Bible drawn into sex publication controversy (Hong Kong)

[markomalley]

Note to mods: I put this in 'open' because I don't know for sure where else to put it. If you need to move it, feel free:

HONG KONG (

Reuters

) - More than 800 Hong Kong residents have called on authorities to reclassify the Bible as "indecent" due to its sexual and violent content, following an uproar over a sex column in a university student journal.

A spokesperson for Hong Kong's Television and Entertainment Licensing authority (TELA) said it had received 838 complaints about the Bible by noon Wednesday.

The complaints follow the launch of an anonymous Web site -- www.truthbible.net -- which said the holy book "made one tremble" given its sexual and violent content, including rape and incest.

The Web site said the Bible's sexual content "far exceeds" that of a recent sex column published in the Chinese University's "Student Press" magazine, which had asked readers whether they'd ever fantasized about incest or bestiality.

That column was later deemed "indecent" by the Obscene Articles Tribunal, sparking a storm of debate about social morality and freedom of speech. Student editors of the journal defended it, saying open sexual debate was a basic right.

(remainder snipped)

That's a new twist, isn't it?

Comments?

[waysider]

Well------------

There WAS an awful lot of "begettin'" going on in Genesis, don't ya think? :D

[mstar1]

Ive heard more or less the same thing before although never seen it in print, There is raping and incest and a whole helluva lot of violence, killin' and murderin' in the Bible,

If someone was unfamiliar with the contents, and they were fed only the soundbite reviews, i suppose I could see how they could get upset, much the same way people here can want to wipe out an entire culture because of a few quotes from the Quran, or form an opinion about a movie from a 30 second review.

I dont agree with it,

A little knowledge is still a dangerous thing

Of course also in China which has about a bazillion people, I doubt that the opinions of 843 are going to mean all that much anyway

Edited May 16, 2007 by mstar1

[excathedra]

religion can certainly make one tremble due to its indecency, violence, etc. etc. etc.

[GarthP2000]

Ya gotta admit Mstar, that the sections in the Bible that deal with and openly portray violence and such amount to more than just a few quotes.

And the 'sexual content'? Well, ever read Song of Solomon lately? ... If they ever make a movie out of that book, and that unabridged, the flick WILL get an 'R' rating.

And the accounts of:

1) Lot screwing, and impregnating, his 2 daughters, shortly after they fled Sodom,

2) the decree from God for the Children of Isreal to take for themselves (by force, that is) the virgin women of the conquered Canaanite tribes who dwelt in the land that was to go to Isreal,

3) Lot's offering of his 2 daughters to the Sodomites (to screw) in place of the 2 guests, as well as a similar incident that happened in the land of Dan during the Judges period,

4) One of the patriarchs (either Isaac or Jacob?) who slept with a harlot, only to find out that she was his (daughter or daughter-in-law? The account is in Genesis. Of that I'm sure.),

and a whole slew of others (way too numerous to amount to "just a few quotes") which would be quite eyebrow raising, to say the least, to those today, who regard themselves as 'moral Christians', ...

... who then go into some serious denial about such behavior being depicted as somehow normal in the Holy Writ. <_<