‘Our Father who art deemed offensive, censored be thy name, thy kingdom gone, thy will be ignored on earth as it should also be in heaven.’
Don’t get too excited or too enraged. This is not a newly approved version of the Our Father or, to give it its proper name, the Lord’s Prayer. But I fear that this could be a popularly accepted version of the mentality underpinning the recent decision of the Digital Cinema Media (DCM) agency of Great Britain about an advert proposed by the Church of England.
The Church of England decided to promote its new website aimed at encouraging people to pray by producing a strikingly simple but very effective 60-second artistic advert. It attacks no one, nor does it try to get anyone to join a particular church. It just portrays all sorts of people praying the Our Father in different life situations. You can watch it on You Tube by accessing https:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxgwWzh0h-w. The video is as powerful as it is simple. It is masterfully shot and edited.
The British Board of Film Classification and the Cinema Advertising Authority approved its screening but the Digital Cinema Media agency, which handles advertising for the three major British cinema chains, gave it the thumbs down. They said that screening an advert showing people praying the Our Father may risk upsetting or offending audiences “of different faiths and indeed of no faith”.
Ironically the advert was booked to be screened prior to Star Wars: The Force Awakens. This series of blockbusters originally by George Lucas, though the current film is directed, co-produced, and co-written by J. J. Abrams, are considered by many to be replete with religious symbolism.
This debate was fuelled by Lucas himself, who had told Time magazine in 1983 that the Force was God. Sixteen years later, Lucas, who describes himself as a ‘Buddhist Methodist’, told American TV presenter Bill Moyers that he put the Force into Star Wars “to try to awaken a certain kind of spirituality in young people”.
Different religions vie for its ownership. Theologian Reggie Kidd wrote that there is too much symbolism to ignore from the Christian point of view. John Porter, from the University of Arizona, opts for Taoism as the provider of the dominant theme of Star Wars. While according to Matthew Bortolin author of The Dharma of Star Wars, Buddhism wins the day. Rabbi Alexander Seinfeld, not wanting Judaism to be left out, makes several comparisons between Star Wars mythology and Jewish mysticism.
With all this debate about the religious symbolism in Star Wars itself one wonders how true it could be than an added 60 seconds prior to the film would have upset or offended people as DCM is saying. The negative reactions given are thus fully justified.
There is nothing wrong with lampooning Muhammad and vilifying the Holy Trinity, but everything is wrong with reciting the Our Father
Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby was very prudent and called the decision “extraordinary”. Prime Minister David Cameron was more forthcoming, calling the decision “ridiculous”.
The DCM decision is hypocritical as it is not true that it adopts a total ban of both God and Caesar. The delightful advert promoting the United Nations Global Goals is definitively political.
While the DCM finds offensive any mention of any God worshipped by a religion it has no problem with the propagation through adverts of the gods of the church of consumer goods. Consequently the consumerist mentality evidenced in adverts for racy lacy lingerie, lottery jackpots, banks shown as caring for people and cars as the fulfilment of dreams are considered to be non-offensive but the Our Father is considered to be offensive.
Last January, after the massacre of Charlie Hebdo journalists, the media were agog with the glorification of the right to offend. It seems that in the progressive liberal firmament there is nothing wrong with lampooning the Prophet Muhammed and vilifying the Holy Trinity but that everything is wrong with the recital of the Our Father.
The offence caused by the first kind of behaviour, they say, should be protected as it is considered to be an exercise of a fundamental right. But those who are ‘vile’ enough to dare recite the Our Father should be censored.
I wrote on more than one occasion about this hypocritical fundamentalism of the secularist type. The censoring of an advert on the Our Father is almost insignificant when compared with worse outrages by the same clique in other countries. Three examples from three different continents suffice.
On November 17, Mgr Janusz Urbańczyk, Permanent representative of the Holy See to the Organisation on Security and Cooperation in Europe, said hate crimes against Christians and members of other religions represent a very significant number of recorded hate crimes. He added that hate crimes against Christians are certainly more numerous than those indicated in OSCE annual reports, as such crimes are under-reported. He appealed to the organisation to develop specific initiatives pertaining to the protection of Christian communities, as has already been done for the Jewish and the Muslim communities.
Over in the United States, the FBI noted that during 2014, there were 858 hate crimes motivated by religious reasons, and that 90 of them were directed against Christians.
Down Under, the Catholic bishops of Australia are being targeted by sections of the LGBTIQ lobby who consider the Church’s teaching on marriage as explained in their pamphlet ‘Don’t mess with marriage’ to constitute discrimination against gays. Archbishop Julian Porteus of Hobart, Tasmania, is being accused of discrimination in front of the Anti-Discrimination Commission of Tasmania. The Australian bishops have expressed keen concern about the attempt to curb freedom of religious expression.
Experience has taught us that what happens overseas percolates through to Malta. This will happen more quickly now that the government is embarking on a programme of secularisation of those values that for a very long time legitimised the way we do things here.
All the warning signs are flashing. The cultural and political arenas are the places where committed Catholics and those of other religions should make their stand.
joseph.borg@um.edu.mt