Elliott Bledsoe reminds us not to take men wearing robes all that seriously. Make sure you look at this photo very carefully indeed.
Note: If you don’t like what you see - tough - it’s now legal to be annoyed.
33 Responses to “World Youth Day: The dark side of the force?”
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Well, I guess Jedi is a religion.
It’s important to have inter-faith dialogue.
They don’t appear to be dialogue-ing though!
Hehe.
Mind you, not as funny as Cardinal Sin of the Phillipines.
He passed away!
That’s OK - there’s still Father Sin - in the Kings Cross parish…
May the Force be with you! Ore is it, in fact, the Chaser?
But where, oh, where, are the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence? I would have thought they’d be out and about by now.
Given that the pope looks more like Darth Sidious every day, it’s entirely appropriate.
I really think they need to review the appearance of the pope-mobile though. Perhaps get it “pimped” out, or jewel encrusted.
I have always thought the pope was Darth Sidious too
<a href=”http://caution.files.wordpress.com/2008/07/pope.jpg?w=437&h=276″and I am not the only one
Stuffed up that link didn’t I?
Go to caution.wordpress.com to see the pic
I am not a religious person and I found this picture pretty funny, but my question is this: Why don’t these clowns ever do this sort of thing outside a mosque? Why reserve the hijinks for Christians only? I’m sure there are plenty of Muslims out there who would be rolling around laughing if they tried this during prayer time on a Friday, and it’s not as though Islam’s adherants never wear funny clothes. Come on guys, if it’s legal to annoy Catholics now, why discriminate? Go and annoy a few Muslims and show us how these great new legal provisions really are.
I am interested in any further perspectives on this.
He’s on his way home from a mosque.
And after this he went to a synagogue.
Annoyed much?
The fact is, your Catholicism prevents you from seeing objectively on the issue of protest. Just recently there was a huge protest at Camden protesting against the establishment of an Islamic school there. There was another protest against the establishment of an Islamic school in Bankstown. Now tell me just one instance of a protest against the establishment of a Catholic school.
The dork side of the farce, perhaps.
“… your Catholicism… ”
Silkworm,
I did say I am not a religious person, so you must have misread the first part of my message. I acknowledge that there were protests at Camden, but what I was getting at was that one never sees overt mockery of Islam in the same manner as what is displayed by the picture, which as you would have noticed from my message, I also found funny. I think I saw the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence mentioned somewhere in the replies to the post, but perhaps I am mistaken and read about them in another post. Given that Islam promotes the execution of homosexuals simply for being homosexual, one might think the Sisters would have plenty of reason to parade around making fun of Islam, but I am yet to see it, or to hear about it. I did not specifically intend to hijack this post into a discussion of Islam v Christianity, but just to make the point that no-one mocks Islam as readily and openly as they do Christianity. I think it’s because we all know what would happen if they did. By the way, I am an atheist.
“He’s on his way home from a mosque.
And after this he went to a synagogue.”
Thank you Zoot, you’ve set my mind at rest.
“Now tell me just one instance of a protest against the establishment of a Catholic school.”
Silkworm,
We both know I can’t do that. Not in Australia, anyway, although I would imagine the situation would be different in Saudi Arabia, and certain parts of Northern Ireland.
Sorry, Phillip, I didn’t read that you said you were not a religious person, and you have now openly admitted you are an atheist. Good. I am an atheist too. However, we still do not see eye to eye on the issue of criticising and mocking Islam and Christianity equally. There is no cause to criticize the Islamic treatment of homosexuals in Australia, because as far as I know, there have not been any reports in Australia of sexual abuse by Islamic clergy. Certainly there is much to criticize Islam for, but sexual abuse is not one of them, in Australia anyway.
Point taken.
Pretty funny picture, though. I emailed it to my brothers, and a friend. I hope no-one minds.
Phillip.
Don’t know really, but that’s my theory.
Part of the explanation might be lapsed Catholics and old Coms can’t help themselves.
Isn’t that the same thing?
Hey - we get picked on enuf thanks very much. I’d swap a Darth Vader man following us around for all the crap we have to put up a la Cronulla, Camden, Bronwyn Bishop wanting to ban hijabs etc. etc. any day!
And I say that as someone who has had obscenities shouted at me from moving cars (three times); been called a terrorist whilst buying my shopping at Coles; and had an old man yell at me in a tram. So… Darth Vader man is nothing!
That’s a very good point, Umm Yasmin: Muslims get in-your-face hassled by bigoted arseholes every day, Catholics do not.
