Hong Kong residents call on authorities to reclassify the Bible as “indecent”
16 May 2007 by Stardust
Can you imagine the fundie protests in the streets if even a small group of people tried this here?
We often discuss how the Bible is a book full of violence, sex and anything that most parents would normally want to keep their underage children from seeing at the local cinema, on television or in any other form of media. Yet, god botherers find nothing wrong with handing their little children a Bible and aggressively encouraging their little ones to read stories about pornography, incest, beastiality, murder, cruelty, and all sorts of violence that would normally require age ID to partake of.
While I would argue that these university students should have the right to discern for themselves what they wish to read and discuss, on the other hand I must say I am glad to see such a large number of people in Hong Kong coming together to openly admonish this “holy” book and call it what it is — “indecent” and should indeed be “rated” just like any other explict work of literature, music or film. However, in the good ol’ land of the free, a similar call for “reclassification” of the Bible would cause fundamentalist, and maybe even moderate Christians to riot in the streets.
Bible drawn into sex publication controversy
HONG KONG (Reuters) – More than 800 Hong Kong residents have called on authorities to reclassify the Bible as “indecent” due to its sexual and violent content, following an uproar over a sex column in a university student journal.
A spokesperson for Hong Kong’s Television and Entertainment Licensing authority (TELA) said it had received 838 complaints about the Bible by noon Wednesday.
The complaints follow the launch of an anonymous Web site — www.truthbible.net — which said the holy book “made one tremble” given its sexual and violent content, including rape and incest.
The Web site said the Bible’s sexual content “far exceeds” that of a recent sex column published in the Chinese University’s “Student Press” magazine, which had asked readers whether they’d ever fantasized about incest or bestiality.
That column was later deemed “indecent” by the Obscene Articles Tribunal, sparking a storm of debate about social morality and freedom of speech. Student editors of the journal defended it, saying open sexual debate was a basic right.
[I have to agree with the student editors on that point, depending on one's age.]
If the Bible is similarly classified as “indecent” by authorities, only those over 18 could buy the holy book and it would need to be sealed in a wrapper with a statutory warning notice.
[Many of us have said this all along...any other similar type of material would have a rating on it for explicit and violent content.]
TELA said it was still undecided on whether the Bible had violated Hong Kong’s obscene and indecent articles laws.
But a local protestant minister shrugged off this possibility.
“If there is rape mentioned in the Bible, it doesn’t mean it encourages those activities,” said Reverend Wu Chi-wai. “It’s just common sense … I don’t think that criticism will have strong support from the public,” he added.
16 May 2007, on 8:31 pm
I see a positive in that at least people are aware of the contents and how odious said contents truly are.
Other than that, I think that ratings systems, censorship of ANY kind, and warning labels are for the birds. I know that many will disagree, but it breeds an excessive insulation of children that is eventually damaging to the individual and the larger society. It doesn’t do anything except arouse the curiosity of those who are denied access. Oh yeah, and make a bunch of busybody pocket-nazis feel like they’re saving the world, which I resent just as much as the action itself.
16 May 2007, on 8:49 pm
Oh, the day the Bible is rated R! One can only dream…
16 May 2007, on 11:49 pm
Hmmm…seeing the name of that minister: Reverend “Wu Chi-wai”, somehow reminds me of a VERY old “Book Title” joke. (yeah…like, from my ancient 1950s’ high school days)…it goes like:
“Brown Spot On The Wall”, by the famous Chinese writer:
“Who Flung Dung”!…
which, come to think of it, is kind of descriptive of Reverend Wu’s activity…?
Say what?
Yes, Stardust…your comment about the riots that would result from trying that ‘tack’ in the U.S., is…shall we say…
“Spot On”!…?
16 May 2007, on 11:56 pm
Reminds me of that scene in _A CLOCKWORK ORANGE_ and Malcolm McDowell’s character’s getting out of the bible not quite what the Anglican parson had in mind…
17 May 2007, on 12:24 am
I don’t see this as a problem for Reverend Hoo Flung Poo or whatever his name is. He can just write a new version that waters down the violence and indecencies and still claim it as the exact word of God. It’s been done before.
