I’m a huge fan of artistic freedom, and it allowed works like Piss Christ and The Devils to exist, albeit not without scandal. The latter has yet to have an uncut print to this day.
That said, I also think everyone should be accountable for their actions. Alam mo naman na catholic country ito and that people react harshly (but not as extreme as Muslims) to slights towards their religious icons, but you still did it anyway. Mideo Cruz, Carlos Celdran, Dolphy when Father Jejemon came out, the girl who wrote “I can do all things through ME who strengthen ME”, are just some people off the top of my head that drew flak for their actions. Although dressing Jesus in drag has never been done before and is arguably worse.
Gusto mo maging edgy, fine. But don’t pretend to be a victim sabay taunt pa na “sige lang damihan nyo pa”.
This is why I stopped making jokes about religion on social media. To be clear I’m not an atheist or being blasphemous, it’s just that dark humor works when it offends. Ayun, offend it did. Dami ko friends and coworkers that ended up unfollowing and ignoring me or halatang may tension. It’s not for me to say na mababaw sila. I had a choice to pick other jokes and I chose religion. I had a choice to set it to “Only Me” but I didn’t. I take ownership for it and have no ill will. I just kept my jokes to private tweets moving forward.
Fuck that. I’m not an anti-theist and I’d happily defend religion against people who believe that the world would be a better place without it, but this shouldn’t have happened. This was in no way worse than what Carlos Celdran did which was intended to offend and is not even in the same league. I maintain that there was nothing inherently offensive about the performance. If the offense here is that Pura Luka Vega dressed up as glammed up Jesus, then people are being way too sensitive about it.
I say yes that law has been used willy nilly by different religious sect. It does not fit to our supposedly secular government.
