Dogma: Religions Nuts Foretell The Future!

[Satan]

Thanks to Spoons for pointing out this site for the forthcoming movie Dogma.

It seems that a number of the religious right (*snort*) decided to write Disney (distributor of the movie) and the movie company directly to voice serious complaints against this blasphemous movie.

Which is fine and all - it's a free country (though not if THEY had their way, but I digress). The thing I find so deliciously ironic is that NONE OF THEM HAVE SEEN THE MOVIE!!

Here are some of the more enlightened quotes from http://www.dogma-movie.com/hate/indexnf.html :

I really don't know why you cannot hold back the distribution of this film.
Somehow I hope, and I will pray, that you both will get over the 'artistic freedom of expression' excuse and face reality. This film directly insults me, my faith and my beliefs.

Ah. A movie the letter writer hasn't seen insults her. How claravoyant of her!

We recently became aware of the yet to be released film entitled "Dogma" and we are outraged by the anti-Christian, anti-Catholic, anti-Greek Orthodox, anti-Protestant message that this movie embraces.

Well, what's the problem then? The movie that is "yet to be released" obviously indicts every religious faith. It's not biassed - it hates ALL of you!

That person also comments that:

At the request of our 13 and 16 year old daughters we have cancelled our trip to Disney World and although they are young teenagers we are so proud of them that they have learned to value their religious faith as more important than a week at Disney. We have decided to spend our $4000 somewhere that does not bash our religious beliefs.

Aw. How sweet. Your kids are learning to pre-judge things to! I'll bet they help out with the chores as well, like cleaning the white sheets.

And SPEAKING of white sheets, my personal favorite, in its entirety:

There the KKK, there's you
There was Hitler, there's you
There are Satanic beliefs, there's you
There are un-American bigots, there's you
There are the un-Godly + damned, there's you
All that's vile comes from you. You teach hatred and prejudice. You insult Christians, especially Catholics. How Satanic!! Yet you demand respect + are quick to yell prejudice. How can you expect what you don't give?

You teach hatred, you insult others, yet, demand respect. Hitler didnt die, your still doing his hatreds and works.

Are you aware you're un-American? You demand your rights you demand + so on, but insult others + their beliefs. How low-down and hateful! May God judge your terrible acts. To get respect you must give it + you are cowards + highly prejudiced.

I don't even think I NEED to comment on that one, except that I find it funny that someone who wants to eradicate something they don't believe in (and something they haven't seen) says they are like Hitler, a notorious book burner and silencer of individual thought.

Of course, none of this is new. I remember people protesting The Last Temptation Of Christ being asked if they saw the movie, and they almost universally said they hadn't, and that was at least released at the time.

Since I have been indicted before as to my intentions by a coupld of like-minded people, I will be as clear as I can here.

(1) I do not think that all people of faith are like this.

(2) People who ARE like this make folks of moderate religious beliefs look bad.

(3) People who are secular stereotype as well, but you don't generally hear about Godless heathens saying something shouldn't exist - especially when they have not seen it yet.

Oh, I also think that the movie company is under no obligation to post letters from moderate religious types that refute these morons, since I'm sure that will come up.

But please, write them just the same...

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Yer pal,
Satan

[Glitch]

Thanks for the link. I liked this little gem from one of the letters:

I recently heard of this Dogma production that will be corrupting our society in a couple of months and I was wanting to know if you had a conscience.

Italics mine.

A movie corrupting our society? Me thinks the author of the letter best rethink the cause of our social ills. This is probably the same guy who thinks that playing video games will make you a bonafide sniper in real life (I make video games for a living, needless to say I play them a lot too, by that reasoning I should be one of the deadliest marksmen in the world. Maybe somebody should tell my gun next time I go to the firing range because it doesn't seem to know).

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What more could you expect from somebody who lets people kick him to the head?

[Glitch]

BTW, I had never heard of the movie before. Sounds funny. I'll have to go and see it which will kill two birds with one stone (I get to see a good movie and annoy some religious wacko by increasing the revenue of the movie).

[SpoonsJTD]

I had a feeling that Satan would grab on to this, I'm almost sorry for mentioning it. :)

I did want to comment on this though:
Oh, I also think that the movie company is under no obligation to post letters from moderate religious types that refute these morons, since I'm sure that will come up.
Funny you didn't comment in the 'You're not a good Christian thread' on the fact that I stated I wrote a letter to the movie company, in the hopes they would post it. Instead you start a new thread, make this comment as if it were your own original idea, and use it as a pre-emptive strike.

I hope I'm not the only one who finds this hypocritical. What type of obligation? Legally? Of course not. Morally? Perhaps. Intellectual honesty? Most definitely. Not that I'm holding my breath that they'll post it; I doubt they will.

Just when I thought I understood what you were getting at in the '... good Christian thread ...', you write this gem. You almost seemed to imply that moderates should try to fight the stereotypes caused by extremists in that thread, then claim the forums which are amplifying the extreme viewpoints have no obligation to give equal time to the moderates in this one.

Unbelievable. Extremists make us moderates look bad, but the forums which provide an outlet for those extremists have no obligation to provide an equal outlet for the moderates. Well, I guess us moderates are just screwed.

[Missy2U]

Satan, I have to say that you expressed your sentiments, which mine mirror, very eloquently!

It is exactly that type of fanatical, short sighted, unaccepting, narrow minded, hypocritical behavior that drove me away from my church (PERSONAL story - not commenting on any one else's religion/experiences/beliefs/etc.) and why I refuse to be associated with people with this type of so called "religion", or skewed sense of what is "right".

I wish people who feel that they are travelling some higher moral ground than the rest of us could just live and let live - but they want to butt into what I feel is right for my own personal life or my family's? It seemed to me that somewhere in the bible it must say something about tolerance. But then again, I could be wrong.

