DISSERTATION SKELETON
INTRODUCTION
Thesis –
Religion is treated differently. I will explore the moral arguments surrounding the debate, using the reaction to Jerry Springer: The Opera as a recent example.
“Religions continue to insist that they provide special access to ethical truths, and consequently deserve special treatment and protection.” (Rushdie, 2005, IN: Appignanesi: 23)
I will concentrate on UK.
Everyone has a right to debate – free speech.
What is more important, the right to offend or be offended?
Can protecting religious sensibilities and universal human rights work alongside each other or are they contradictory?
“Offensive words, whatever they are, whether about sacred or secular matters, should be met with more words, and not censorship” (Owen, 2005)
Secular vs religious state. Is Britain beginning to separate Church from State? Multicultural Britain is becoming more widely accepted. Blasphemy Law may be abolished. (Pat – what shall I do, apparently it might happen around March – deadline time!....last minute rewrites?!)
New Idea - Is this the age of the ‘Second Enlightenment’?
“Debate cannot be stilled, and indeed, in a properly functioning system of propaganda, it should not be, because it has a system-reinforcing character if constrained within proper bounds. What is essential is to set the bounds firmly. Controversy may rage as long as it adheres to the presuppositions that define the consensus of elites, and it should be encouraged within these bounds, thus helping to establish these doctrines as the very condition of thinkable thought while reinforcing the belief that freedom reigns” (CHOMSKY, 1989: 48)
CHAPTER ONE – THE ENLIGHTENMENT TO 9/11.
Intellectual ‘enlightenment’ – French revolution.
Church seen as enemy of the state.
“By the beginning of the eighteenth century, most British intellectuals had lost patience with institutionalised religion” (McGrath, 2004: 13)
“The process of Westernisation had begun and with it the cult of secularism that claimed independence of God.” (Armstrong, 1999: 344)
Secularism – schools.
Voltaire, Moliere.
Philosophers, Descartes etc, tried to prove the existence of God, and in their attempts only raised doubt ;
“With the benefit of hindsight, this was not a particularly wise strategy... nobody really doubted the existence of God until theologians tried to prove it.” (McGrath, 2004: 31)
In 1811, Shelley was expelled from University College, Oxford, for having published a brief essay entitled The Necessity of Atheism.
World Wars, Holocaust.
The Rise of religion.... More inter-racial/religious communities, more conflict. More standing up for yourself.
Mary Whitehouse vs Gay News – blasphemy
Salman Rushdie. Knighted – Is the state showing that they will protect their own religion but not others in knighting the controversial writer, or is it an appreciation of free speech?
Life of Brian.
9/11 – KICK OFF! Everyone hates muslims.
David Blunkett –
“The events of September 11 have led to a new determination to co-operate at European and International level...
Regrettably, there are those who are prepared to exploit the tensions created by the global threat. Racists, bigots, and hotheads, as well as those associating with terrorists, are prepared to use the opportunity to stir up hate.” (Blunkett, 2001)
Bezhti – Sikh play protesters. ‘I’m more offended than you are, because my God is better than yours’ which led to....
Jerry Springer (More in next chapter...)
And the Danish cartoon
Mohammed Teddy Bear.
“One of the most obvious lessons of history is that atheism thrives when the church is seen to be privileged, out of touch with the people, and powerful.” (McGrath, 2004: 55)
CHAPTER TWO – JERRY SPRINGER – JESUS IS A ‘BIT GAY’
What the show is, what was in it that offended?
Explain who Christian Voice and Stephen Green are.
Christian Voice -
“How is 'Springer' blasphemous?
