Limits to permissible pope-bashing, apparently

[Paul Peru]

Even in France

France's media council has sharply reprimanded a private television channel for satirizing Pope Benedict as "Adolf II" and saying he blessed Catholics "in the name of the Father, the Son and the Third Reich."

From the article it would seem that the "satire" was indeed in poor taste, and (far worse imo) not funny.

http://edition.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/eu...nce.pope.reut/

[Fragony]

But he still looks like the emperor from Starwars! Ha remove that mods

[Al Khalifah]

Personally I wish this cool-to-bash-Catholics-and-Christians-in-general culture would go away - soon. Ever since The Da Vinci code its been open season on Christianity, its teachers and its preachers. The book has spawned an army of faithless, valueless, self-proclaimed experts in the field of Judeo-Christian theology.
Before slandering the Catholic Church, perhaps some of these people who care to give us their own value system in full detail so that, in 2000 years we can come back and attack it for its lack of modern relevance or contradictions or historical downplays.

Give the Pope a chance.

[Fragony]

We have a saying in Holland: 'High trees catch a lot of wind'. If you have a public position a thick skin is required.

[Paul Peru]

Ever since The Da Vinci code its been open season on Christianity, its teachers and its preachers. The book has spawned an army of faithless, valueless, self-proclaimed experts in the field of Judeo-Christian theology.

I resent this too! I've been doing this for ages, and now all of a suddenly everyone reads a crappy book full of fallacies and "facts" that are as absurd as those presented by the church, and drag my excellent name down in the mud with them in their loosely based spur of the moment anti-catholic feeding frenzy.
Seriously, I tend to tell them "it's good that you finally wake up and smell the fish, but..." The truth is often more fascinating (and scarier) than poorly written fiction.

[Al Khalifah]

I just don't see why people find it necessary to try and 'expose' the 'truth' behind the Bible and the life of Jesus. What are they trying to tell us or prove?

Jesus was married? So what? I mean is that such a mortal sin that his teachings on equality, tolerance and sharing must just be completely invalidated by this fact. The Catholic Church is pro-life and against contraception, so therefore its spirit of brotherhood, solidarity and the importance of family values are negated.

Grow up Dan Brownalites, even if Jesus wasn't real does that mean we should just abandon all his teachings because it is impossible to gain values from a mythical event. The Pope, for all his controversial opinions, is probably a far more decent and considerate person than you are. A last ember of decency in today's western morally bankrupt society.

[Paul Peru]

The Pope, for all his controversial opinions, is probably a far more decent and considerate person than you are. A last ember of decency in today's western morally bankrupt society.

Duh.
You need to do some research.

Other than that, you are barking up the wrong tree. I already said i dislike Dan Brown's books, they have very little merit on any level other than making cash. I don't see anyone else praising him either.

I haven't read TDVC myself, but I've read enough about it to be fairly certain it's full of bull. I've read A&D. The plot is contrived, there are many factual and logical errors and he writes worse English than me (nearly).

[Ronin]

Personally I wish this cool-to-bash-Catholics-and-Christians-in-general culture would go away - soon. Ever since The Da Vinci code its been open season on Christianity, its teachers and its preachers. The book has spawned an army of faithless, valueless, self-proclaimed experts in the field of Judeo-Christian theology.
Before slandering the Catholic Church, perhaps some of these people who care to give us their own value system in full detail so that, in 2000 years we can come back and attack it for its lack of modern relevance or contradictions or historical downplays.

Give the Pope a chance.

don´ta say that crap!...

i never even read that lame book...don´t put me in the same list has those lameasses...those people are just now jumping on the "i hate the church bandwagon".......bunch of posers trying to look cool.....i´ve been hating on the church since at least 1985....i´m a old skool church hating guy

[Lazul]

like Ronin said, been against the church myself for as long as I remember. As for the Da Vinci Code... its fiction, Im reading the book now and its rather entertaining. But since I can sort fiction from reality I wont use that book as an argument.

[Al Khalifah]

i never even read that lame book...don´t put me in the same list has those lameasses...those people are just now jumping on the "i hate the church bandwagon".......bunch of posers trying to look cool.....i´ve been hating on the church since at least 1985....i´m a old skool church hating guy

So you're saying you're cool because you hate the Church or that hating the Church is cool?

[Lazul]

Hating church by it self isnt cool, being that much enlightened that you dont Jump when the Priest tells you to is cool.

Hating church by it self isnt cool, being that much enlightened that you think for yourself is cool.

Hating church by it self isnt cool, being that much enlightened that you realise that everything is made by man and not even made under divine inspiration is cool.

[Al Khalifah]

Hating church by it self isnt cool, being that much enlightened that you dont Jump when the Priest tells you to is cool.

No, but you'll still wear whatever GAP tells you to wear (even if you think it looks stupid), listen to whatever music MTW tells you to listen to (even if you hate the genre) and vote for whichever political party your favorite celebrity tells you to vote for (even if you don't know what democracy means)... Yeah, atheists have maximum free will - gosh there's even a whole subsection amongst the 'free will' community that have collectively decided its cool to have a different opinion on free will because the old free will system left everyone the same and so they are all going to be different the same way.

Hating church by it self isnt cool, being that much enlightened that you think for yourself is cool.

If only the average person could. If only...

Hating church by it self isnt cool, being that much enlightened that you realise that everything is made by man and not even made under divine inspiration is cool.

What an arrogant opinion of your own species importance. Did man create the Universe? Did man create the Sun? Did man even create the Earth? No. Infact as a percentage of all things in the Universe mankind has created something like 0.00000000000000000001% rounded up to the nearest 0.00000000000000000001%.

