| PETA put up this outrage in Rhode Island, the most Catholic state in the Union (population 65% Catholic), and it's gone already -- after the billboard company said they didn't want to be held liable for protestors going to the site and possibly getting injured while there. |  |
Yet PETA's campaign coordinator William Rivas-Rivas says he'll use the image again and claims, "We're still at a loss as to why it was offensive." He said, according to a CNS story, that the image of Mary was respectful and "beautifully drawn".
What a confession of idiocy. If you haven't figured it out yet, Mr. Rivas-Rivas, how about this explanation: replacing the image of Jesus Christ, our God, with the image of a dead chicken is indeed offensive. I suppose the minds of PETA extremists and those of chickens are comparable, but we Catholics really do believe that God and men and chickens are not all interchangeable.
Public reaction, the spokesman claimed, was great: their web site got -- wow -- 1000 hits. Since PETA's web page contains 118 images, and each image retrieval counts as a hit to the web server, that means maybe 9 people connected in. Yeah, guy, go ahead and keep spending your ad money this way.
Bishop Robert Mulvee made his objection pretty clear: "This use of one of the most sacred images of the Christian faith trivializes not only the Mother of Jesus but also the very cause PETA strives to advance."
It would be better to say that Rhode Island is the most nominally Catholic state in the Union. It is 65% Catholic and the Republican Senator, Lincoln Chafee supports partial-birth abortion. That is shameful. And it makes Rhode Island the perfect place to spread militant vegetarianism with PiETA billboards.
I recently saw this on another blog, and commented that this billboard will likely have the opposite effect from what PETA wanted. It offends me a great deal as a Catholic. Not only is it wrong to replace the image of our Savior with a dead chicken, but it is also very wrong for the Blessed Mother to be used as a pawn in any publicity campaign, unless it is to further the aims of an established religious organization like the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate, for example.
The billboard makes me want to swing into the nearest KFC and order up a big bucket of Colonel Sander's finest original recipe.
Heck, I get 800 unique visitors a day--way more than 1000 'hits'. And I'm nowhere near as famous as PETA. Either these guys can't count, are web illiterates, and/or just spent lots of money for nuthin.
Wish I could get some o' that free publicity lovin' :-)
It gets worse -- I read in the NC Register that the grand poobah (top rooster? cock o' the walk?) at PETA who devised this blasphemous ad just loves it, is determined to use it in other locales, and -- wait for it -- is himself a "Catholic" and does not see anything the least bit offensive here!!
I wonder what they think of the Chik-fil-a adds with cows (apparently sacred to PETA) pushing chicken. Would they risk alienating their bovine wing for the poultry vote? Who do they side with? Or do they just order a side with each? Makes me hungry!!!
Simply another reason to ignore PETA