While Hollywood makes at least a dozen anti-Catholic movies every years, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) announced today that they are coming out strong against a recently released movie, says Sify Movies.
The USCCB is classifying the new Mike Myers movie “The Love Guru” as morally offensive because it’s anti-Hindu.
Hindu leader Rajan zed, who is leading a campaigning against the movie for “lampooning” Hindus, is happy that other religious groups have taken up the cause and called the USCCB move a “remarkable inter-faith gesture”.
USCCB officials called the film “vulgar and tasteless”, saying it “wallows in endless penis jokes and fairly yucky potty humour.”
Sorry but I don’t remember this kind of outrage from the USCCB about all the virulently anti-Catholic movies which come out a few dozen times each year. I guess anti-Catholicism doesn’t rank as high as “yucky potty humor” for the USCCB.
If you recall, this is the same USCCB inexplicably gave the movie “The Golden Compass” a family-friendly A-II rating.
And “Agnes of God” which was about a nun accused of strangling a baby didn’t live up to the “morally offensive” classification.
Remember 1994’s “Priest”-that critically acclaimed drama where a young priest initiates several homosexual encounters, partly out of torment at his helplessness in stopping a case of incest revealed in confession. The USCCB described that cute little dramedy as a “credible picture of a lonely priest in a busy parish.” That movie also failed to receive the “Morally Offensive” classification from the USCCB.
So excuse me if I am a little suspicious about their politically correct sympathy condemnation of “The Love Guru.” Are these guys drunk? Off their meds? While the culture has turned rabid on all things Catholic, the USCCB picks a fight against “The Love Guru?” Now, that’s leadership.
June 26, 2008 at 5:57 am
It’s a good thing the USCCB doesn’t have infalibility, otherwise we’d be screwed.
June 26, 2008 at 2:16 pm
Fortunately, even fewer people listen to the USCCB than saw this movie.
One review described it as, “More than simply unfunny, this move is antifunny. I may never laugh again.”
June 26, 2008 at 3:23 pm
Matthew,
Very well said.
The USCCB is something akin to Baghdad Bob. They’re saying one thing when the painfully obvious is occurring in their own backyard.
June 26, 2008 at 3:49 pm
Tito,
I forgot all about Baghdad Bob. Thanks for the comedic reminder.
June 26, 2008 at 3:54 pm
This scares me and doesn’t surprise me at the same time. The bishops that are good leaders and close to the Lord are not allowed leadership positions in the USCCB. It just leaves many things to be desired.
June 26, 2008 at 3:55 pm
This scares me and doesn’t surprise me at the same time. The bishops that are good leaders and close to the Lord are not allowed leadership positions in the USCCB. It just leaves many things to be desired.
June 26, 2008 at 7:27 pm
Just so we’re clear on things, the reviews from the USCCB are now written by “the bishops,” but by people whom their staff has hired. If I’m not mistaken, there are two staff members responsible for writing these reviews. They’ve been called out for bad judgment before, and even after major downsizing at the USCCB, they’re still there.
I don’t know if it’s still true, but for a long time, their ratings would be published after the movie had been out for a while. I gave up making decisions based on them for that reason alone. Now I have another one.
June 26, 2008 at 8:51 pm
If that’s the case, David, the USCCB should simply drop the review service, or make the staffers start their own. It’s causing scandal. True, it’s not an imprimatur or anything, but having the USCCB nominally issuing these reviews lends their approval to the project.
Just from a standpoint of message control, why aren’t they doing something more about what’s said in their name? Whatever happened to “wise as serpents”?
June 26, 2008 at 9:09 pm
Nightfly:
I’ve been watching this sort of thing for years, and I’d say in fairness that the bishops have a better grip on the conference staff than they did, say, twenty years ago. In some liturgical matters, they’ve done a complete 180 in just the last decade. Things like that don’t happen without a lot of kicking and screaming. So I imagine in time, that the movie reviews will come up at a conference or committee meeting.
It’s just that, for now, the old 70s aging liberals still have a grip on things, but it’s getting harder for them to maintain with a new generation rising.
All in good time…
June 27, 2008 at 12:56 am
At the USCCB, MLK day is a paid holiday; Assumption of the BLVM is not. Go figure!
June 27, 2008 at 1:03 am
“At the USCCB, MLK day is a paid holiday…”
…as it is for libraries, banks, post offices, schools, universities, and government offices at all levels. That said, I agree they should get holydays of obligation as well.
June 27, 2008 at 2:54 am
No wonder they’ve been so quiet on same-sex marriage. They’ve been busy dealing with REALLY important stuff.
June 27, 2008 at 5:37 am
This ticked me off so much I went straight to the theater after reading it and saw Love Guru. A couple of parts made me chuckle, but mostly it was a terrible waste of time. Or at least it would have been if I didn’t feel so happy about being there.
And it didn’t make fun of Hindus as much as it made poo and genital jokes. I would never let my kids see it — but since Disney had two previews before the movie, I’m guessing a number of people don’t share the sentiment.
God Bless,
June 27, 2008 at 11:13 pm
I think I’m going back to Mormonism. At least Mormon leaders have a little common sense. Too much cheap wine and gay porn really messes with your mind.