And before the flamethrowers come out, only my personal opinion, just mine, no one elses, not lumping anyone into any groups, don't mean everyone literally, etc. etc. etc.



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"When I was seventeen...I had a very good beer..."

- Homer Simpson

[SpoonsJTD]

Glitch said:
BTW, I had never heard of the movie before. Sounds funny. I'll have to go and see it which will kill two birds with one stone (I get to see a good movie and annoy some religious wacko by increasing the revenue of the movie).

It seems to have great potential for being extremely funny. Goto www.imdb.com (http://www.imdb.com) to check out the cast. Lots of comedic heavyweights, plus written and directed by Kevin Smith. And yes! Jay and Silent Bob are back!

[Satan]

Spoons, I did not mention that because I wanted to steal your thunder - after all, I did credit you with enlightening me to the site.

And I did not put in a disclaimer to answer a question you answered elsewhere. I think it's been noted that no matter what flaws might be found in my debating style, that I am nothing if not direct.

I put that in there because I believe it correct - the site has no obligation to do the right thing. Just as moderate religious folks have no obligation to complain about the site.

Oh sure, it would be nice if they did. Both of them. We agree on that. But I don't think they're obligated on any level.

And once again, I thank you for bringing this to my attention. As you no doubt know, I live for shit like this...

[Doctor Jackson]

Geez, Brian, I think this horse is dead. We have established, in several other threads, that there are extremists in every walk of life. Religion is not only not excluded, but may have more than it's fair share. If you're going to keep posting every example of religious overkill you happen to see, the Chicago Reader is going to need a much larger server.

You also seem to be more disposed to bend reality to fit your post. You say:
The thing I find so deliciously ironic is that NONE OF THEM HAVE SEEN THE MOVIE!!
and:
Ah. A movie the letter writer hasn't seen insults her. How claravoyant of her!
and:
Aw. How sweet. Your kids are learning to pre-judge things to!

Did you miss the part of the web page in question where the page owners clearly state that a script (albeit unauthorized) has been available online for months?
A steady stream of 'hate mail' has been reaching our mailboxes since an unauthorized early draft of the 'Dogma' script was placed on the Web many months ago.

Nowhere do they say that it is an inaccurate script, and it is not unusual for an early draft to find it's way into circulation. I'm not saying that every letter writer read the script, but for you to assert that it is not possible to know the movie content when that assertion is clearly untrue is as close to troll-like behaviour as I have ever seen. This is not meant as a flame and, no, I do not consider you a troll. I do think that, in your gleeful attempt to point out the foibles of the religious, you have fallen into the pitfalls of going on a tangent.



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The overwhelming majority of people have more than the average (mean) number of legs. -- E. Grebenik

[Polycarp]

I just want to register here my strong objections to the post that somebody will make here in early November defending the movie.

[David B]

So, ok, for somebody who is too lazy to go look it up, what's the plot of this movie supposed to be that has these nuts so up in arms?

Oh, by the way, I was confused about one thing you said, Satan:(2) People who ARE like this make folks of moderate religious beliefs look bad.So, now, you're saying the moderates look bad to you, right?

;)

Ow! Ow! Stop throwing things at me!

[StrTrkr777]

I have been hearing about this movie for some time now, I am not sure when, but there has already been a discussion (I think) on this topic.

My thoughts. You are right there are some extremists that make all people of faith look stupid. I am not going to make excuses for them as there is no real excuse.

But in the age of the Internet, it seems interesting to me that people are so gullible. If someone calls them and tells them about a get rich quick scheme they wisely say no thanks, but let them get an e-mail and they believe it and send it to all their friends.

Just last week, I received an e-mail about sending the e-mail along to help a poor child with cancer (its bogus), an e-mail about a free Honda (its bogus), an e-mail about Microsoft and AOL teaming up and giving me money (its bogus) and another about Madeline Murray O'Hare trying to get all religious broadcasting taken off the air (again bogus).

People get e-mails telling them of the horrors that are going on in this world and that to make a difference all they have to do is forward an e-mail or send one to a company. This is easy so they do it and after reading what is probably a description of a movie that none of you would want to see, they send a hateful e-mail to get this "filth" stopped. Nevermind that they have never seen it themselves.

I think the movie company is/will likely use this negative publicity to get non-religious folks to go see the movie. Come on, with a cast like this how good could the movie be? Usually if it is loaded with a cast like this it turns out to be a flop.

Just my thoughts.

Jeffery

[pldennison]

I especially like the couple who mention cancelling their trip to Disney World, since Disney's Miramax Films decided not to distribute the film months ago, allowing the filmmakers to sell it to whomever they wanted for distribution. (I believe November Films is handling it.) These doofuses don't even know who they're mad at.

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"I love God! He's so deliciously evil!" - Stewie Griffin, Family Guy

[Satan]

Doctor Jackson:

I'm sorry if you feel me to be redundant. In my defense, this is certainly NOT the only subject I post on or start threads about. It's just been coming up a LOT lately, and I feel the need to harp on it.

Feel free to not respond to my posts of this nature if it bothers you so, and I say that trying my best to have it NOT sound condescending, which is honestly not my intent.

As to your point, yes, an unauthorized early draft might have been leaked, but it has also been said (maybe not on the site, but I've read about it - I didn't know about this site until Spoons brought it up) that complaint letters were making their way to the companie involved before it was ever posted, and also it's life on the net was really short.

So, I am willing to wager that a majority of the complaint letters come from people with no knowledge other than what someone else told them.

Again, not trying to be condescending, you can believe otherwise if you choose. Either way, what with my reference to the same thing that happened with The Last Temptation Of Christ, we all know it's happened before.

::Throwing stuff at David::