Posted by Nightbreed at ns.west.com on December 15, 1999 at 22:41:49:
In Reply to: Right winged Christians are getting on my nerves. posted by Silent Smith on December 15, 1999 at 20:57:10:
First of all, I want to clarify some points that you brought up. The group who protested the movie wasn't just some random "Right Wing Christians." The group that offered the most opposition to the movie is the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights. This group is not officially affiliated with the Catholic church, but is rather a group of holier-than-thou American catholics who felt that they should have a group of people to protest, should the need to protest arise.
The Catholic League is, for lack of a better term, a group of hate mongers. From their review of 'Dogma,' I offer the following statement:
>"That film critics like the New York Times reviewer, Janet Maslin, and
Time magazine’s Richard Corliss, thought it a gas means either that they
will laugh at anything, or they can’t resist giving high marks to any
movie that insults Catholicism. The only way to find out for sure is for
someone in Hollywood to make a stupid comedy that insults Protestants or
Jews (preferably both), and then run it by the likes of Maslin and Corliss.
I think the implication that the Catholic League's desire to see a movie that would belittle Jews is an EXTREMELY anti-semitic statement, and an excellent example of the type of small-mindedness presented by this group.
While many of us here would like to believe that the CL's attention on Dogma, was their primary focus, this particular group has it in for Disney, and have for a while. They launched a similar protest for a TV show called "Nothing Sacred," and I'm sure we all know how they must feel about Disney's annual "Gay Pride day" at the theme parks.
What groups like the Catholic League don't realize is that Kevin Smith, as a Catholic, is a boon to the Church, not a burden. Kevin Smith appeals to Gen-Xers, and Gen-Yers, and the Church could stand to benefit from that influence by embracing him, rather than protesting him. Dogma is a film that could easily be used to open the door for young Catholics who are unsure about their faith, and the belief structure of the Catholic Church, and allow them to explore Catholicism. After all, do you think Woody Allen gets protested by the ADL for all the (seemingly) anti-semitic jokes he makes? Case in point. Love & Death (1975) "I hear their women [the Jews] don't believe in sex after marriage."
My point is, I believe that the CL's attack on Dogma is part of a larger, anti-Disney sentiment, and that regardless of who distributed the movie, as long as Disney's name was at one time attached to it, they are the source of evil.