Let's censor what's offensive!

[fireheart17]

http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/entert...-1226815567722

So there is a performing arts festival coming up and one of the acts that's available for viewing is called "Come Heckle Jesus." The show basically consists of a man dressed as Jesus and inviting the audience to "roast" him.

Said show played in Melbourne with absolutely no issues whatsoever. Bring it to Adelaide however, and we suddenly have demands to censor it or remove it because it's "offensive" to some. Well I find Christianity in general to be offensive, but I don't go around burning down churches and demanding that Sunday services are cut!

Thoughts?

[Gravekeeper]

Open access privately funded festival?

Too bad so sad. Free speech it is.

[MadMike]

Don't like it? Don't watch it! Some people make these things a lot more difficult than they actually are.

[Pixilated]

Got to agree with this. Don't like it? Don't go see it. Problem solved.

[Dakhur]

The Fringe festivals are partly government funded, through the arts council.

That said, Australia has no legislated "freedom of speech", which not many other people seem to understand. We also don't do guns. Theoretically, this means the government is free to rampage all over us. Oddly, this doesn't happen. There's been lots of speculation why, but general feeling is that Aussies have an overriding sense of "fair play", and it's certainly what I've experienced. For every person that complains about something, there's more people who say that as long as there's equal airtime for the opposing view then it's fair.

Yeah, we're a weird mob. Accept it and have a beer and a snag sanger.

[Pixilated]

*snip* as long as there's equal airtime for the opposing view then it's fair.

That, I think, is the absolutely most important point: both sides get equal airtime (and funding?)

Yeah, we're a weird mob. Accept it and have a beer and a snag sanger.

A beer and a what??

[fireheart17]

That, I think, is the absolutely most important point: both sides get equal airtime (and funding?)

More often the view is:

Christians get all the funding no questions asked.
Other religions need to jump through all sorts of hoops to get said funding.

The common question has been "Why don't they do a show called Come Heckle Mohammed?" My response to that has been frequently "because the government wouldn't want to promote any other religion period and doing that is exactly it." (Seriously, if a church wants to rent/purchase a place to worship? No issues. If a mosque/temple/gurdwara/coven wants to rent out a space to worship? They jump through thousands of hoops to do so)

A beer and a what??

Basically a sausage (snag) cooked on the BBQ and then wrapped in a piece of bread (usually diagonally) and served up with onions, tomato sauce and mustard (sometimes). Sandwiches down here are sometimes called "sangers" hence "snag sanger."

The sandwich mentioned above is frequently seen at footy clubs, fundraisers and the like as it's cheap and easy to do. (The sandwiches frequently go for around $1 plain and extra for coniments) Basically think a hot dog with a piece of bread instead of a hot dog roll.

Dammit, now I want a snag sanger!!!!!

[Nyoibo]

The common question has been "Why don't they do a show called Come Heckle Mohammed?"

Having 1-2 degrees of separation from the artist, I've been seeing some stuff from him and people who know him, the main reason it's come heckle Christ is that he bears a vague resemblance to the rennaisance depiction of him and looks nothing like Mohammed or Buddah, I think he mentioned it in an interview, the upshot of this for him is I'm pretty sure he's going to be completely sold out for the fringe, which is all any artist wants :P

[fireheart17]

Having 1-2 degrees of separation from the artist, I've been seeing some stuff from him and people who know him, the main reason it's come heckle Christ is that he bears a vague resemblance to the rennaisance depiction of him and looks nothing like Mohammed or Buddah, I think he mentioned it in an interview, the upshot of this for him is I'm pretty sure he's going to be completely sold out for the fringe, which is all any artist wants :P

Pretty much this. Plus, we're not called the City of Churches because we're the most religious...we're called the city of churches because at one time we had the most churches

Speaking of "free publicity" there's a show called Two Naked Girls Reading in a Garden, which is exactly as it says on the can. The idea is to enjoy the female body in all its forms...so it basically consists of a woman walking out, reading something for about 5-7 minutes while buck naked and walking away.

The amount of comments about that article? 10...only one or two objected to the show (stating it was "Low brow"), the rest were to do with the woman in the background of the photo used. (who was somewhat "large")
The amount of comments about the Christ show? 500 or so on BOTH pages.

Basically it shows that the "City of Churches" are a bunch of hypocrites

[fireheart17]

And a little bit of an update since the show has actually started.

-The Archbishop of one of the Christian sects was invited to comment (not sure if it was the Catholic or Anglican church). Unlike most, he was actually fairly civil, said that yes it was offensive, but the TRUE Christians will shut up, leave it be and continue to model what "good" Christianity looks like (ie helping others, NOT attack).

-The venue holding the performance received a number of death threats BEFORE the actual performance commenced. This resulted in a tightening of security.

-There has been a silent protest held outside, with the usual vigils, silent prayer etc.
That went swimmingly....right up until everyone's favourite group, the Adelaide Street Church got involved! Unsurprisingly, they were told in no uncertain terms to fuck off and let the silent vigil go ahead (by both police and the vigil folks). There were a few more vocal protest folks who may or may not have had ties to the Street Church, but the worst that happened was some back-and-forth between them and some hardcore atheists.

-The show was reviewed by a critic (who kept an open mind) throughout the performance and what he found was actually quite more tasteful than what people believed. The show is audience-driven and basically runs more like a giant "Q and A" for the duration. The few questions that were distasteful (and apparently weren't fit for print) were promptly ignored and the responses he did give to the appropriate questions were funny.

Seems that keyboard warriors are out in full force around Adelaide!

[Sleepwalker]

Non Christian religious folks aren't thick enough on the ground in the western world for many people to be truly familiar with, and therefore personally invested in the contempt of, other religions.

[fireheart17]

Non Christian religious folks aren't thick enough on the ground in the western world for many people to be truly familiar with, and therefore personally invested in the contempt of, other religions.

Unless it's Islam, in which case everyone can fight back because every country is supposedly going to be overrun by sharia law (as opposed to what, Christian laws?)

Funnily enough, Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism and Sikhism (four of the more major religions) tend to be left alone in the public eye down here, unless it involves the building of a temple.