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Is this blasphemy?

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Blasphemy?
I am a Christian - Yes
  
6% [ 2 ]
I am a Christian - No
  
31% [ 11 ]
I am a Christian - Undecided
  
0% [ 0 ]
I am not a Christian - Yes
  
0% [ 0 ]
I am not a Christian - No
  
64% [ 23 ]
I am not a Christian - Undecided
  
0% [ 0 ]
Total votes: 36
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Lidless
Post subject: Is this blasphemy?
Posted: Sun 13 Mar , 2005 5:31 pm
Als u het leven te ernstig neemt, mist u de betekenis.
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OK, too tired to do anything pust a cut-paste job here. I'll add my comments later.
Quote:
PARIS - France's Catholic Church sought an injunction from the courts to ban an advertisement for a leading fashion house which is based on Leonardo da Vinci's famous painting of Christ's Last Supper.

The advertisement - for Marithe and Francois Girbaud - shows designer-clad women in the place of Jesus and the apostles, one of them with her arms around a half-naked man in jeans.

"When you trivialise the founding acts of a religion, when you touch on sacred things, you create an unbearable moral violence which is a danger to our children. Tomorrow Christ on the cross will be selling socks," said lawyer Thierry Massis.

But lawyers for Girbaud said that to prohibit the image would be an act of censorship. "The work is a photograph based on a painting, not on the bible," said lawyer Bernard Cahen.

"There is nothing in it that is offensive to the Catholic religion. It is a way of showing the place of women in society today, which is a reflection of our changing values."

Three years ago the Catholic Church reacted with anger to a poster for the film Amen by Constantin Costa-Gavras which showed a cross whose branches turned into Nazi swastikas. However it did not launch court action.

In 1998 the church complained about a campaign for Volkswagen which also used Leonardo's Last Supper with the slogan: "Rejoice for a new Golf is born."
Here is the picture in question:

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The Watcher
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Posted: Sun 13 Mar , 2005 5:38 pm
Same as it ever was
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Blasphemy?

Not in the least.

A good ad campaign? Well, it wouldn't do anything for me.

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Griffon64
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Posted: Sun 13 Mar , 2005 5:50 pm
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That guy's butt crack is not doing it for me, no matter how buff and tanned it is :Q

Well, the campaign does nothing for me. It is not particularly clever or relevant. I don't find it to be blasphemy, but I don't find it anything but a lame advertising trick trying to shock, either.

Boring. :tired:

And yeah, I'm a Christian.

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jewelsong
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Posted: Sun 13 Mar , 2005 5:56 pm
Just keep singin'!
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It's not blasphemy.

It's just in really bad taste.

And kinda stupid.

Edit: Oh, yeah, I'm a Christian, too.


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Sassafras
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Posted: Sun 13 Mar , 2005 6:19 pm
through the looking glass
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That silly advertisment? Blasphemy? No.
Poor taste, maybe.



This, however, is blasphemy. My definition, anyway.

Quote:
The Destruction of the Statues in Bamiyan
The two colossal statues of Buddha carved into the sandstone cliffs of Bamiyan, Afghanistan, were demolished by the Taleban on March 2001. The Taleban people was a fundamentalist Islamic militia that has governed most of Aghanistan from 1996 to December 2001.
Against international protests and appeals, the supreme Taleban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar ordered their destruction as part of a campaign to rid the land of all un-Islamic graven images. The leader issued an edict declaring the statues (and therefore the ancient Buddhas) as insulting to Islam. This means that all idolatrous images of humans and animals and all those idols considered by them to be an insult to Islam had to be destroyed.


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Dave_LF
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Posted: Sun 13 Mar , 2005 7:06 pm
You are hearing me talk
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It's "blasphemy" in the sense that so much advertising is; i.e. it takes the good, pure things of life and cheapens them in order to sell a crappy product.

(but I still voted no)


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Lord_Morningstar
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Posted: Sun 13 Mar , 2005 7:29 pm
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Well, some would argue that Da Vinci's original is blasphemy.

Anyway, I'll just echo the 'not blasphemous but pretty silly' line.


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Cerin
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Posted: Sun 13 Mar , 2005 7:45 pm
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I took it as an homage to Mr. DaVinci, rather than as some kind of commentary on Christianity. As such, I don't see it as being in bad taste.

Now, if "The Last Supper" had been handed to us by God, then to mock it would be blasphemous (like parodying the Ten Commandments, for example).


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Ara-anna
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Posted: Sun 13 Mar , 2005 7:55 pm
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Since I am of the belief that John in the original is actually Mary Magdaline and represents the holy grail, no its not.