17 May 2007, on 1:09 am
It is funny how the standards used to silence other writings could be used to silence the writings that gave the morals to silence the writings. Did I say that right? Hmmmmm.
Really though any censorship is bad as far as I’m concerned.
17 May 2007, on 6:17 am
They that live by the blue pencil, shall die by the blue pencil.
This is going to raise some awkward questions, though ….. why is it OK for the bible to contain so much sex and violence (less violence than the Qur’an, though ….. seems that just ‘cos Allah is the most merciful doesn’t stop him dishing out a painful doom here and there) and not OK for other works of literature?
17 May 2007, on 8:26 am
I think most christians here don’t really know how naughty a book they preach about since most haven’t even bothered to read it.
17 May 2007, on 11:55 am
I long for the day that some pimply Zondervan or Berean clerk peddles the filth to an adolescent and gets nailed for contributing to the delinquency of a minor.
Alright, not really, censorship of every stripe is a mistake but nothing says we can’t keep the adult fiction on the top shelf- out of the reach of innocent hands. Eighteen, old enough to vote, old enough to decide whether one’s life ought to be guided by an obsolete fairy tale.
17 May 2007, on 11:42 pm
sometimes it really makes me sad to see people who say things about books or movies that they themselves have never read and then compare it to something of a different nature… the bible while containing some of the things you talk about ie: sex violence and the other things it usualy does not go into the detail that many books and modern movies do. for an example does a porno film only tell us that the people in it had sex and doesnt even show a picture or a graphic word by word account of what happened NO OF COURSE NOT!! the bible does not describe ever lustfull moment among things like that it will usually only go to say that the person has done devious acts and maybe show how they were punished and what you should learn from it. do most movies do this NO! the just offer blood gore sex and a cheap thrill or two. now please do not say that the bible is pure fiction because you can find many things from the bible in non religous history so it is indeed true. did you know that many belief systems start with a great flood? which sounds strikingly simular to the flood where noah built his ark. i guess i will leave you with this as a closing statement. If i believe in a god or religion and i devote my life to that, and i die and there is not god or higher power, i have lost nothing im am just dead. but if i believe all that and i die and there is a god i have gained everything i ever could. but if i dont believe in god or follow any teachings and i die i lose again nothing. but if i do not follow a god or religion that turns out to be true and i die then i go to whatever may be punishment or i am rencarnated as a lower being i have lost everything that i ever could! i will let you think about that.
Yeah, we know: it’s called Pascal’s Wager, a/k/a “Believe, just in case there is a hell”. *yawn* We’ve heard this reason many, many, many, many, many times before.
Yeah, we know: a flood is in other mythologies. And in other mythologies, it makes no more sense than the bibular version (in fact, the bibular version begs all reason and rationality; the others are better, more colorful and more fun to read about!). The closest that geo-archaelogists have come to finding “flooding” is when a volcano in the Mediterranean erupted, complete with earthquakes that caused a tsunami that took out the populations of coastal Greek cities. Other than that, nary a sign. Sorry – no cigar.
You’re treading very close to proselytizing, mike. This is conditionally “approved”; if your next comment is as close to breaking a GifS Commandment, Thou shalt not proselytize, your message will be replaced. If you attempt to convert us, you will be banned. By the way, you sound quite young – shouldn’t you be in bed, resting for school tomorrow?
The Moderators
18 May 2007, on 8:28 am
Mike,
Do you seriously believe for just one millisecond that an omnipotent god (or goddess) would not be able to see instantly through someone going through the motions of believing in him (or her) only in order to escape punishment?
18 May 2007, on 9:00 am
Mike, the flood myth of the bible was copied from flood myths which came BEFORE. One doesn’t validate the other.
And just because some parts of the bible have been validated by non-religious records, that doesn’t make the bible “true”, it just means people knew how to embellish the truth back then as they do now. Where is the proof that the walls of Jericho were brought down by horn-blowing and marching in circles? The actual proof shows us that the fall of Jericho and Joshua were hundreds of years apart.
