“Choosin’ My Religion”
Okay, sorry, it’s a bad pun on a line from a so-so song, but now it has a scary ring of reality imitating art. Reality TV has hit a new worrying level.
A new Turkish reality television show on the minor ‘Channel T’ called “Tövbekarlar yarisiyor” or “Penitents Compete” has rabbis, priests, imams and monks trying to make non-believers pious. The Vatican is reportedly sending a priest; a Buddhist monk, an Orthodox priest and a Rabbi been recruited and atheists who convert will win a trip to a holy site. The Muslim religious authority in Turkey is not amused and initially the station had difficulty signing on a representative of Islam but it eventually found a Tunisian imam willing to tackle the challenge.
For eight weeks, the clerics, acting independently of one another, will try to convert 12 atheist candidates to their respective faiths. The program will include face-to-face conversations, group question-and-answer sessions and visits to mosques and churches. If the holy men manage to convert a participant, the participant wins a trip to the applicable holy site. A freshly minted Muslim will make a pilgrimage to Mecca at the station’s expense, a Jew will go to Jerusalem, a Catholic to the Vatican and a Buddhist to Tibet.
Soylu, the presenter, says the religious authority had been hesitant about permitting a Turkish imam on the show, but that’s putting it mildly. The Office of Religious Affairs (Diyanet) in Ankara reacted angrily to Channel T’s announcement about the planned program. “Not a single imam” would participate in this “frippery,” outraged Diyanet President Ali Bardakoglu said in a TV interview. The show, he said, is nothing but a “fatal error” and, what’s more, represents a “debasement of religion.”
Mustafa Çagrici, the supreme mufti of Istanbul, who, like Bardakoglu, is among the more moderate voices in Turkish Islam, fears the demise of the Eastern world. Experimenting with god, he says heatedly, is detrimental to public harmony.
The presenter, who sees herself as a “devout Muslim with non-dogmatic views” in a country with a population in which 99 percent share the same faith, has launched a counterattack. “Where is the problem? We don’t want to incite a religious war,” she says. “We want to help people find God.”
If the program does indeed end up offending religious sensibilities, the station can expect to be slapped with a fine by the agency that regulates the Turkish media. In the worst case scenario, it could face the loss of its license.
Good grief.
This looks like it could be a long lost script from Father Ted. What WILL they think of next?
Are you sure someone is not pulling your leg with this one? Such a contest is contrary to a thousand years of Jewish tradition, never to actively seek out potential converts and to initially dissuade people who come to be converted. The idea that 8 weeks is a sufficiently long period for even the mosy liberal rabbi is also unlikely.
Yet they had no problem recruiting a rabbi?
Interesting thought deegee. You’ll see that I’ve linked to the de Speigel source which is about as reputable as you get, and deS links onwards to adverts for the programme, so not a windup.
Every religion has those in its ministry who are (if you’ll excuse the pun but I can’t think of a better word) unorthodox in their approach to their own scripture and teaching. Possibly a rabbi from outside of the mainstream? Frankly I would say that *any* religious person taking part would have to be reasonably semi-detached from doctrine.