Disney PIXAR’s Up Scares the Conservative Christians

As Pastor explains, “A boy with a balloon is fine, my friends! But if you throw an old man into the mix, he acts as a pin, which pops the balloon and sends it and every passenger (which includes all those on board to see this film) sailing straight down into the deepest pits of Hell from which there is no return! Glory!”

What the helium is that guy babbling about? I can’t make any sense of this balloonatic’s ravings!

~David D.G.

Hmmm. Interesting. I found the idea of Lucy going off into the forest alone with naked-except-for-a-scarf Mr Tumness to be incredibly creepy in the first Narnia movie — especially when he started to lull her to sleep. Apparently no Christians were disturbed by that imagery.

The Landover Baptist site is, I think, a satiric site. Think “The Onion” in robes.

Huh… apparently Landover Baptist falls under “Erotic/Sex ; Humor/Comics” according to my company, and cannot be viewed. I wonder what scored it the first rating?

Landover Baptist is a parody site. A quick look at the adverts on either side of the page (“ACCEPT CHRIST AND GET A FREE PLAYSTATION 2!”) pretty much confirms that.

Oh, for pity’s sake, Hemant — Landover Baptist? Why do you bother to tout that silly satire site, especially without saying so up front?

I was thinking that this was a genuine rant from an actual pastor, just rather more incoherent than most. Please don’t inflict a known parody on us as if it were something real. We shouldn’t have to click the link to find out that it’s just a stupid gag.

~David D.G.

Seriously, folks. You’re a bit oversensitive if you the the site with the article “Tampons, Satan’s Little Cotton Fingers” isn’t a parody site.

Their hatemail archives are some of my favorite reading.

Poe’s Law?

Finally! a voice I can agree with. I have been hard pressed to find someone else who did not like the movie… seriously even did a Twitter search to see what everyone was saying, and found no one saying anything negative… can’t say I was disturbed but in retrospect, and given your comments, I can see how that may have become a concern, given the state of the world.

btw I have been reading your blog for a while and seriously LOVE so much of what you are saying. You bring up some strong and improtant points about faith that Christianity really needs to address.

Keep up the good work!!

roflol, *I* thought it was somewhat sexist, and *I* thought the conservatives would just love it!

Parody aside, everything scares the conservative christians…especially vaginas.

I used to subscribe to Landover Baptist’s feeds when they had some. I haven’t heard from them in a long time. Now I guess I’ll have to visit their site for my laughs.

I was thinking that this was a genuine rant from an actual pastor, just rather more incoherent than most.

I think that statement says a lot. Think about it

Says something though that an “Onion”-like piece on a parody site could be taken straight. It’s a good measure of just how loony the religious right has gotten of late that even the Landover piece seemed possible as a religious-right rant.

Aww, you got me all excited to see the movie just to see what the fuss could be about, then I remembered that Pastor Deacon Fred is the Landover Baptist Church guy.

Yes, parody, but you really SHOULD go see the movie. It is absolutely heartwarming.

Heck, I’d be willing to see it again if you need a date.

Larry Huffman said:

Parody aside, everything scares the conservative christians…especially vaginas.

Except when they are used for child bearing. Then they opening welcome them (sorry, couldn’t resist the pun)

A news report got me the other day because I didn’t realize it was from “The Onion.”

Pastor Deacon Fred posts on the blogs of several of my atheist friends on Myspace. It’s always interesting to see which of the usual freakshow fundies take him seriously.

I know Hemant knows what Landover is…so he was not fooled into thinking this was real. I am guessing he either forgot to mention it was parody…or, slyly wanted to see how everyone reacted to the article thinking it real.

Landover puts up some great articles to fool around with fundies with. I have linked them before in forums and commented on how silly the fundamentalist viewpoint (all parody) is…and had other fundies come out of their shoes arguing the point with me as if it was written in the bible itself. They usually do not reply when told the entire thing was paradoy.

It illuminates their utter gullibility and their ‘if some religious leader says it, it must be true…and I will tell you why’ mentality.

And…the opposite is true with atheists. When an atheist is presented with a Landover story, the fact is…this kind of whacko-god stuff does not surprise us. Because, for every parody out there, there are three fundies somewhere worshipping jesus on a piece of toast.

I think it speaks volumes about just how ignorant and stupid christianity actually is…when blatant parodies can be taken serious by both sides, the original material must be pretty lame.

Pastor Deacon Fred is hysterical. I’ve seen films of him speaking at atheist conferences. Here’s a link to one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-jk3VvjGoE

You might be interested to know that the faux “Boy Scout” in the movie could have been an actual Boy Scout . . . until the BSA’s discriminatory membership policies came up, and Disney/Pixar dropped them like a hot rock:

http://ideas.scouting.org/akira/dtd/18434-2119

(bottom comment)

We actually were in talks with Disney/Pixar about having an active promotional role with UP!, and the branding/marketing team at Disney was really excited. That it at least, until it went up their flag pole and reached the legal department, at which point it got declined due to our membership/leadership policies. We are currently in talks with Sony Pictures, among other movie studios, to figure out ways of incorporating Scouting, and the BSA, into future films and/or the promotions around them.

Is this gibberish? I didn’t understand one word.

Ok, now I get it.