Controversial Virgin Mary billboard destroyed by protester

[Dale_M]

We have struggled with freedom of speech verse common respect for quite a while now.

Do i have the right to say what a compete idiot you are? Or a certain group of people are? Or how wrong a certain group are? Do i have the right to have this publicly and continuously displayed on a billboard, in a movie, on the news, in adverts, during university lectures etc?

In the United States, you have the right to all of those things when speaking as a public citizen in a public forum. However, businesses and employers also have a right to reject such speech and take action against it.

I would expect that most groups i would be criticising would just turn their back and want nothing to do with me.

I am not sure which groups you would be criticizing, but I would imagine such groups might publicly voice their opposition and exert pressure to have the offending speech curtailed.

But surely you are correct that the right to free speech is not absolute.

 

[pnewton]

Jesus considered the Temple to be his Father’s house, and the actions of the moneylenders to be a profanation of sacred space.

I don’t see how that relates to a billboard located in secular space.

Typology. Mary is the Ark of the Covenant, the Holy of Holies. Anger about her desicration is quite understandable.

Also, would I allow my mother to be treated this way?

 

[abucs]

Hello Dale. I’m using ‘group’ in the general sense. I agree that if i criticise a group they are likely to respond (and vice versa). When this to-ing and fro-ing in argument has gone on long enough in the public square though i think what happens is that groups simply treat the other as stupid and not worth the effort and that’s when the turning of backs and social fragmentation occurs. I think this is happening in western society at the level of institutions, media, social groups and individually and it is not healthy but the inevitable outcome of the new morality of ‘unbridled free speech’ in order to attack another.

 

[Warrenton]

But we don’t live in a country which is governed by the Catholic Church; so how is your viewpoint applicable to the situation?

Because we were speaking in terms of philosphy,or outlook.

Just because I live under a non Catholic system does not mean I accept, or share, its viewpoints or attitude.

 

[fbl9]

First off Mary is not a diety therefore the charge of blasphemy is ungrounded.
Slander would be the proper term to use here.
The billboard did not belong to a group that is Catholic therefore it is that group’s private property.
A charge of heresy can not be leveled as well for they are not Catholics.
This group is not even christian if they deny the virgin birth of Christ.
i wonder how long it will be before those defending the destruction of another’s property will support post term abortions of abortionists and abortors?

Now if group was actually Catholic then the charges of hersey and such would apply.

What were those gathered there praying for?
I hope they were praying for the forgiveness and enlightment of those who put up the billboard. And offering their “suffering” (standing in the rain) for the attonement of the offense. If they were then they could truly be called a Catholic action group.

 

[Not_Sure_1]

I’ll thank you to call a teenage girl a slut because she made the mistake of having sex.

Sex before marriage is not just a mistake. A mistake is getting a question wrong on a math exam because you forgot to account for a decimal. A mistake is forgetting to use a turn signal. A mistake is forgetting your jacket on a cold winter day. Sex before marriage is a deliberate offense against God. (It is not a simple mistake).

 

[atheistgirl]

Sex before marriage is a deliberate offense against God. (It is not a simple mistake).

Is this what all religions and faiths claim, or is it just Catholicism? Does every belief system condemn pre marital sex?

I dont think it would be deliberate in every single case. Sexual desire can be overwhealming, and people do get carried away with the moment and make mistakes.

Sarah x

 

[atheistgirl]

Again friend,you speak my mind.

This is becoming quite alarming.

Any moment now Im going to start hearing your voice in my head

I notice you say you are a Quaker.

Quakers call everyone friends I think???

There’s something very lovely about that.

Sarah x

 

[Publisher]

This is becoming quite alarming.

Any moment now Im going to start hearing your voice in my head

I notice you say you are a Quaker.

Quakers call everyone friends I think???

There’s something very lovely about that.

Sarah x

Friends believe there is “that of God” in every man and woman…it is the “Light Within”…and since each of us shares a portion of the Light, no ones opinion should be discounted as they may be speaking from that “Center of Light and love”…Friends seek to “speak to that of God” in each other.

The practice of calling everyone “friend” began for the most part as early Friends refused to use titles and refused to give “hat honor”…where one “doffed” his hat to one’s “betters”…Friends did not consider others “better”…and to address them as such was to not speak “plainly” and in “truth”.