In Act 2, the character of Jerry Springer descends into hell, where the weirdos from Act 1 now become Biblical characters and take part in another Jerry Springer show. There is a shouting (singing) match between Jesus and Satan, Jesus says He is 'a little bit gay' and Mary rants at Jesus for abandoning her by dying on the cross. The Saviour of the world is told in his duet with Satan to "F*** off", while He sings "Talk to the stigmata". So even His wounds are ridiculed. God the Father emerges as an old fool who needs therapy, and Jerry Springer becomes an alternative saviour. Which makes David Soul's character the Antichrist, of course.What I could not fail to notice that every character gets a change of clothes from Act 1 to Act 2, so as to distance themselves in part from whom they played before, except Jerry Springer and, you'll never guess, Jesus. Jesus, King of kings and Lord of lords, God incarnate who lived a perfect life and suffered on the cross for the sins of the world, is the perv in a nappy. People connected with the show are saying it was a nappy in Act 1, now it's a loincloth. It still looks like a nappy to me and the guy who plays Jesus hardly resembles Tarzan. In any case, finally Springer tells my Saviour, "Jesus, grow up and put some clothes on". With blasphemies and expletives, of course. It's an 'adult' show.God Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth, is portrayed as an inadequate who is called upon to answer Satan's grievances. He needs a shoulder to cry on and it's Jerry Springer's. "Jerry eleison" means "Jerry have mercy" and is a mockery of "Kyrie Eleison, Christe Eleison" (Lord, Christ have mercy). Any of this would make the show blasphemous and offensive to God and to Christians. And by the way, to all of those liberal wiseacres who have said there is a deeply 'moral message' in 'Springer', get real. Yes, trash-TV is pretty crass, but this show hardly offers some wonderful, uplifting alternative. Jerry's "Yin, Yang, no wrong, no right" is not a moral, let alone a Christian message. It's amoral. Jesus Christ said "Keep the Commandments" and first of all, "Love the Lord thy God". That's where morality starts.” (Green 2005)
Index of Censorship – who are they, what do they do? What they say about Jerry Springer –
“Religious groups like Christian Voice have learned how to marshal the power of the Internet to further their cause.” (Manzoor, 2005)
Stewart Lee’s documentary – don’t get me started
“You don’t need to protect God. God is either God, or he’s not” (Stevens, 2006)
Lashback. - because of sikh Bezhti protest?
In 2005, a production of Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti’s play Behzti was halted when Muslim protestors stormed the Birmingham Repertory Theatre.
“I feel that a lot of the Christian response to things like Jerry Springer the Opera is coloured by Muslim offence and Hindu offence, so in a sense we want to prove that we love God as much as they do, so let’s be just as offended as they are” (Stevens, 2006)
On Christian Voice’s website the leader of the movement seems to suggest that indeed they were trying to prove they are just as loyal to God, “God sent a challenge to Christians to look at the willingness of Sikhs to stand up for their religion. We all know about David and Goliath, but in contrast to the Sikhs, God was telling us to start polishing and aiming up a few round spiritual stones!” (Green, 2006)
The reaction to Jerry Springer: The Opera and Behzti demonstrated not only the power of protest but also the dilemma that the government faces, ensuring respect for both freedom of expression and individual cultures’ sensitivities.
Intentions.
“The right to offend again, I think is inadvertent. I honestly don’t think that many artists set out to offend for the sake of it...
Sometimes it’s sort of inevitable because if you’re dealing with sensitive material, different people are always going to react differently to it...
The right to offend, it’s not a right, it’s a kind of byproduct of doing anything or saying anything or really opening your mouth about anything...
I think that people have just got to forget that; the right to offend and the right to be offended. It should be something that happens naturally. You shouldn’t go round seeking to be offended, but people are now because it’s become a political hot potato and white racists feel that special treatment is being given to Muslims or Sikhs and therefore they have to go out of their way to be as offended as they are!...
When Jesus says ‘Actually I am a bit gay’, that obviously it’s slightly provocative, but on the other hand, he’s supposed to be this everyman figure embodying all points of view and we thought he should be a bit gay actually, it’s not an unreasonable thing to expect from a God that’s supposed to represent everyone
I think comedy’s the best place to deal with sensible things” (Lee, Appendix A)
In parliament and court –
“Of course I accept that people throughout the country may have been offended, but people are offended when we have free speech. I would rather have free speech than try to legislate against people being offended.” (Morris, 2005: Column 534)
Isn’t this exactly what happened with Racial and Religious Hatred bill?
I will add The European Convention on Human Rights as an appendix Particularly relevant are Articles 9, 10 and 14
Christian Voice broke Articles 10.2 "for preventing the disclosure of information received in confidence" in publicising the personal addresses of BBC executives. Christian Voice say that Jerry Springer the Opera broke article 9 by not respecting their right to individual belief – as I will talk about later – but this it is debatable as to whether their rights were actually infringed upon.
Blasphemy Law and Racial and Religious Hatred Acts
Racial and religious hatred act.
“The events of September 11 have led to a new determination to co-operate at European and International level...
