It’s because of the gains of the age of enlightenment that the christian churches can no longer get away with murder. But back in the dark ages, they killed and maimed and tortured…..the sad bit is while Christian fundamentalism is on the wane (at least outside redneck USA but who wants to live there?), Islamification is on the ascendancy..(religious people breed too fast and too many..)

We must ensure that religion does not dominate the common sphere again and we must continue the good fight.

And blasphemy? So fricking what? Let them weep and find offense in all things. For as long as we are a democratic republic, the freedom of expression should be protected.

[...] there is nothing blasphemous about the ad. people didn’t even noticed it was blasphemous until it was mentioned. Saying it was blasphemous calls their judgement into question and it borders on being fundamentalist.

This goes to the heart of the irony that is the Church. In the broader scheme of things it along with most organised religions turned what were once natural biological processes into dirty four-letter words. And once it succeeded in doing this, proceeded to turn this artificially-induced stigma into POWER.

When you are able to hypnotise an entire civilisation into loathing its own sexuality among others, and then claim to hold the key to redemption from this loathing, guess what: you’ve just hit on the most lucrative business venture on the planet.

It is not an advertisement. The difference between the comics and the advertisement is that the latter’s end consumers are the public.

both are consumed by the public. everything is.

the comic targets only a segment of the consumer market. influence is not that high.

wonder who buys comic books. oh right, people with money and who likes to read. who buys Nike shoes, oh right, people with money too. same economic base.

If you will understand the order, it is preventing the ad company to use the NIKE ad in billboards and public places.

that’s generally where people put ads, yes.

Do these comics advertised in billboards.

yes. though not in the philippines.

Do you know how many millions can see the billboards as compared to those a few comic enthusiasts who will buy the comics.

total comic book publication is in the order of several million comics a month. Batman alone sells about 200k copies a month worldwide. batman family of comics alone more or less sells about a million.

—

Do you know the difference between an advertisement and the comics as to their goals, end consumers and impact?

yes.

anyway, i apologize for that bit of segue. it was a poor choice to compare literature with advertising. my bad.

my point simply, as i’ve mentioned in my response to bencard is that in this case— asc is wrong. there is nothing blasphemous about the ad. people didn’t even noticed it was blasphemous until it was mentioned. Saying it was blasphemous calls their judgement into question and it borders on being fundamentalist.

People say the Catholic Church must be bad because it incites fear in its pronouncements or admonitions.

But hey, fear is part and parcel of human nature. One can’t live without it.

Early on we are taught about fear and our fears. Fear of God. Fear of death or harm when we do reckless things. Etc. Absolutely nothing wrong with that.

Politicians play up on fears all the time. You do not vote for me, the country will come crashing to hell in a hand basket. Or, my opponent is the devil incarnate, vote for him and you ride with him to hell. Etc. Nothing wrong with that.

What counts is what you do with your fears, how you take and manage them, how you turn them to your advantage and welfare.

So the Church is not bad because it plays up on people’s fears. And definitely, cannot be compared to the Taliban where fears expressed actually translate to actual physical harm.

whether or not the church is politically influential or powerful is irrelevant to this discussion.

industry self-regulation can be good coz industry players at least have an incentive to push the creative envelope whereas govt censorship has no interest in these things]

i don’t disagree that industry self regulation is bad. i even think that government regulation will be far worst. i’m saying that in this case, the industry watchdog is wrong that they are not in fact, pushing the creative envelope.

if it was anne curtis in her birthday suit and it was strategically placed in edsa would the tag “give us this day”, i’m sure HEADS would turn and many would say it is too liberal. i might even agree depending on how it was done of course— because kids will see it and raises some question. and i’m sure all hell will be raised against that. i don’t think entirely it would be a bad thing either.

i apologize for that bit of segue. my point simply is that in this case— asc is wrong. there is nothing blasphemous about the ad. people didn’t even noticed it was blasphemous until it was mentioned. Saying it was blasphemous calls their judgement into question and it borders on being fundamentalist.

the use of the “taliban” in this debate is obviously calculated to arouse passion, not reason. it’s too bad the taliban still practices unenlightened brand of “fundamentalism”. indeed, its old, outdated ways of imposing traditional beliefs (which is usually marked by extreme ruthlessness, cruelty, violence and barbarism) makes analogizing with “taliban” a convenient strawman argument for this discourse.

the Christian/Catholic faith is way past such dubious practices of present-day taliban since the era of the crusades and the inquisitions. this is not saying, however, that the faith no longer treats certain words, acts and depictions blasphemous or sacrilegious.

obviously, i disagree. the recent debate on RH Bill comes to mind. instead of good arguments, the Church raised Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt. One such fundamentalist thinking is that article that came out of UST’s Varistian, labeling the bill, “Stalinist”. I blogged on it on that post “The One About the Defense of Every Life”

the big difference is that with the taliban, you could commit sacrilege or blasphemy (according to their point of view) and suffer torture or death. not so with the Christians who will probably meekly ask you to stop and confess your sin to be forgiven.

the local church has been successful in removing Marcos. It has also been instrumental in installing PGMA. they are powerful, even today.

raised some examples in my comment above. they’re all existing. Kingdom Come for example has been published without complaint for 10 years.

It is not an advertisement. The difference between the comics and the advertisement is that the latter’s end consumers are the public.

the comic targets only a segment of the consumer market. influence is not that high.

If you will understand the order, it is preventing the ad company to use the NIKE ad in billboards and public places.

Do these comics advertised in billboards.

Do you know how many millions can see the billboards as compared to those a few comic enthusiasts who will buy the comics.

Do you know the difference between an advertisement and the comics as to their goals, end consumers and impact?