People often talk about the universality of religious thoughts and beliefs. “Everyone has a variation on the Golden Rule,” they say. Or, “These various faiths around the world give their believers purpose, a moral code for good behavior, and a faith in the afterlife.”
Me? I think the one universal among many strong religious believers, regardless of their particular persuasion, is a noted lack of sense of humor. (Read first, then continue.)
I’ll note, parenthetically, that there is a cell phone service in India in which folks can SMS Ganesh (just as they would have once left a written supplication at a temple) and then get a reply receipt and a picture of the god on their cell phone. So this particular statuette seems in keeping with that (I wouldn’t be at all surprised if it were surplus promotional material).
Ganesh and I have a strange relationship. I almost went to Ganesha HS in Pomona, California, until my folks decided (for my safety) that I should go to Damien HS instead. And the renaming of the street that ran past the HS and over I-10 — Ganesha Blvd. — to “FairPlex Blvd.” in honor of the Los Angeles Co. Fairgrounds FairPlex rebranding in the 1980s was one of my early introduction to nomenclatural visigothery by public officials and their needy coffers.
And, of course, I play an elephant-headed H’flahmp in Jackie’s Necropolis campaign.
At any rate, I found this new story amusing, in particular the reaction. I’m glad to live in a country where being religiously offensive is in the eye of the beholder, and warrents letters to the editor, rather than legal summons — even when it’s my own ox (or elephant) being gored.
(via GoaF)