Regrettably, there are those who are prepared to exploit the tensions created by the global threat. Racists, bigots, and hotheads, as well as those associating with terrorists, are prepared to use the opportunity to stir up hate. It is therefore my intention to introduce new laws to ensure that incitement to religious, as well as racial, hatred will become a criminal offence. I also inted to increase the current two-year maximum penalty to seven years.” (Blunkett, 2001)
Response from writers and artists is bad,
Rowan Atkinson quote.
A surprise opposition from Stephen Green’s Christian voice.
“We oppose the Governments' plans for a law against 'stirring up religious hatred.' That is the real attack on free speech… We should all be free to criticise one another's religion in decent, respectful, moderate tones.” (Green, 2006)
Ah but,
“In a modern democracy, it should be possible for a leader to be religiously anything or nothing. If Clegg has started this process, then God bless him. But probably, in the pious climate of these times, God help him.” (Lawson, 2007)
Blasphemy Law
Richard Herring, comedian (ex double act partner of Stewart Lee)was accused of blasphemy for his Edinburgh show Christ on a Bike. He was interviewed on Radio 4’s Beyond Belief –
“The idea of having blasphemy laws is ridiculous because how do you define blasphemy and if you have blasphemy laws about all religions then you have to send all religious people to prison because every religion is a blasphemy against any other religion” (Herring, 2004)
Further, everyone would have to go to prison because Atheism and Agnosticism is blasphemous also?!
Also the blasphemy law doesn’t apply to Scotland so a performance in Edinburgh cannot be officially charged.
Main point – Racial and Religious hatred act has started something that cannot be finished until the Blasphemy law is abolished.
There can be no equality of faith under the law while the blasphemy law stands. It protects Christianity alone.
Evan Harris quote..
Only Connect
Human Rights vs protecting religious sensibilities.
“The problem is, if you seek to enshrine people’s religious rights, they are often contradictory to what we understand collectively, in the west, as human rights...
I think you have to follow the laws of the land, first of all, and if a religious belief is incompatible with that then you can observe it in private, but you can’t enforce it in public...
I think it’s going to get much worse in the foreseeable future...
It’s gonna get really weird, I think for the next few years until someone’s bold enough to risk unpopularity in government to actually address the problem rather than fudge round it.” (Lee, Appendix A)
“You may say I’m a dreamer, but I look forward to living in a genuinely multicultural society and genuinely global world where non-sectarian education means we all know enough about each other’s cultures to be able to use them in the service of art, music, theatre and, yes, comedy from an informed position of strength.” (Lee, 2006)
CONCLUSION
BIBLIOGRAPHY
ACHBAR, M., 1992. Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media.(FILM)
BLUNKETT, D., Hansard Commons Debate 15 October 2001. Column 923.
CHOMSKY, N. 1989. Necessary Illusions: Thought Control in Democratic Societies. IN: COLEMAN, S. 1997. Stilled Tongues; From Soapbox to Soundbite. Porcupine Press, London.
GREEN, S. How is ‘Springer’ blasphemous? Online at: http://www.christianvoice.org.uk/springer.html
HERRING, R., Beyond Belief 5th July 2004. Radio 4. Audio available online at: http://www.fistoffun.net/downloads.htm
LAWSON, M., Victorian Intolerance. Online at: http://politics.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2231394,00.html
LEE, S., 2006. Don’t Get Me Started, Broadcast at 7.15pm on Tuesday 5th September 2006 on Five, available online at http://www.stewartlee.co.uk/youtube/youtubedontgetmestarted.htm
MANZOOR, S., 2005. Thou Shalt Not Offend. Available online at: http://www.indexonline.org/en/news/articles/2005/2/international-thou-shalt-not-offend-religio.shtml
McGRATH, A. 2004. The Twilight of Atheism: The Rise and Fall of Disbelief in the Modern World. Random House, London.
MORRIS, E., 2005. IN: Hansard Commons Debate 17 Jan 2005
OWEN, U. 2005. Getting Used To Offence. IN: Index on Censorship. Available online at: http://www.indexonline.org/en/news/articles/2005/1/international-getting-used-to-abuse.shtml
STEVENS, S., 2006. IN: Don’t Get Me Started, Broadcast at 7.15pm on Tuesday 5th September 2006 on Five, available online at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7r4S25jlGTg
Appendices
Appendix A – Interview with Stewart Lee by Sophie Johnson
Appendix B – Racial and Religious Hatred Act 2006
Appendix C – European Convention of Human Rights
No comments:
Post a Comment