Bad taste, but not blasphemy.

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Lidless
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Posted: Sun 13 Mar , 2005 10:51 pm
Als u het leven te ernstig neemt, mist u de betekenis.
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It's obviously jumping on the Dan Brown phenomenon, that's for sure. As for advertising being a means for brand-awareness, well they have it now.

BTW - this advert is also banned in Italy now.

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Faramond
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Posted: Sun 13 Mar , 2005 11:03 pm
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Good job French Catholic Church.

You just made the Girbauds' day.

If they had just ignored the advert, it would have remained a mediocrity that no one noticed. Now it's getting all kind of free publicity.

Morons.


And no, mocking a religious painting with goofy looking models and butt cracks isn't blasphemy.


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laureanna
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Posted: Mon 14 Mar , 2005 12:57 am
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So who belongs to the hand holding the dove?

I think it's funny and clever. Parody can be high flattery, if well done.

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yovargas
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Posted: Mon 14 Mar , 2005 1:19 am
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I actually think it's a pretty neat picture. Rather eye-catching, imo. Much more interesting then most fashion ads. And no, of course it's not blasphemous.


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Ethel
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Posted: Mon 14 Mar , 2005 1:22 am
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What's holding the table up?


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yovargas
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Posted: Mon 14 Mar , 2005 1:23 am
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Ethel wrote:
What's holding the table up?
The invisible chairs that are holding up the models.


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vison
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Posted: Mon 14 Mar , 2005 1:30 am
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Blasphemy? Nope.

But have you ever noticed the faces on these models? They look at us from some vast self-perceived superiority of existence, looking at us as we might at a grub wiggling in the sunlight after a log has been turned over. They are annoyed at us for daring to look at them, and they would vaporize us with their beauty if they could. Their faces also hold an expression of sullen lust, and they scarcely bother to wait for us to look away before they indulge.

As for this Dan Brown bird, holy cats. How do you say Drivel in Elvish? I don't know why trees need to be cut down to make paper to print this stuff on.

There was a similar book, almost as badly written, a few years ago, called, "Holy Blood, Holy Grail". I toiled through it, and thought, "What twaddle." Since Mr. Brown's opus appeared, and since it caused such a fuss, I gave it a go. Ick. Ick. Ick.

I have no sentimental attachment to the story of Jesus as most of us know it. No attachment of sentiment or belief, I have not one Christian bone in my carcass. But I would take up the cudgels with the French church over Mr. Brown, should they leave the silly advert alone and go after him. The Da Vinci Code is a NOVEL, and a very bad one. It is not history. It is SO not history that it belongs .... in that vineyard, cleaning up Ted's mess.

I realize that there are may be people who think it's "real". It isn't. While the Bible may not be "true", it's truer than The Da Vinci Code.

As for Leonardo, well, Jesus was 1500 years in his past. He wasn't painting from life.


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enchantress
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Posted: Mon 14 Mar , 2005 1:35 am
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Im with yova... its cute in a way, clever and a bit different. Not a blasphemy in my view.

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Primula_Baggins
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Posted: Mon 14 Mar , 2005 2:50 am
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Not blasphemy--just tasteless. It doesn't particularly offend this Christian. (And yes, there are things that would.)

Da Vinci's original is not sacred, so riffing on it can't be blasphemy. It's just trivialization.

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yovargas
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Posted: Mon 14 Mar , 2005 2:55 am
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What I find odd is that anyone would bother going through the trouble of trying to make a legal case out of this. I've seen this painting spoofed before, I can remember seeing it in (Mel Brook's) A History of the World and I think The Simpsons and probably several other places too. The Sistine (sp?) Chapel celing painting is spoofed a lot too. Why is this one getting enough attention to get a legal case?


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Sunsilver
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Posted: Mon 14 Mar , 2005 3:17 am
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It's in such bad taste that it makes me want to puke. The models look like total dorks. They're anorexic, and IMO, there's at least two of them that are looking at each other with lust in their eyes (two of the ones on the far right.) The painting sums up the reason why I hate the whole fashion industry with a passion. They celebrate an unhealthy lifestyle for women (stick-thin). Models are even told to minimize all facial expression because smiling and laughing supposedly causes WRINKLES!!

Blasphemy? Well, I voted 'no', though the annoyance factor was so great that I was tempted to hit 'yes'. I guess the one thing that verges on blasphemy for me is that the photo suggests Christ is a woman. But the ad doesn't specifically say that the models represent Christ and his disciples. It's just the positioning that draws the painting to mind.

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