As I say, "I haven't read it", but all this is really an aside. You still haven't addresed the main point of my post, which is that there would be more of a problem with Art criticising/portraying something that he knows very little about than making art based on his own experience. I'm sure that if he had been raised a Jew or Muslim, he would be more likely to make commentary on Judaism or Islam.

John Henry

Fair point. Will you conceed that attacking Christianity in the USA is not just safe, but trite?

Safe, yes in some parts of the US (perhaps not the bible belt). Trite, in its own right, yes.

Wow. That's got to be the second time I've come to an agreement with someone on the Politics Board.

I don't know how old you were, but I was still in sunday school (to let you know how old *I* was) when that came out, and I can still to this day remember the vitriol directed against this movie by the catholic church and the fundamentalists in the states.

So MArtin is in hiding for his life? That is what a fatwa is all about. Christians, for the most part, acted civilised towards Scorsesi and exersised their right to speak out against him and his movie, but i dont think he was harmed or called to be murdered.


That is a big difference.

PS I an old enough to see it in the theaters when it came out, and I even drove there.

IIRC, a fatwa is a religious decree, a press release if you will. It isn't of itself a hateful statement (ie did you hear that fatwa about brushing your teeth three times a day?)

I remember the shit-fit that the catholic church had over a little movie called "dogma". I don't know about fatwa, but i do remember a spokesman for the anti-catholic defamation league imploring catholics to boycott the movie based on his word alone. Not because the movie didn't have anything interesting to say, but because it was an affront to all of catholicism. Sounds like valid criticism to me. ;) Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain, indeed. I'm not claiming that i agree with dogma, or even that i like kevin smith. Just that the church made a mountain out of an anthill because somebody was trying to say something that the church didn't like.
Very few churches encourage actual thought among their members. When a movie or a book or a person comes along with any kind of new perspective the powers that be in any religion mount a preemptive strike attempting to censor the offending work. From jokes to movies, aything that may provoke contrary or even independent thought is suppressed and discredited. This doesn't always happen, there are denominations who do allow for doctrine to be questioned, though. Any time i see a member of any religion, catholic, jewish, muslim, whatever making a big show of being offended by a piece of art i just assume that the art has something interesting to say. Most, not all, but most, religions have a rich history of being offended by, and attempting to suppress original thought.

People are allowed to boycot, or to speak against a work. Its called Free Speach. Thats cool. No one in authority asked Christians to kill Sorcesi. There was no religious statement, order, decree, mandate, or what have you to harm Sorcesi.

Ho Hum, Now I see a naked crucifed woman. Hey Art ITS BEEN DONE. DO SOMETHING ORIGIONAL!

Hi.
For the next several hours, I'll run one of our shows about another culture. You can decide if it offends you.

For those who can access our archives, you'll see that we have shows in this spirit about every culture known to man. I don't have any response to what may offend people about what we do.

ARTelevision is an independent producer of content. We are part of the webcam scene here by courtesy. There may occasionally be times when what we do is disturbing to you.

That would be a TFP matter, as Lebell has posted above.

Not complaing, just saying its trite, dull and been done, to death. If you fancy your self an artist, do something that hasnt been done a million times already.

The newsest one " My bullets are you holy communion" I know I didnt get the quote right, is more in line with what i would call cutting edge. its gutsier, as you are actually taking on a group that my even fight back. Bravo.