But this doesn’t stop moronic believers form worshiping at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher that most likely isn’t even the right one; or celebrating the birth of christ on a day that had nothing to do with christ. It’s all a big lie, dude.
18 May 2007, on 6:54 pm
Revenant: It’s all a big lie, dude.
True dat, true dat (I’m so ghetto-fabulous!).
Seriously, Mike, I think your eyes would be hugely opened if you read some mythology outside of the bible – for example, ancient Sumerian/Babylonian; Noah’s flood is definitely based on a tale in the Epic of Gilgamesh. That flood, as my fellow mods indicated above, was probably based on the local people’s tales and memories of a local flood, maybe the Mediterranean volcano or the Black Sea flooding. Human religions tend to piggy-back on one another, the later developments building on previous systems and adding their own “quirks.”
As for scientific evidence of things in the bible, again as the mods pointed out, finding the ruins of Jericho hardly confirms the OT story. If this were true, then Schliemann’s discovery of fabled Troy in Turkey confirmed the myths and legends told about the Trojan War! Apollo really did rain down arrows of fire; the river really did leap its banks and rush to try to drown Achilles; and so on. To use a more recent example, characters always go to a real London train station in the Harry Potter books – but it doesn’t mean that there’s a magical barrier there you can step through onto a magical platform…
As for losing nothing by believing: I think South Park illustrates this best in its episode where everyone belonging to every religion in the world ends up in hell. Muslims, Buddhists, Catholics, Protestant Fundamentalists, pagans, they all ask “but why?”
Because only Mormonism was the True Religion (TM), replies their guide to hell; therefore, only Mormons “got it right” and get to go to heaven.
This is Pascal’s Wager in a nutshell, my friend. It means you’re in just as much theoretical danger of being screwed for eternity as we atheists are. It’s also why this is one of the weakest (and, we think, lamest as well) arguments in favor of religion.
Class has ended; go in peace – and reason.
19 May 2007, on 12:06 am
Oh, Mistress Eve…
I just LOVE the way you teach! You zero in so accurately with those ‘nutshell’ summaries of yours…in a way,
grabbing those nutcases by their…
Theories(?); and properly disposing of them with your…erm…
‘dominating’ insights.
I must say, I’m (feigning) restraining myself from asking to stay after class.
Of course, we’ve previously been there/done that, here on GifS…only rhetorically, of course.
Seriously…the idea that a terribly sadistic notion of heaven/hell…the white/black……up/down, completely childish and unjust; having absolutely no concept of any “gray area”…ASSUMED to exist by all the Western Religions, is in itself, an amazingly absurd fact. It happens to be a mostly ignored…particularly irrational, unjust and outrageous feature of Western Sado-Masochistic Theology; which is quite different from the Eastern versions of Cosmology.
[Another topic for Mistress Eve?]
What a terribly flawed, psychopathic, tyrannical ‘god’ notion is attached to that assumption…appalling to even CONSIDER worshipping!
As more than one GifSter has pointed out in the past; would any truly loving parent…at least, the more evolved, ‘unconditionally loving’ archetype…EVER conceive of acting out such a cruel notion of punishment on their children?
19 May 2007, on 9:52 am
As much as I dislike religion I would still have to disagree with this. Sure the book is a nasty one with a genocideal god, incest events which it speaks no bad of… and other things that should make a human being gag just thinking about. However I do not believe that any form of literature should be withheld from others.
I know they aren’t speaking about banning the bible however putting age tag on the bible would certainly make it so only adults could buy/read it. But where would this end? Almost every religion would have to be subjected to this law. Even science and history books would be fit to be called indecent. science can show grim reality’s at times. History books are pretty much just crammed with horrible events perhaps we should stop teaching about World War 2 and the halocaust because it was a real downer? Granted these are real events and such and the bible isn’t but try telling that to a christian.
Besides I think we should promote the readings of all religous material. Why? Because how many christians truely read the bible? If more people read the damn thing less people would follow it. Same goes for the koran and the torah. Teach a nice dose of science with the day as well and this process would slowly weed out religion from humanity. Education is the way to go. Ever notice how the average atheist has more knowledge about the bible than the average christian?