HONG KONG — Not for the first time has a reader of the Bible realized that large sections of its contents are not necessarily suitable for reading by the young or especially sensitive. In addition to its many violent passages aside, there’s sex in them thar pages, two things that have outraged moralists in sexual media saturated Hong Kong.According to the Television and Entertainments Licensing Authority (Tela), 208 complains have been registered about allegedly indecent passages in the so-called Good Book.
“The thrust of the complaints,” a Tela representative explains, “was that the Bible was obscene; that different parts of the Bible were offensive to readers.”
Although Tela declined providing details about the complaint specifics, members of the local media reported that they related to acts of cannibalism, rape, and other forms of violence in both the Old and New Testaments.
The complaints arrive at a particularly interesting time politically, given that a student journal found to include a sex survey was recently deemed obscene, in part because it included questions about bestiality and incest. Amidst angry calls from students, the Chinese-language website TruthBible.com has encouraged visitors to urge Tela to classify the Bible as indecent.
