December 16, 2006
gapingvoid complaint
[Add the gpingvoid widget to your blog.]
Richard Carter sent me this e-mail:
Hugh,
I display your widget on my homepage — in fact, I believe I was the
very first person to do so. I elected to display all images, rather
than invoke the sanitised option because I am not easily offended. Now
I find your widget is displaying adverts for Jesus. As a proud
Atheist, I have a big problem with this and consider it a breach of
trust. I really don’t mind people being religious, but I don’t want
them using my website to promote their religious views.
I’ll keep the widget up for the time being (in the assumption that
there will be a new non-religious cartoon coming along soon), but, if
there’s any more, I will be forced, reluctantly, to take it down.
Regards,
Richard
Adverts for Jesus. “Your Total Second Coming Solution.” Heh.
[NB: This e-mail was published with Richard’s consent.]
pathetic…
Hugh isn’t selling it, he’s giving it away for free!
Isn’t it funny how our society is open to ideas as long as they are the same as our own?
Ok, selling Jesus would have been more like… “The bible, buy it or the puppy gets it” heh.
I’m an atheist, as well, but I will not remove the widget from my blog. I don’t like you just because I think you believe the same things I do or because I can use you to promote my own interests. I like you because you’re an original, doing a lot of really cool stuff that rocks.
I think the proper reply to that is, “You’re Welcome.” Or, if you’re feeling snarky, “Jesus Saves.”
An atheist, not easily offended, taking offense to a Jesus reference…
…I’m bad at math, but something doesn’t add up!
To be honest I was not sure what it meant — not clear if it was pro pr con, or what the message was.
I certainly would not remove it just because I did not like one cartoon.
(Love the American Dream one by the way)
That’s funny.
Adverts for SUVs offend me. Those huge cars’ toxic output is destroying our planet’s frigile environment!
I’m an atheist too (good lord, they’re coming out of the woodwork!) but I’m more offended by this marketing clunker in the Cashmere Truths link you gave us (http://www.simply-cashmere.co.uk/cashmeretruths)than your love of Jesus.
“Once you have worn cashmere everything else becomes less desirable and one strives to attain more and more cashmere pieces.”
Jesus 2.0 ??? ;o)
Actually, I have the same complaint. Until fairly recently, you were a blog about marketing. What’s with the sudden injection of religion? It’s out of place and irritating.
Second coming? Must be Jesus 2.0 then.
Thinking about it some more afterwards, I think what I was really objecting to was the change in tone from Hugh’s usually inspired cynicism to one of (apparently) unadulterated (and, in my opinion, naive) religiosity.
Hugh can obviously say whatever the hell he likes in his cartoons, but I considered the happy-clappy Jesus stuff to be off topic and a dilution of his brand. I thought I knew what I was getting when I displayed his widget. Not any more. But I’m keeping it up for the time being because I still enjoy 99% of his stuff.
Merry Christmas to one and all. Even those of you who misread the tone of my original email.
They say you can tell a fanatic because he (or she) doesn’t have a sense of humor… I’m used to seeing religious fanatics, but I guess they come in all persuasions.
Finding religion offensive has nothing to do with being an atheist per se. It has to do with being intolerant.
Interesting that he uses a capital A for ‘Atheist’, and calls himself “proud” to be so. He sounds pretty devout, and if he believes in Atheism, good for him.
I used to call myself an agnostic, until I read recently that ‘agnostics believe that the nature of God cannot be known’. Personally, I don’t ‘believe’. I’m not proud to say it; it’s just that religion — atheism and agnosticism included — is beyond my understanding.
I recall a Hughtrain slogan: “The market for something to believe in is infinite”
nice fuckin comic!
“Proud atheist” is an euphemism for “asshole”.
As an atheist, I had a similar discomfort the cartoon in question. But then I remembered how my husband has shoved any number of foul substances under my nose and exclaimed “Holy crap, this reeks! Here honey, smell it!”
I bet Jesus smells like pretend.
It’s funny to me how something so UTTERLY ambiguous was interpreted just one way… by an atheist.
And to say one of my cartoons looks “out of place” on my own blog is also pretty amusing
What I personally find interesting is the amount of disrespect shown towards someone who, instead of silently taking down the widget, tried to engage in some kind of “feedback process” regarding something that bothered him. Somehow I thought trying to communicate about issues openly was a good thing.
. I couldn’t resist that pun.
I do hope none of the people who shared their precious “subtle” sarcasm with the world would usually be so disrespectful to a complete stranger or possibly neighbor who might actually be a nice guy, even though he doesn’t share some of your opinions.
Completely independent from my opinion on the cartoons with religious topics, I find it a bit strange to associate someone with religious fanaticism simply because he voiced that the widget he put up on his site shows other things than he expected, which he wouldn’t usually like to have on his web site.
And…I still read Hugh’s blog “religiously”
huh. i took the tone of the cartoon to be ironic — the wry, back-handed commentary present in much of Hugh’s other work. not so much a “You’d better believe in Jesus” than a “You’d better be paying attention, because the Religious Right is on the move.”
so i’m curious how this could be ‘diluting your brand’…
Hugh:
As a Christian, I am offended by all the atheist talk. I will stop reading. Maybe you should bend your writing/publishing on YOUR blog so that I am happy!
Give me a break. If he doesn’t like what you post, maybe he should not host the widget, instead of trying to make you write/publish/believe what he does.
I think he should have to change his blog/site to reflect my beliefs, because his site is offensive to me.
Give me a break.
and then the Atheist tells us Merry Christmas. i think it’s time to start drinking.
LOL … Ooh, let’s start a “Wake up and smell the _________” contest and offend lots of closed-minded people. Hugh can pick a winner and cartoon it for us all. ha!
I’ll start:
“Wake up and smell the Creationists.”
Have fun.
This is something I do not understand about Atheists. Even my Atheist friends fall into this smug pomposity that they need to be sheltered from all Christian symbolism and themes. I hear people argue that Creationists are close-minded and then from the other side of their mouth demand that “under God” be taken out of the pledge. It’s the same thing. The key for both groups, I think, is to be in the world, if not of the world. Shake your head with laughter or disappointment — but don’t over estimate your own importance.
“I will be forced.” — *shakes head*
Also, Mr. Carter should mind his commas. It appears they’ve gotten away from him :>)
Gosh… I’ve been quoting the “wake-up” cartoon for a couple of weeks at the work place. The devout christian friend thinks it’s a slur. The atheist friends think it’s a sell…love it for just that reason. I’m a reformed atheist non-christian, so that phrase just added to my mantle of religious ambiguity. Thankyou for helping me further my cause.