced employee who had been told to edit out all profanities and blasphemies.
Although Klein insists that it was an "overzealous and inexperienced employee" that did this, we should question beyond this. Was this employee trying to make a point? When given instructions to bleep out profanity did s/he really believe that "God" would be offensive to the other passengers? Did this employee contemplate it? Consult a supervisor? Was this employee male or female? What religion (if any) did this person subscribe to?
We won't ever get these answers, but it's good to ask these questions.
Let's flip it around. What if someone bleeped "Allah" from a movie? Would the employee be fired? Would s/he at the very least get a note in their file? As the last sentence indicates, the editor is still working.
Is this fair?
We cannot have two sets of rules or laws for freedom of religion/against hate crimes. I mean, really, the Bible has been constituted as hate literature. But few would dare name the Koran or any other holy book as hate literature.
So why is Christianity always open season?
posted by Spitfire at 12:40 PM
5 Comments:
It's open season because Christians aren't going to come and burn down your home if you were to be offensive to them in any way. Simply put Christianity is one of the religions to embrace the rights and freedoms of others to say what they will, as to my understanding as a non church go'er in alberta.
I think it isn't even the other religions looking to step on Christianity but atheist westerners.
And what it amounts to is someone stepping on those that are different to prop themselves up. Step on religion to make atheism seem better. Step on religion to make their lack of faith a defensible position.
Most, if not all of us with faith see right through it.
open season on christians? tell that to maher arar.
I thought this happeened in New Zealand, not the USA. Anyways, there is no way God should be bleeped out.
There are too many Godidiots out there who are being taken for a ride right now. I don't think curse words should be bleeped out of movies either. If a movie is objectional (curse words or nudity), it shouldn't be considered to be shown on a plane.
But bleeping God is just stupid.
Manuel,
I think that it's false to assume that Christians are the non-violent. I think we (and when I say 'we' I just mean Canadians with Euro-Christian roots, not necessarily practicing Christians) are just as capable of violent acts, (and have done so in the past). It's not that we've become more "civilized" and other religions are "barbaric" or that Christians value freedom of speech more. It's a lot more complicated than that.
But I agree with your premise about the "offensive" thing which was evident in the cartoon controversy.
Trust only Mulder,
I agree, in sociology I've studied sociology theory on the modernization of a society and its natural progression away from religious authority. It's not just athiest westerners, but also the sentiment that in a multicultural nation, it is not appropriate, for example, for children to recite the Lord' prayer in school.
While I do not consider myself a religious person, I wouldn't consider myself an athiest either. I do see through the argument.
Jeff,
Thanks for your comment. I agree that Islam is also open season, but it's done in a different way. I'm not sure if I can exactly describe it. No one wants to offend or insult Islam/Muslims because it's politically incorrect. (Some) people don't want to support racial profiling because it's "racist". Although I don't know the whole story on Maher Arar, what was done to him was against any human rights code that Canada and any Western nation should follow. It should never have happened.
In terms of open season on Christianity, I don't think, for example, that pissing on the cross is art. And I don't support calling people bigots if they don't support same-sex marriage. The "progressive" agenda is to reject/question/remove all forms of partriarchial-repressive-colonialism-white-male-history.
Baconeating,
It article cited that this version was shown on a Delta flight (and other airlines as well). The mistake was discovered on an Air New Zealand flight when a passenger complained.
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