Bible heads for Hong Kong's top shelf

Residents demand X-rating for 'indecent' tome

By Lester Haines • Get more from this author

Posted in Bootnotes, 18th May 2007 12:16 GMT

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Updated The Bible may be reclassified as "indecent" in Hong Kong due to its "sexual and violent content", Reuters reports.

That's if the 800 or so residents who've demanded it be restricted to over-18s get their way, following an unholy rumpus over a sex column recently published in the Chinese University's Student Press magazine which asked readers "whether they'd ever fantasised about incest or bestiality".

Cue a bit of a kerfuffle and the rapid appearance of www.truthbible.net which said that while musings on brother-on-sister and animal bothering were a bit much, the content of the Bible's fun-filled pages "far exceeds" the Student Press shocker.

The Student Press column was subsequently judged "indecent" by the Obscene Articles Tribunal, and readers of www.truthbible.net bombarded the Television and Entertainment Licensing authority (TELA) with demands that God's handbook receive similar censure.

TELA has said it's "still undecided on whether the Bible had violated Hong Kong's obscene and indecent articles laws".

Local protestant minister Reverend Wu Chi-wai says not. He offered: "If there is rape mentioned in the Bible, it doesn't mean it encourages those activities. It's just common sense...I don't think that criticism will have strong support from the public." ®

Update

TELA last night (Sunday) spared the Bible elevation to the top shelf, ruling the book had "not violated standards of morality, decency and propriety generally accepted by reasonable members of the community".

The statement noted: "The Bible is a religious text which is part of civilisation. It has been passed from generation to generation."

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