Postby uc pseudonym » Fri Mar 12, 2004 5:41 am
I hope I do not open this topic unnecessarily, but I found this quite amusing. I wish I could say that I wrote it, but that credit goes to Gerard Baker of the Financial Times. I would hope all of us could put aside our feelings about the movie for an area that should mean the same to all of us.
In advance I apologize for any errors on my part, and for one or two things I altered for humor value.
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A new religious uproar is sweeping the US amid the furore over Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ. This time, it is over a controversial book.
The book, a new edition of The Bible, an ancient classic, has revived fears of inter-ethnic strife and religious wars in a deeply divided nation.
The controversy has focused on the book's portrayal of the gospel story of Jesus Christ, and its explosive claim that the man regarded by millions of Americans as the "Saviour of the World" was executed as a result of intense Jewish lobbying of the Roman authorities.
Jewish groups have expressed unease with their portrayal. "At this sensitive moment in Jewish-Christian relations this is a dangerous and deeply irrepsonsible work," says a represetnative. They are not the only ones upset. Italian-Americans say the book misrepresents their ancestors' generally positive role in civilizing the Middle East two millennia ago.
Philistine-Americans are outraged that their name has become a byword for unciviised behavior as a result of their depiction in the book. Egyptian-Americans, meanwhile, have focused on the book's first part, the Old Testament- particularly the claim that they held the Jewish people in bondage for centuries. "At this sensitive moment in Arab-Israeli relations, this is a deeply irresponsible and offensive publication," says one person from a coalition of Arab-American groups.
Gay groups are fuming over the book's account of an episode in which sexually permissive behavior in the communities of Sodom and Gomorrah is punished by the cities' destruction. "There is not a single positive image of gays or lesbians in this grotesque work," thundered a New York Times editorial. "At this sensitive time in gay-straight relations this is a deeply irresponsible project."
The book is also likely to offend a range of professional organisations. Tax collectors are unhappy with the repeated slurs on their profession, as are the money-changers and lenders. The 127th Local of the Amalgamated Union of Scribes and Pharisees has condemned the book as a low blow to its hardworking members.
The book has also drawn criticism fro its explicit and apparently gratuitous violence. Animals and children are routined sacrificed, armies destroyed and innocents massacred. Leaders of Hollywood film studios have expressed shock at the violence, calling it "deeply irresponsible" and formed a coalition of prominant film directors led by Quentin Tarantino and Martin Scorsese to urge a boycott of the book.
The enigmatic figure believed to be the ultimate author of the project, who goes by various names including "God," was unavailable for comment. But, throuh a spokesman, he expressed dismay at the hysterical reaction of Americans: "It's time people in that country grew up and started worrying about what really matters. If they don't I might stop supporting their president."
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Hilarious ending. Sheer genius.