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The SCMP reported September last week that a local
TV station had at the last minute altered its' plan to
show a flesh pageant featuring nearly nude women
following phone and written protests from over 300
Hong Kong viewers. Many of the protests came from
members of a single church congregation who having
been alerted to the suggestive promotion which was
blatantly exploitative of the nearly nude female body
rallied to object to this being shown in their homes
and to their children. The protesters won a small
victory for sanity in programming.
Another, more traditional and less prurient beauty
parade, the Miss Asia Pageant, went ahead on schedule
Saturday evening. September 5.
Lovely women in swim suits are nowadays acceptable
images on TV and in print advertising, including to
most Christians. And I am among those Christians who
believe the Church should proceed cautiously when
playing the role of morality cop. Traditionally the
Church has over-reacted to popular entertainment - the
Calvinists in London for a season or two in the l6th
Century were able to ban the plays of William
Shakespeare because the elders found them too bawdy
and sexy!
Also in Hong Kong, where Christians are only about
l0% of the population, we need extra humility lest we
appear to be trying to force a minority moral view
upon the non-Christian majority.
Notwithstanding my cautious attitude, I was
appalled when the deadly violent film, LEON, was
programmed by TV Pearl in the 9:30PM slot last week.
This film played in Hong Kong about a year ago at the
Cinematique, an adult art cinema, and that's where it
belongs - with adult audiences who buy tickets to
enjoy the mayhem.
Pearl is now trumpeting its' coup, claiming that
LEON, its' film of the month, had an immensely large
audience, presumably more people watched it than there
are TV sets in Hong Kong. Like most deadly serious
films, there may be some redeeming artistic qualities
for adults in LEON, but none for children. . The film
opens with a 20 minute scene in which a family of
five, as ugly and grossly dysfunctional as a domestic
family could be caricatured, are systematically
executed in their own apartment by a drug syndicate
angry with the father. Two children are among the
victims and their blood is copiously splashed on our
TV screens.
We need to do some more letter writing and make
those protest phone calls to the TV management and to
the Hong Kong Government when stuff as deadly funky as
LEON hits our TV screens. Unless the viewers speak
out, the program managers and the advertisers will
conclude that they own as well as manage our
airways.
Pastor's
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