Dear Editor,
I wish to refer to your article titled ‘Religious groups denounce gay, lesbian film festival’ in your June 29 edition. I couldn’t help but think that this is an incidence where our religious elders are promoting their own ignorance.
How can the showing of movies about gays and lesbians at a film festival be seen as promoting and seducing the young people of Guyana to that form of behaviour? And even if it did, why go after only homosexual movies? The logic in this is so vapid I feel compelled to respond.
Growing up with a television and going to the ‘cinema’ as a youngster were tantamount to having and going to a film festival every day.
I saw many movies glorifying anti-religious behaviour: violence, sex, adultery, etc – even some of my favourite sporting events contained persons beating each other unconscious. Heck, even the G-rated cartoons of today are laced with violence.
I was very impressionable – and I’m sure I can speak for most of society – and susceptible to the anti-religious things I saw but never did I act on those feelings and become some violent, sexed up, macabre individual. The possibility existed that I could have, but to this day I have not seen a press conference from the IRO homing in on this.
The logic is the same, if you are going to condemn the promotion of one form of anti-religious behaviour, condemn the others that are even more pervasive.
I implore the humble leaders of the religious bodies, don’t pick and choose your battles; be consistent across the board and advocate the stamping out of all forms of anti-religious aggrandisement.
Yours faithfully,
Clinton Urling
