Biblical satire prompts demonstrations in Northampton

[SecularMotion]

NORTHAMPTON - A performance of “The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told,” a satire on the Book of Genesis with gay characters by the Pioneer Valley Performing Arts Charter Public School, brought out demonstrators for and against the performance Friday night.

Some of the demonstrators said they would be back for Saturday’s and Sunday’s performances at the Academy of Music on Main Street.

Promotional material for the satirical comedy by Paul Rudnick asks “What if Adam’s partner in the Garden of Eden wasn’t Eve, but Steve?” The promotional material says that not only Adam and Steve, but also Jane and Mabel experience life’s joys and perils from the biblical world to the modern day.

Noreen Beebe, of Northampton, who said she is a Roman Catholic, said she is “insulted” that taxpayer money is being used “to change the words in the Bible.”

http://www.masslive.com/news/index.ssf/2013/03/biblical_satire_by_pioneer_val.html#incart_most-comments

[haikugal]

1. These people need to get over themselves!

Waa..waa..waa!!!

[Fortinbras Armstrong]

2. You have to remember that many of these people have had their sense of humor surgically removed

[LuvNewcastle]

3. I wish I could see it.

A friend and I got season tickets to our local little theatre this year and we've enjoyed their performances immensely. I never knew there was such talent and creativity in our town. The people who attend their performances are a fun bunch, too. Some of the most cutting-edge plays are being done by little theatres in small towns.

[niyad]

4. apparently fundie xians are the only ones allowed to say anything about anyone else's belief

systems. whahaaaaaa, I am being insulted, my beliefs are being mocked by people I hate and say really horrible things about, but that's okay, because I am an xian.

as z. budapest observed, it is funny watching a bunch of white europeans worshiping a book that has NO white europeans in it.

[dballance]

7. You Are so Correct.

It's really so ignorant that Jesus is often painted as a blue-eyed european and that "God" is painted as a kind, old, grandfatherly type of european male. Anyone who's actually read the Old Testament knows he was anything but kind. His record in the Old Testament is as a rather mean, some might say sociopathic, character. So capricious in his punishments of his followers for very minor offenses. And he loves the odor of burning animal flesh? It seems to please him though I can't understand it. I find it putrid. I guess the scary, vindictive "God" was what the people in power felt was needed to scare the masses into submission back then. It was a time when superstition was predominate over the little bits of science that were understood.

If Jesus actually lived he lived in the Middle East. He was Jewish - take note of that right-wingers. He would have undoubtably been a man with darker skin than europeans as is common in the region in which he was allegedly born. He would not have the lovely european features with which he is depicted by those adherents to the KJV of the Bible. It is doubtful he'd have the long flowing hair with which he is depicted in that time and would have most likely had shorter hair which would have been easier to maintain.

If a Jesus descended from the heavens today he would most likely be persecuted by his followers because he'd be mistaken for a Muslim. Just as some unfortunate Sikhs were shot and killed because their murderer thought they were Muslim.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

10. Jesus was pretty hateful & sociopathic in the NT too, in many places.

"I come not in peace, but with a sword" I come to set families apart, etc.

Cussing out a fig tree for not fruiting out of season.

Saying that he was condemning people who didn't like his preaching to hell. Lots of that stuff.

And Christians won't read that. That's in THEIR Bible. I don't believe it. THEY do and won't believe me when I tell them.

I know their bible better than they do. And then they tell me what I say is not in there.

[mr blur]

5. Well, presumably, "Mike of Holyoke"

wouldn't object to “tax dollars being used to promote my faith.”?

[Igel]

6. Most interpret the first amendment "don't let government support religion."

Often out of principle, often just to reduce the influence of religion. It was originally more or less "don't take sides in religion." Strict neutrality when it comes to message, unless working against that message is in the government's interes--Jim Jones comes to mind, for example. Possibly Waco.

The amendment no more allows anti-religion campaigns--which is, after all, taking a side--than it does pro-religion campaigns.

If you can't have a nice public-paid-for moralistic reenactment of religious narratives to reinforce and support religion you can't have a nice public-paid-for satirical reenactment of religious narratives to subvert them. Wouldn't it be nice to have a high school troupe put on a Passion Play in celebration of Holy Week? Artistic license and all that.

No. I don't think so either.

[Act_of_Reparation]

8. Right on. n/t

[Lordquinton]

9. Except that it's a charter school

which means there is no oversight on them. There are a lot of charter schools that are fully religious based, taking tax monies and promoting their religion, but that doesn't seem to bother this guy.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

11. What about Ezekiel 23:20??? Should they act that out too???

New International Version (©2011)
There she lusted after her lovers, whose genitals were like those of donkeys and whose emission was like that of horses.

Or the incest where Lot has sex with his daughters in Genesis? Is that good family values that they should be acting out????

There's some pron in the bible for sure. Certainly not a holy book.
Lousy guide to morality.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

12. Wait till they find out about the movie "Life of Brian" Horrors!!

They wouldn't get this, they don't believe in education, especially them "furrin langwidges":

[Bad Thoughts]

13. You're living in the wrong place

if you are offended by this type of satire. Northampton is clearly not the place for literalist interpretations of the Bible. It is isn't the place for gay culture.