David Bowie, The Catholic Church, And The Pearl Clutchers

David Bowie - The Next Day (Explicit) - YouTube

Cross posted @ the Atheist Oasis

After watching a very, very old movie with David Bowie in it (The Hunger – and I suppose that it was a little bit of all right in 1983, but only gets an ‘eh’ and a horizontal palm shaking slightly), I googled Mr. Bowie, and lo and behold, even at the age of 66, he’s still managing to piss somebody off. Namely, the usual suspects:

Critic: New David Bowie video 'offensive' to Christians

Forget “Let's Dance,” David Bowie, 66, is back and raising hell – if you will – with his new religion-themed music video “The Next Day,” the title track in his first studio album in 10 years.

Taking a page out of Madonna and Lady Gaga’s playbooks, Bowie’s latest offering is wrought with racy religious imagery and stars Oscar-winning actress Marion Cotillard and Oscar-nominated actor Gary Oldman. 

Directed by Fiona Sigismondi, the controversial video opens with a priest played by Oldman punching a street-urchin beggar in the face, then entering a club -- while perving at women’s backsides -- filled with less-than-saintly behavior. Cotillard embodies a prostitute-turned-saint while Bowie rocks out on stage as the Christ-like figure in robes, while nearly-naked folks dance provocatively around him. In the background, a Cardinal can be seen dealing in cash and a nun prays, all before the stigmata saturates the scene.

The contentious music clip, deemed “a bloody battle between the sacred and the profane,” was banned from YouTube for “violating terms of service” just a few hours after its release on Wednesday, and returned with an age restriction a little while later.

But some say Bowie’s creative vision mocks Christianity, and wish it was gone altogether.

“The video is offensive and distasteful. It is a misrepresentation of the multitudes of clergy who have given their lives to help hurting people. Undeniably, some clergy have misused their position, but to focus on these few is a character assault of their position and call,” Jay Lowder of Harvest Ministries told FOX411’s Pop Tarts column. “Bowie’s verse claiming ‘they work with Satan while they dress like saints,’ is to attribute God’s work through man as being sinister and evil in its origin. I find it hard to excavate any level of truth or reality from this video except Jesus was continually in the midst of those who were blind and sinful.”

The shorter version? This picture says it best:

Our culture is becoming sandwiched between the Pathetic Church Of Victimology and awash in a sea of undeserved entitlement. Everybody wants special privileges just because they exist. But the religious? They want more than just privileges: as a rule they whine continuously that they as a group should be granted special dispensations. No stepping on toes, no criticism, no critical thought applied to that meme plague they bring and distribute at the drop of a hat (good news my homesick ass).

But this is the human race we’re talking about – somebody somewhere is getting stoked up about something (usually something idiotic).

Personally, I’m done being polite about these subjects. I usually don’t hesitate to laugh in people’s faces when they say something beyond stupid, nor am I shy about explaining how said something is patently and relentlessly stupid.

Anyways, the religious (especially the Christians) love to whinge on about how they’re persecuted in this country. When I hear this, I tell them straight up: are churches being closed? Are their beloved TV networks being shut down? Are there folks being scooped up in the middle of the night because of their faith, or being separated from their children? Not in this country they’re not.

So it’d be nice if they put a cork in it, close their pie-holes, quit yapping, and all in all just STFU – because the complaint department’s closed, and their persecutory complex, like their little imaginary sky daddy, is all in their fucking heads.

Till the next post, then.