A 60- second ad focused on the “Our Father” prayer was banned in English movie theatres deemed to cause offense to the religious sentiment of those of different faiths and to those with no religious faith. The ad was produced by the Church of England, which had hoped to screen it in cinemas during Christmas, ahead of the new Stars Wars film. Instead, the agency handling movie ads has rejected the proposal.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vlUXh4mx4gI
The ad features state-of-the-art direction. It presents the Christian prayer “Our Father” recited or sung by a varied group of people, chosen to represent contemporary humanity in their quest for peace forgiveness and justice. The advert shows a mourner at a graveside, refugees, weightlifters, a sheep farmer, a gospel choir and the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, in person. “Just Pray” was approved by Britain’s Board of Film Classification with a U certificate, that stands for “Universal”, and it was cleared by the Cinema Advertising Authority. However, Digital Cinema Media, (DCM), which handles the most part of advertising in major UK cinema chains– Odeon, Cineworld and Vue – said the film “carries the risk of offending audiences.”
Reactions followed suit, and over the past few days the issue triggered a heated debate across England. The first statement was released on BBC by Reverend Arun Arora, director of Communications for the Church of England. He conveyed his “surprise, disappointment and bewilderment” over the decision taken by DCM agency. “The prospect of a multigenerational cultural event offered by the release of Star Wars was too good an opportunity to launch the ad and promote the prayer before Christmas,” he said.
“The Lord’s Prayer is prayed by billions of people across the globe every day and in this country has been part of everyday life for centuries.”
The Anglican bishop of Sheffield, Rev. Steven Croft, listed on the website of his diocese “7 reasons” that led “the demigods of consumer culture” to ban the advert. This prayer “opposes the myth that our lives do not matter”; “it gives us the courage to live in an imperfect world”; “it invites us to join the struggle to see justice and peace prevail”; “it teaches us to live with just enough” and “this is the most dangerous reason why it cannot be shown with the adverts at the cinema”, because it teaches us not to want more. It teaches contentment, the most subversive virtue of them all.”
The issue was equally addressed by the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, and by former Anglican primate Rowan Williams.
Muslims joined the protest in defence of the ad.
The assistant secretary general of the Muslim Council of Britain, Shaykh Ibrahim Mogra, said: “I am flabbergasted that anyone would find this prayer offensive to anybody, including people of no particular religious belief.”
That’s not all. In fact, Odeon, Cineworld and Vue Cinemas, the very cinema chains that banned the “Christian” advert, yesterday made known that a short animated movie produced by “SanJay’s Super Team” will be screened before every showing of “The Good Dinosaur.”
The short movie narrates the story of a child completely captivated by cartoons, whose father repeatedly asks to switch off television and pray with him, sitting down on the carpet facing a small reproduction of a Hindu Temple.
Rev Arun Arora promptly accused the cinema-advertising agency of “hypocrisy” and of using a “double-standard.” He added: “I have no problem with Sanjay and indeed I have nothing against screening the cartoon in movie theatres. What I contest is the lack of coherence in their marketing policy.”
