The huge new disaster movie 2012 opens this Friday. Everyone but HuffPost blogger John Cusack drowns, but not before a statue of Jesus crumbles, a crack opens in the Sistine Chapel roof -- right between the fingers of God and Adam -- and St. Peter's Basilica falls over on a lot of Italians. These images have offended the usual people in the I'm Offended Industry, but not for the reason you'd think.
The offense takers are offended because 2012 forgot to offend any Muslims.
Here's Greg Gutfeld, who used to be a HuffPost blogger and now has a public access TV show:
But there was one thing missing among
He means "amid."
the carnage: an Islamic target...
In an interview, the director (Roland Emmerich) said he hoped to destroy the Kaaba, an Islamic holy site, but his fellow screenwriter Harald Kloser persuaded him not to.Here's what the hack had to say about crushing the Kaaba:
"Well, I wanted to do that... but my co-writer Harald said I will not have a fatwa on my head because of a movie..."
Hollywood screws with Christians because Christians don't behead people. But tweak Islam, and you could end up like director Theo van Gogh -- dead on a street with a flag impaled on your chest.
Not what "impaled" means. But a frightening image, anyway. A man lying dead, with his chest sticking through a flag.
If there's one thing Greg Gutfeld hates more than anti-Christianity, it's hacks, with their bad writing.
Bill Donohue, a divorced shakedown artist with no professional ties to any church, frequently appears on television as "president and CEO" of the "Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights." He's also available for parties and boycotts. He says:
Emmerich is more than a coward -- he is a liar who has it out for Catholics. Last year, he was quoted saying, "I would like to erase all nations and religions." Not true. He is quite content to live with Islam, even though he readily admits it is a religion of terror...
Every time I say Hollywood hates Christianity, especially Catholicism, my critics cringe. But they never offer evidence that I'm wrong.
I'll bet that's not the only time Bill Donahue gets the cringing thing.
I'm sorry Bill Donahue's having such a bad time on Earth. Wait till he gets to Hell. Simonists are ever less comfortable there.
In a column for The Christian Post, Chuck Colson, an elderly jailbird, says the deeper problem with 2012 is that "Western culture might have lost its faith, but folks have not lost their anxieties." That's why we turn to "new-age versions of these faiths." Like "the environment" and "global warming."
And there you were, thinking the worst thing about 2012 was going to be that Adam Lambert song.
They're missing the point, of course. The reason Roland Emmerich chose Catholic icons to destroy is out of respect for Catholicism. Because even a guy who could ruin the Godzilla franchise knows that Catholicism means real religion, and everything else is sort of silly.
Chesterton asks us to imagine blaspheming Odin. You can't. You'd just sound like a dope.
Or as Lenny Bruce said:
The only "The" religion, actually, is Catholicism. I mean, as far as strength. Paramhansa Yogananda's cute, but The Church, that's it.
Here's the really tasteful hidden imagery in 2012:
Oh fun. The plane's about to crash into those twin skyscrapers.
And look over on the right. First there's the Library Tower. (Or as George Bush, America's Greg Gutfeld called it, "The Liberty Tower.") It was destroyed by Ronald Emmerich in Independence Day and was identified by the Kean Commission as the fifth target on 9/11.
Now look at the building to the far right. The earthquake is the least of its problems. See the three explosions blowing out the windows of its lower floors? Oh my God! It's being imploded by a controlled demolition!
HuffPost Editor Roy Sekoff appeared on The Joy Behar Show Wednesday night to talk about religion in politics and the controversy surrounding Sarah Palin's "In...
Election Dashboard 2012
| Romney | Gingrich | Santorum | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Delegates | 112 | 32 | 72 | |
| Fundraising | $57 M | $13 M | $2.2 M | |
| Intrade | $7.97 | $0.35 | $0.82 | |
| 330 K | 1.4 M | 110 K |
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Last time I looked, Salman Rushdie is still alive.
As Donovan once almost said, "First there is a fatwa, then there is no fatwa, then there is..."
Cheers, Jack
1. Hard to imagine that a being powerful enough to create the universe could be harmed by some cheesy CGI scenes or even some rude words.
2. The Church is not God; it's an ancient, patriarcha
3. Of course Hollywood and media types are cowards and opportunis
4. Islam started about 600 years after Christiani
The end of the Mayan calendar is simply the end of an Age and the signs of that are everywhere
My absolute favorite image from 2012 was the pull back shot of Earth at the end showing where humanity would start over: Africa. The place we came from originally will be where we get to start over again.
I'm not Catholic, but I would instantly recognize the Sistine Chapel being destroyed, and feel a bit of a thump in the pit of my stomach at the thought of it being gone. Be flattered, Christian complainer
I'm not so sure an image of an Islamic holy landmark would produce the same effect for me, because I'm much less likely to recognize it, much less have an establishe
If producers are spending $20 million on a protracted CGI sequence of mass destructio
Maybe it's just a practical matter to destroy icons most familiar to Western audiences. Or maybe Islamic leaders should look into better PR and marketing of its landmarks to the Westerners
Also, the reason they choose those landmarks is because they are landmarks. We all know about St Peter's, the Library Tower, and the Great Jesus Statue of Brazil because we see them in books, magazines and tv shows that showcase them to remind us of how poor we are because we can't go see them in person. How many people in America even know what a mosque really looks like let alone a "famous" one? Ten? Twenty? They could have just as easily blown up La Sagrada Família and Americans would have cheered "Take that islamofasc
Sheesh. These folks need a hobby. Maybe they could occupy themselves planning another crusade.
It is OK to demean other religions but not the Islamic religion. Something is very wrong when people begin to act out of fear rather than logic. I guess if the Christians or Jews were willing to take to the street and threaten people over a cartoon the people would stop criticizin
It is pathetic the way people protect the most violent religion in the world which allows them do as they wish with impunity.
and I bet you if Emmerich offered $1.000,000 of the film's profits to the Church they would shut up.
Choose your battles, and targets, more carefully, friend...