Blasphemy Day is September 30th, so I’m trying to solidify our club’s plans. Here’s a description from their Facebook group (since their website is continuously hacked):
Blasphemy Day International is a campaign seeking to establish September 30th as a day to promote free speech and stand up in a show of solidarity for the freedom to challenge, criticize, and satirize religion without fear of murder, litigation, and reprisal. It is the obligation of the world’s nations to safeguard dissent and the dissenters, not to side with the brutal interests of those who demand “respect” for their beliefs (i.e., immunity to being criticized or mocked or they threaten violence).
We’re definitely doing something, but the question is what. Part of me is nervous because Purdue is such a conservative, religious campus. Our two most controversial events are our Pastafarian Preaching (how dare you mock religion! My God isn’t anything like a Flying Spaghetti Monster!) and Fiction for Fiction (Are you saying the Bible isn’t completely true?! You’re going to hell!). I’m afraid for our reputation and our member’s physical well being to do anything too blasphemous.
But that speaks loads, doesn’t it? The whole point of Blasphemy Day is to stand up for our freedom of speech and right to criticize and mock religion, just like any other topic. We’re supposed to be fighting this exact feeling of fear that I have. I shouldn’t have to feel unsafe for standing in public and saying “If God was real, he’s a megalomaniac and an asshole. Thankfully he doesn’t exist.” Or something.
Here are some of the ideas I’ve come up with so far. The event will be outside to get maximum publicity, and we’ll have a table or two. Some of these things are more meaningful/positive than others, some are things I find hilarious but probably wouldn’t dare to do.
- Have a large banner that anyone can write whatever they want on. Only rule is they can’t cross out other people’s stuff.
- Instead of a banner, have a ton of post it notes that people can stick to something (a wall, maybe). That way one message doesn’t take up more space than others.
- Have a megaphone where someone can say whatever they want for a predetermined number of seconds. You have to wait in line to get the megaphone.
- Have line drawings of religious figures (Jesus/Moses/Mohammed/Buddha/Shiva/Thor/Zeus/The Pope) and let people color/deface them however their hearts desire
- Play “blasphemous” music that mocks or criticizes religion
- Have a laptop playing a continuous loop of short blasphemous videos from YouTube (Rock Me Sexy Jesus comes to mind)
- Have a bunch of blasphemous cartoons, including the banned Mohammed drawings
- Have someone dressed as Jesus…well, doing anything, that would probably be blasphemous. Let people throw pies at him for a dollar? I dunno.
What do you think? Horrible ideas, bad message, pointless, hilarious, necessary? Please let me know any Blasphemous suggestions you have, whether they be whole event ideas or just specific videos/songs/images we definitely need to use.