This means that symbolic stunts against the Catholic hierarchy can be performed without any automatic affiliation being assumed with large numbers of bigoted harassers. The same is not true of symbolic stunts against Islamic figureheads - a protestor is automatically going to be assumed to be affiliated with the bigots. Who wants to take on that affiliation voluntarily?
True TT.
Also, any protest against Islamic figures will always draw out those same genuinely bigoted turds - they’re likely to actually be there, so pretty much impossible to distance yourself from.
Not that this wouldn’t be happening now too - I’m sure there are some plain old anti-catholics putting themselves about. But as a matter of degree…
Mercurius: “Well, I guess Jedi is a religion.”
Ah, but Anakin/Vader was an apostate – of the worse kind (he killed the kiddie Jedis too). And then he copped ‘Jedi justice’ in the inferno.
Which pretty much sums up the history of the Church’s treatment of apostates (and other rabble).
Paul Norton: “The dork side of the farce, perhaps.”
Pretty much the funniest thing I’ve read all day. But I guess it’s been a slow morning…
Certainly funnier that the Chaser’s set up of an attempted punch-up with an Islamic cleric. Perhaps the clowns don’t take on people at mosques because they’re afraid of Anthony Mundine. I know I would be…
We’ve come a long way. My mum told me recently that she was told by her parents that she wasn’t to tease the Catholic kids at school. Her school days were in the 50s and early 60s. It’s now hard to believe there was a time in Oz when people were singled out for discrimination for being Catholic.
Spanky Ham, I like your Mum.
“The Dork Side of the Farce”: Paul, I love it!
I also loved Nasking’s brilliant description of the communion wafer “hijack” “scandal” in Florida - “Crackerjack”!
My paternal grandfather came from Irish Catholic stock, although he was an aetheist himself. He married my grandmother, a Protestant, in a Proddy church.
Result? The local parish priest used to come around and stand on the footpath outside their house, yelling that they were ‘living in sin’. Until my grandmother threw a tub of dirty laundry water over him. The priest was never heard of again.
Fine,
yeah, they did that sort of thing. One Irish priest I heard of back in the 50s ran out of the confessional screaming, Oh, My God! Oh, my God! A couple of minutes later a very redfaced woman came out of the box and hurried out of the Church. Don’r know if it was true or not. There are lots of Catholic horror stories, apart from the dreadful stories of clerical sexual abuse.
[My paternal grandfather came from Irish Catholic stock, although he was an aetheist himself. He married my grandmother, a Protestant, in a Proddy church.
Result? The local parish priest used to come around and stand on the footpath outside their house, yelling that they were ‘living in sin’. ]
And of course this kind of Bigotry was celebrated in song.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rFjRMnycp5s&feature=related
My father, an atheist on a rural property, drove Italian POWs (working for him and my grandfather) to the Catholic church once a week during the war. They all came to his “atheist” funeral (cemetery only) as well.
Moral of the story, atheists often have a sense of morality, decency and integrity, uncomplicated by sectarian and theistic divides: certainly superior to some leaders of said institution in question; of far lesser stature and far lesser principles IMHO than my father.
Interesting Silkworm your comment on comparative ’slamming’ of Islam. My view on that expressed here before, is that a temporary exception applies for caution and moderation, given the perception (rightly or wrongly) of the GWOT among many of its adherents, as being prima facie, a war of violence against their religion. Some slack on the rope is required.
Umm Yasmin, in the case of a Muslim near and dear to me, she was accosted alone by another customer in a supermarket for “soiling” clear plastic wrapped meat. She had changed her mind and put it back on the shelf, and was literally frogmarched to the store’s office to get management to “discipline” her… “dirty wogs” etc etc. The only reason I didn’t facilitate a civil action for false arrest/imprisonment was because that racially/religiously sick dude was both old and physically sick.
Paul Burns, re
Immortalised by Dave Allen, the yell from the confessional box:
@30 Peter Kemp:
Actually, I’ve had it comparatively easy, having a white face and Aussie accent and all. When the religious discrimination is coupled with racism, it’s a pretty tragic indictment.
Having said that, I do feel a turn in the wind, since the election.
UY @ 31,
Don’t think the turn in the wind making things a bit better since the election applies only to Muslims either. The Indigenous people I know are a lot more relaxed as well.
….. what I was getting at was that one never sees overt mockery of Islam in the same manner as what is displayed by the picture, which as you would have noticed from my message, I also found funny.
Phillip ,certain members of the muslim clergy have not escaped the eye of the chaser team.
From what i saw of the almost all muslim sbs panel show, Salam Cafe, there seemed no lack of self satire ,there, either.