Xanadu 2012: Lawyers, Guns and Money...and Religion    
 Lawyers, Guns and Money...and Religion1 comment
picture25 Mar 2007 @ 18:00, by Unknown


What do those films have in common?

1. "The Message (Mohammed: The Messenger of God)" (1976)
Offended Party: Muslems
Controversy:


2. "The Last Temptation of Christ" (1988)
Offended Party: Christians
Controversy:
"Jesus chooses the path not taken; scenes depicting him as fully human, exploring aspects of lust and other "base" human temptations.
Based on the novel of the same name, Martin Scorsese's "Temptation" follows the life of embattled Christ (Willem Dafoe) as Satan shows him what life might have been like had he not been crucified. Christ takes temptation for a ride around the block several times, including marrying and explicitly making love with Barbara Hershey's terribly earnest Mary Magdalene. At the end of his hot and heavy life, Christ rejects all temptations and time rolls backward to his crucifixion as he chooses the path not taken. Too little, too late for some: A French Catholic fundamentalist group protested the screening, fire-bombing a Parisian theater and badly injuring more than 12 people."

3. "The Passion of The Christ" (2004)
Offended Party: Jews
Controversy:
"Perceived anti-Semitism, debated historical accuracy. This is the movie Entertainment Weekly rated No. 1 of the 25 most controversial movies of all time.
One of the most controversial aspects of the film is its portrayal of Pilate reluctantly sentencing Jesus to crucifixion under pressure from a bullying mob and conniving Jewish priests. Scholars acknowledged the scene is faithful to the gospels, but some experts said a "historical" perspective is imperative. According to the latter, the gospels, were written many years after the crucifixion at a time when the early Christians felt it would be politically wise to "soften Pontius Pilate as a way of placating" the Romans who ruled over them."

4. "The Profit" (2001) :

Offended Party: Scientologists
Controversy:
"Eric Rath plays a cult leader named L. Conrad Powers (taken by some observers to be a parody of L. Ron Hubbard), whose organization is called the "Church of Scientific Spiritualism." Notwithstanding the fictional elements of the film, the Church of Scientology took legal action against the film makers after a handful of test screenings in Florida.
The Church claimed that the film was intended to influence the jury pool in the wrongful death case of a Scientologist, Lisa McPherson, who died while in the care of the Church of Scientology in Clearwater, Florida. In response to the lawsuit, Pinellas County, Florida, Judge Robert Beach issued a court order in April 2002 banning The Profit from worldwide distribution for an indefinite period. As of 2006, the ban still stands; the film has yet to be released to the public."

The producers of the film had a court hearing on March 5, 2007 to ask that the injunction on the film's distribution be lifted. However as of February 28, 2007 that hearing was pushed back to March 27, 2007, due to a resolution of legal matters between Bob Minton and the Church of Scientology - and subsequent attempt by Minton to block the film's distribution.


Hmmmm, it'd look like in these things as in most things, Money and lawyers still trump guns. Of all the above titles, The Profit is the only film successfully banned (so far) in the United States.


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4 Aug 2007 @ 16:09 by robertal : Will probably offend everyone...........
On the horizon appears an approaching religious [and scientific] furore so contentious, any clash of civilizations may have to wait. On one side, a manuscript titled: The Final Freedoms, against all the gravitas religious tradition can bring to bear.

The first wholly new interpretation for 2000 years of the moral teachings of Jesus the Christ is on the web. It focuses specifically on marriage and human sexuality, overturning all natural law ethics and theory. At stake is the credibility of several thousand years of religious history and moral theology and will undoubtably impact many fields of intellectual inquiry.

What at first appears an utterly preposterous challenge to the religious status quo rewards perseverance in closer examination, for it carries within its pages an idea both subtle and sublime, what the theological history of religion either ignored, were unable to imagine or dismissed as impossible. An error of presumption which could now leave 'tradition' staring into the abyss and humble the heights of scientific speculation.

If this material is confirmed and there appears to be both the means and a concerted effort to authenticate it, the greatest unresolved questions of human existence, meaning and evil may finally have been untangled. The implications defy imagination........!

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This new interpretation identifies the moral foundation of all human thought and conduct and the single Law finds expression within a new covenant of human spiritual union, a new paradigm of marriage between one man and one woman; resolving the most intractable questions and confusions of sexual indentity.

'An epochal event is unfolding, the terms by which authority, knowledge, selfhood, reality and time are conceived has been altered forever.' Those able to think for themselves and imagine outside the cultural box, who are willing to learn something new, the beginnings of an intellectual and moral revolution are spreading on the web with the most potent NVDA any human being can take for peace, change and progress.

http://www.energon.uklinux.net
http://thefinalfreedoms.bulldoghome.com
http://www.dunwanderinpress.org
http://www.ovimagazine.com/art/1676
http://www.ovimagazine.com/art/1726  

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