Monday, May 26, 2008

Laughing a bit at religious homophobic, racism and sexism - also warning labels on the Bible and Koran

Recently, I was contacted by some people who have a neat little video that makes fun of religious sexism, racism and homophobia:



It's a fun little song - in French, but it has English subtitles - that brings up the serious and very real point about how morally backwards the Bible and Koran are, but does it with humor and is a nice little ditty. Everyone should watch it. Pertutti wants their names out there, so I'm gonna give a little help. ;)

The people who made the video are also suing people, initially in France but now more broadly, to put warning labels on the Bible and the Koran for it's racist, sexist and homophobic content. I love the idea of that, because I believe that religious works (and organizations) should be treated like any other work (or organization). There is nothing special about these books, or these organizations, and I think it's bad for governments to accord them special privileges. They should be held to the same standards that any other human work or enterprise is held. I think that's obvious. So I'm fascinated and glad that people are working to remove the special status of religions. Anyway, here's a video (also in French with English subs) about their attempt to sue the French government to get warning labels put on the Bible and Koran:



From letters with the makers of the video and subjects of the news story, I was told that the case was dismissed in France because the plaintiffs were ruled not to have legal standing ("because it should have been done by a group who considered being globally discriminated by the books, like homosexuals for instance") which is one of the standard legal tricks that governments use when they don't want to deal with a sticky issue like this. It has the air of a stupid procedural rule being used to avoid what would certainly be a contentious issue. On the good side, it's at the European Court of Human Rights and some people have come forth to possibly resubmit the case in France with legal standing of the globally discriminated groups.

They're also writing "le livre athée", an atheist's book, to lay out the case for atheism in clear and accessible language. I fully support that kind of project as well. A big problem, I feel, with atheism is that it is not particularly gentle to people without fairly traditional advanced educations. Atheists often have trouble speaking to people who aren't college educated, so a clear and simple book about the subject I think is a very good idea.

So, take a look at the things Pertutti is doing! :)

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Generally, I greatly disaprove blatent rudeness in comments, especially when logic can be applied, but I guess every one has their faults.

You Ya-hoos are a bunch of ignorant morons.
Honestly, if you knew anything about they things you slanderize, you ld realise your not taking on God, Yahwey or Buddah, but people like Hitler, who are just plain nuts anyways.
(Gee well done! We were all so sure Hitler had it right too! ...please note sarcasm.)
Just because people claim something is specified in a religion, doesnt make it so and the world has seen by now that people have become very apt at twisting things to suit their needs. is. Taliban, Hitler and half the other guys flashed around in that video.
And where in Gods name did you get the rediculous notion that the Bible and Qu'aran say nothing about love and tolerance!!?
I am not Jewish, Muslim, Christian Buddist or anything else...
but I can plainly see that your a knob.

Unknown said...

Well, duh, no one is taking on god. God doesn't exist. You can't take it on.

And no one says that those "sacred" books don't say anything about tolerance and love. Sure. They occasionally do. But they also say a great deal of other things, too.

Christianity and Islam, as practiced by most Christians and Islams, doesn't just ignore the vicious sexist and racist parts of the Bible and Koran. They fully embrace them - as is clearly evident by the number of people willing to kill for those religions, the number of people who justify all kinds of base repression on religious grounds.

If religions were actually about peace and love, I'd have no real problem with them. But it is obvious to anyone with eyes that many religious people use religion to justify horrific oppression and violence.