Irreverent comments made by The Project about Christianity may have ridiculed religious beliefs but they didn’t constitute a breach of the Code of Practice because they did not incite hatred against Christians.
In July The Project was discussing an apparent rise in UFO sightings across Australia.
ACMA received a complaint that the following conversation ridiculed the Christian faith.
The ACMA report states:
At one point the program’s host says:
But, is believing [that] a guy with a beard created the world in just six days then took a breather on the seventh day any more nuts than believing other intelligent life is out there and just wants to make friends?
Later in the segment the program’s host asks the interviewee:
So why do you think when people believe that they have seen a UFO, they have made contact, they get such a hard time from everyone else, yet people have some pretty out there religious beliefs and we seem to just go along with them?
Towards the end of the program, when one of the co-hosts says that she finds it very hard to believe in alien visits to earth, the program’s host replies:
That said, [the program’s co-host] does believe that a magical man created everything and that his son died and rose again from the dead. So we all believe strange things.
I’m going to get a lot of complaints, I’m going to get a lot of complaints for that! All I’m saying is, everything is a leap of faith, whether it’s believing in UFOs or believing in superstition.
In acknowledging the light-hearted and irreverent nature of the show, the Australian Communications and Media Authority found that the context in which they were made diluted their overall effect and that comments which merely convey negative reactions towards a person or group are not provocation.
A complaint that the remarks breached the Racial and Religious Tolerance Act 2001 were also outside ACMA’s charter.
Shouldn’t everyone be entitled to their own opinion? “The host” believes religious claims are far-fetched. And all religious people claim it all happened. Why aren’t religious evangelical tv shows disrespectful to atheists?
Thnx Bruce Banner You can learn something every day I’ve never thought of scientology as being a religion as such I thought it was just a secretive menacing organization with massive Australian tax concessions
In my opinion, Charlie’s comments came very close to open ridicule of Christianity. His comments most definitely disrespected the beliefs of Christians and held them out to be ridiculous. I’d like to see him diss the Islamic faith in such a public manner – he’d get death threats, and he knows it. Christians are a soft target.
@squareyes & Mr J – good one!
@Secret Squirrel & Bruce Banner – spot on.
No doubt about it, religion of any sort requires a certain myopia. I know some UFO-believers who roll their eyes at my blind-pig-ignorance-of-the-oh-so-obvious-UFO-truth in exactly the same insufferable way that religious zealots are unshakeably convinced of their own righteousness.
That said, while I agree with Charlie in principle, I don’t see why he has to deliberately pour salt into this ancient wound – unless TEN has ordered it’s ‘talent’ to go down the P. Henry/A.Jones shock-jock path.
Hey ACMA what how about all networks sadly including Aunty, who think they are a God’s gift to themslves , and where none of them show any respect for us their viewers with their program oversruns or even completely changing advertised programs without any warning
but perhaps and probably only as a direct result of David Knox’s efforts channel 7 seems to have discovered our clocks at home arn’t calibrated only in half hour incriments like theirs must be
Why is that when you worship one of the versions of YHWH it’s called religion but if you’re a follower of the Rainbow Serpent or Zeus and crew it’s referred to as mythology?
A win for common sense.
Is anyone going to investigate if the UFO believers were offended by being associated with Christianity.
@imaketheshow.
It doesn’t need any help to sound farfetched.
All religion should hold itself open to ridicule. Scientology cops it’s fair share!
Comments like ‘he took a breather’, ‘some guy with a beard’ and ‘magical man’ are intended to make the Christian faith sound stupid and farfetched. It’s like describing the host as ‘some egotistical dork’.
He and others are entitled to believe in whatever they want, just don’t disrespect the choice of others. But that man is an idiot, time and time again. Enough said.
Ages ago Seven had a film “Chariots of the Gods?” (introduced by Scott Lambert, according to my VHS copy). Later, Nine scheduled it then pulled it at the last minute, no explanation, never to be aired. The bible is full of contradictions and the Catholic church admits as much.
As Stephen Hawkings said “It is inconceivable that we are the only intelligent creatures in the universe”.
This was not ridiculing Christianity. It was a discussion on the basics on which Christianity is based.
David. It was Charlie. I saw that episode and remember backlash on the facebook thread.
It was Charilie for sure. I remember him saying it clearly. It may have caused offense but he does have a point.
@ David Knox, I am pretty sure it was Charlie and It sounds like something Charlie would say, especially the way the script is written. I also saw that episode and am confident in saying it was Charlie. he also has the most insightful and truthful things to say, and I’m not being sarcastic. I love Charlie.
Christians get annoyed sometime that because the Church was powerful they are seen as fair game while other religions claim offense and are protected.
This is a sensible decision by the ACMA and hopefully they will apply the same logic to complaints by other religions.
I remember Charlie making some of, if not all of, these comments. And whilst he makes a valid point, I don’t know if he needed to repeat it.
Is it disrespectful to question and challenge religious beliefs?
As for which religions are discussed, we are mainly a Christian country, so of course Christianity will dominate.
And let’s be realistic, discussing certain religions can have dramatic repercussions and you would be a fool to go down that path. Unfair it is, but we live in an imperfect world.
Dave: It sounds like him, but are we sure it was Charlie? I never get why ACMA delete names in their reports.
David, I just wanna add this in. Please don’t let there be a religious argument on a TV site.
Yay! Another win for free speech and common sense. I wonder if the hosts will all be going to hell in a handbasket
I’m pleased they weren’t found in breach. I mean really…we always do laugh at people who claim to have seen E.T but quite easily accept an old book and a few fairytales.
I’d like to see Charlie have a go at the Muslim faith and see how far he got. Charlie also needs to learn the word respect. There are Christians that do watch the show and this isn’t the first time that he’s said stuff like this.
“ACMA received a complaint that the following conversation ridiculed the Christian faith.”
One complaint from one person or from many?
Never ceases to amaze me that ACMA and ASA swing into action on receipt of a single complaint.
On-air apologies, program edits or the pulling of an ad campaign could eventuate because a minority (or possibly even one person) in a country of 21m had their sensibilities offended.