And people say the Church is ignorant.

[Ronin]

So you're saying you're cool because you hate the Church or that hating the Church is cool?

pick up a dictionary, look up any or all of the following:

-joke
-sarcasm
-irony
-wit


then get back to me.

[Paul Peru]

No, but you'll still wear whatever GAP tells you to wear (even if you think it looks stupid), listen to whatever music MTW tells you to listen to (even if you hate the genre) and vote for whichever political party your favorite celebrity tells you to vote for (even if you don't know what democracy means)...

You two sure know eachother well!

[Al Khalifah]

Didn't come across as sarcastic. Bloody forums and their lack of voice tone...

Sorry if it was meant like that, I just get the impression by the way people talk about this subject that they are quite serious.

[Byzantine Prince]

I can think of way more antichristian literature and philophy. Nietzsche is a perfect example of that. Read The Will to Power, it blatantly bashes Christianity, and every other religion that's plaguing the human race. I was only 16 when I realized how stupid and vapid religion was and I thank my personal god(me) for so doing.

[Duke of Gloucester]

To be satire, something has to contain a grain of truth. It is quite possible to satirise the Papacy, the present Pope and Catholicism. There is nothing like good satire for getting people (non-Christian people, obviously ) to think for themselves. Calling Pope Benedict a Nazi is nothing like good satire. It is lazy, cheap and insulting. It insults one person and insults an entire nation because it is basically saying if you are a German of a certain age you are a Nazi. As for TDVC - I enjoyed it as a thriller and would recommend it to anyone as an entertaining read. I just wish more people could tell the difference between history and fiction.

[Lazul]

No, but you'll still wear whatever GAP tells you to wear (even if you think it looks stupid), listen to whatever music MTW tells you to listen to (even if you hate the genre) and vote for whichever political party your favorite celebrity tells you to vote for (even if you don't know what democracy means)... Yeah, atheists have maximum free will - gosh there's even a whole subsection amongst the 'free will' community that have collectively decided its cool to have a different opinion on free will because the old free will system left everyone the same and so they are all going to be different the same way.

erhm, NO...speak for yourself. I personally hate MTV (Hence the other Thread I started).
Maybe I should state the obvius, No man can ever be totaly free, but in order to be as free as possible one should Not bend their knees to some made up God sitting on a cloud making all kinds of illogical rules about man nature.

If only the average person could. If only...

yeah if only

What an arrogant opinion of your own species importance. Did man create the Universe? Did man create the Sun? Did man even create the Earth? No. Infact as a percentage of all things in the Universe mankind has created something like 0.00000000000000000001% rounded up to the nearest 0.00000000000000000001%.

And people say the Church is ignorant.

well I kinda hoped you would understand ( I really thought you would ) that I didnt mean that the human kind created the universe in itself. Ofcourse I ment the Bible, Koran, Toran etc etc. I ment that it was obvius that they werent written under divine insperation.

[Byzantine Prince]

If only the average person could. If only...

No, apparently the average man can't.

What an arrogant opinion of your own species importance. Did man create the Universe? Did man create the Sun? Did man even create the Earth? No.

Man thought up god to explain all those things because he knows he could never explain all those things by just being man.

Man needs to first become his own god and then master all his skill and connect the entire universe into one point and capture the essence that is the human spirit. As of now we don't have an immortal spirit, but once we find a way to live forever without the need of any mass we will become what we made up.

[Meneldil]

There's no proof that what Dan Brown has written in his book is wrong. Sure, he misinterpreted some facts, he changed some others so they have a more fiction (and thus cashflow) feeling, but it's based on serious theories and facts.
I haven't read the book actually, but a lot of historical revues about it, so well, I might be wrong on this ;)


Anyway, I'm happy that this decision has been made. The TV show was stupid, not funny, and it quite sounded like free bashing. I seriously can't stand this show, cause it's over-biased.
And yes, bashing christian religion is quite entertaining for extremistic left wing guys, while they would never say a word about let's say.. islam.

[GoreBag]

Reducing everyone who dislikes Christianity to being Dan Brown worshippers is silly.

As much as I would think it would kick a ton of rear to have the Pope be a nazi, he isn't (or he's a closet Nazi and no one is allowed to know) and the show is just appealing to the (dare I say it?) Lowest Common Denominator. Banning it, however, is silly too. If it bothers the Pope, let him produce his own satire of the show in question.

[Meneldil]

It has not been banned at all. The show was just sharply reprimanded.

Sometimes, freedom of speech just means crap, mainly in a show watched by a whole lot of silly, young people, who barely understand what they're watching and with no political education.

FYI, this show, while it does describe the pope as a nazi - which is quite silly since a whole lot of the german population was part of hitlerian youth - depicts Bin Laden as a cool and funny guy who spend his time making jokes. It shows americans as either a lot of fat dumbasses or a bunch of soldiers who like to kill anyone they meet.

This show is clearly biased, and not in the best way, as it's a kind of reference for *many* young people in France. Maybe you're used to that kind of crap in US or UK, but I clearly can't stand that.

[bmolsson]

Somebody is going to be excommunicated....

[Idomeneas]

Somebody is going to be excommunicated....

OK!! and we can launch a crusade on him then?

[Paul Peru]

OK!! and we can launch a crusade on him then?

That's one good thing you can say about Pope Benny!
He's consistent.
Those other flip-floppers would incommunicate someone again the turn before your crusade arrived.
"Oh the province is now once more in the hands of true catholics you see, so we'll just quietly disperse this huge army in this foreign country, and never hear of them again".