{"id":261395,"date":"2017-09-08T17:03:14","date_gmt":"2017-09-08T21:03:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rael.org\/?p=261395"},"modified":"2020-12-17T11:42:51","modified_gmt":"2020-12-17T16:42:51","slug":"hindus-are-outraged-by-an-australian-ad-for-lamb-poking-fun-at-all-religions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rael.org\/cs\/hindus-are-outraged-by-an-australian-ad-for-lamb-poking-fun-at-all-religions\/","title":{"rendered":"Hindus are outraged by an Australian ad for lamb poking fun at all religions"},"content":{"rendered":"
RAEL\u2019S COMMENT:<\/strong><\/span><\/h5>\n
Wonderful! Almost like the meal I had on the Eternal life planet\u2026<\/strong><\/span><\/h5>\n

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As a vegetarian, it feels wrong to get behind this ad for lamb\u2026 but as someone who can laugh, it\u2019s pretty damn funny.<\/p>\n

The ad, sponsored by Meat and Livestock Australia, features a number of gods at the same dinner table. They\u2019re\u00a0all eating lamb\u00a0since it\u2019s the one meat none of them have restrictions against. (Clever.)<\/p>\n

Over the course of two minutes, just about everyone becomes the butt of a joke. Aphrodite keeps getting texts about matches from a dating website. Ganesh doesn\u2019t find it funny when someone brings up the \u201celephant in the room.\u201d Muhammad calls to say he can\u2019t make it (naturally). The person who seems completely out of place happens to be the one person with no religious affiliation. Even Jesus doesn\u2019t escape mockery.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s all in good fun. They all get along. It\u2019s beautiful fiction.<\/p>\n

Most people seem to understood the humor, but one group has strongly spoken out against the ad.<\/p>\n

A number of Hindu individuals and organizations have called it \u201cirresponsible,\u201d \u201cunacceptable,\u201d and \u201csenseless.\u201d They want the ad removed from television.<\/p>\n

Even U.S.-based Hindu activist\u00a0Rajan Zed\u00a0offered criticism:<\/p>\n

\u201cLord Ganesha was highly revered in Hinduism and he was meant to be worshipped in temples or home shrines and not to be used in selling lamb meat for mercantile greed,\u201d Mr Zed said.\u2026<\/p>\n

Mr Zed said trivialization of a deity was disturbing to the Hindus world over.<\/p>\n

\u201cHindus are for free artistic expression and speech as much as anybody else if not more. But faith is something sacred and attempts at trivializing it hurt the followers,\u201d he said in a statement.<\/p>\n

To put that another way:\u00a0We love free speech! Unless you\u2019re mocking us. In which case you have to stop.<\/p>\n

Zed also called for the ad to\u00a0be banned.<\/p>\n

No reasonable person would watch this ad and come away thinking, \u201cThis is unfair to Hindus.\u201d It has a go at\u00a0everyone\u00a0with an overarching message of\u00a0unity. Sure it\u2019s selling a product, but the people who put this together weren\u2019t trying to single out any one group.<\/p>\n

All of the offended voices sound like the Catholic League\u2019s\u00a0Bill Donohue, who gets 99% of the way to an aneurysm every time people criticize or mock his faith, even when it\u2019s harmless and done with perfectly good intentions.<\/p>\n

I would love to hear something like this from a sensible Hindu organization: \u201cWe understand why some people may be upset, but we have a sense of humor. We\u2019re glad they included our faith in this ad. And after viewers taste some lamb, we encourage them to visit one of our temples in Australia where we\u2019d love to treat them to dessert.\u201d In other words, be like the Mormon Church\u00a0advertising in the\u00a0Playbill\u00a0for\u00a0The Book of Mormon\u00a0musical.<\/p>\n

The only people who ought to be outraged are vegetarians. Religious groups should sit back and just enjoy the free publicity.<\/p>\n

Hindus Are Outraged By An Australian Ad For Lamb Poking Fun At All Religions<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n