According to Yahoo! News, Issac Hayes is leaving South Park because he just now realized that the show is intolerant toward religious beliefs:
"There is a place in this world for satire, but there is a time when satire ends and intolerance and bigotry towards religious beliefs of others begins," the 63-year-old soul singer and outspoken Scientologist said.
"Religious beliefs are sacred to people, and at all times should be respected and honored," he continued. "As a civil rights activist of the past 40 years, I cannot support a show that disrespects those beliefs and practices."(1)
However, South Park co-creator Matt Stone disputes Hayes' reasoning:
"This is 100 percent having to do with his faith of Scientology... He has no problem — and he's cashed plenty of checks — with our show making fun of Christians."(1)
and on South Park Studios website Stone says:
"This has nothing to do with intolerance and bigotry and everything to do with the fact that Isaac Hayes is a Scientologist and that we recently featured Scientology in an episode of 'South Park.' In ten years and over 150 episodes of 'South Park,' Isaac never had a problem with the show making fun of Christians, Muslims, Mormons and Jews. He got a sudden case of religious sensitivity when it was his religion featured on the show. To bring the civil rights struggle into this is just a non-sequiter. Of course we will release Isaac from his contract and we wish him well."(2)
Hayes' hypocrasy is pretty obvious. South Park has been an equal opportunity offender and one of the few shows that actually proclaims what many children (and adults) think about religious traditions. Afterall, faith is all about believing in non-sensical, illogical stories and ideas. If Sceintology wants to be identified as another valid faith practice (as opposed to dismissed as a dangerous, fringe cult), then it shouldn't be so sensitive to satire.
(1)
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060313/ap_on_en_tv/people_isaac_hayes
(2)
http://www.southparkstudios.com/
No comments:
Post a Comment