Wow, TMNT Adventures offended a lot of Christians
 

I was reviewing TMNT Adventures #33 today and as I was flipping through the letters column I noticed a letter that left me dumbstruck.

Someone found Murphy's depiction of the Japanese mythological creation of the sun and the moon offensive because it contradicted the Christian bible.

I started thumbing through the letters pages of previous issues I'd reviewed and found two more letters from people who were offended by depictions of other religious practices by the TMNT that were not of Christian origin.

Though I haven't gone through issues that I haven't reviewed yet, I'm sure Murphy received even more complaints (and who knows how many he never printed?).

I transcribed the letters from the offended Christians in my review, if you want to read them for yourself.

Normally, I just flip through the letters column and only read the replies to see if there's any good apocryphal info in there (plot devices that never saw implementation, like Rocksteady's pet parrot being a "Turnstone locating device"). Because of this, I miss the letters without replies and some of them are just... wow.

I give Murphy a lot of crap in my reviews for his overbearing environmental messages, but I have to give him some props for trying to expand the young audience's knowledge of other cultures and religions even in the face of such ignorance and bigotry.

To think that the mere depiction of meditation or so little as the word "zen" was enough to offend some people who cannot comprehend or appreciate their favorite fictional characters as being anything other than of their own creed... It's very disappointing.

Good on Murphy for challenging those sorts of people. His replies to their letters were always very classy, tactful and intelligent, too; never sinking to their level despite their inflamatory attacks.

I don't always agree with the guy and I don't always enjoy his writing...

But I will always respect him.


UPDATE:

I found some more letters and correlated them along with the info Jester found in those books into an article on the subject at TMNT Entity:

Christianity Vs. The Ninja Turtles

(incidentally, I migrated all the letter column quotes from the #33 review to the above article)

I remember Ryan Brown posted letters about this on his blog, I think it's still up and on the first page too.

Complaining about religion in comic books is ridiculous. I rather liked these Archie themes of religious tolerance far more than the "save the environment" messages too.

thats funny actually, the TMNT are from japanese (sorry for spelling) decent in a way.

Would make sense that Splinter taught the Turtles other beliefs more native to Japan then Christianity

Someone actually called it "satanic".....so narrow-minded:roll:

In my time designing children's video games; I learned that the right is offended by everything when it comes to their children.

Perfect example:
In an old "That's So Raven" game that I worked on for the GBA, there is a little fortune teller mini-game that gives the user one of a few pre-fabricated fortunes. The game was dressed with a whimsical gypsy theme...

Within days of launch, we were getting calls from parents accusing us of "Teaching their children about the occult".

So yeah. No surprise that Murphy's comics pissed off some nutters.

What's a "christian"?

lol, it's so true. Every week I was surprised to see how many Christians (with vague dispensationalist interpretations of Revelation) thought Murphy was trying to make every comic about the Antichrist or brainwash all kids into practicing some kinda transcendental meditation. I may have not even been a teenager, but I thought those complaints were stupid even back then.

I guess one thing never changes about Mirage creative talents: their ability to offend people of all ages through their letter columns. To be fair, though, I remember the responses in Archie being far more courteous than some of the retorts we saw in TMNT Volume 4 and, to a lesser extent, Tales volume 2.

And, yes, it was a fairly challenging comic as a kid considering all the heavy themes that were presented. I didn't and don't always agree with all the stuff in the TMNT comics, but I always appreciated the effort and the fact that guys like Murphy cared about more than just making a quick buck.

Dude, Stephan, I had no idea you worked in the game industry! Awesome!

Christian: (noun) Someone who gets overly offended and extremely judgmental by everything under the sun in the name of their all-loving and forgiving creator.

If you call yourself a Christian and you're not like this, you're obviously not doing it right. :twink:

Hey now, I'm offended by that remark!:tmad:

Oh wait...

Come on man, I can appreciate the humor but its comments like these that make Krang stick in the key and turn the lock on threads.

As for the people writing in, they're ridiculous. Comics are fantasy, an escape from reality, and certainly not a venue for brainwash. Their letters/opinions were prejudiced to a degree 'cause they couldn't accept characters that weren't exactly as they were... Sheesh. Well guess what parents, the turtles are not only not christian, but they're not humans. Take issue with that ya kooks! :tsmile:

Yeah... not all Christians/Catholics are like that. My parents were fine with me reading TMNT stuff... I enjoyed reading about the other culture stuff. Don't know how that could be offensive.. *shrug*

I'll just leave this here

I actually *wanted* Mom to buy that for me as a kid since it had the Turtles on it. I knew what it said and what it was trying to do but didn't care, and she complied. :D It's an odd novelty.

That's part of the reason I tracked it down. too. That and I think I spent more on shipping the bugger then it cost.

Yeah, just a disclaimer, but this thread was in regards to specific loons like the ones who wrote those letters, not a broadstroking of all Christians on the planet.

So let's all take the highroad, here.

Wow. That's as bad as "Turmoil in the Toybox".

Same was the case with me, except instead of buying it, I wanted to take it out at the Library.
She let me, and I realized the author was an asshole.

Lots of good points and good advice for reading fiction here. Kudos, folks.

Always a classic piece, Kevin!

Have those too. Man, they're fun.

Thanks for the clarification, DrSpengler.
*sigh* Its often a few loud voices that gain attention. i.e., don't let these few letters be fodder for bashing the whole. :D

Ladies and Gentlemen, the people you are describing are called "Fundamentalists". And sadly, they come in every color and creed, and most importantly, in every religion. Using this term will help reduce the chance of painting an entire religion with the same broad brush, I think.

As for these letter writers *shakes head* Murphy's a good one for responding, because I know if I'd been in his place, I would've rolled my eyes and tossed them in the garbage.

"Fundamentalist" is such a stupid attack term, though. I adhere to traditional, fundamental, biblical Christian interpretations and values, but I and most Christians I know are nothing like the crazies who get covered in the news media and who are scornfully referred to as fundamentalist Christians. Somehow, in the minds of the public, someone who sticks to traditional theological teachings and so forth is automatically considered an out-of-their-mind racist and so forth with no real knowledge of anything. Those are just a very ignorant minority (although sadly still large in numbers), and I hate that the term "fundamentalist" is used in such a negative sense and as an attack word.

Anyway, having not really read the letters Speng is referring to, I can't really contribute—but in some of Murph's stories, he has seemed rather hostile toward Christianity. Not that I've noticed in the Archie series, but in some other writings I've gotten that vibe.

Hopefully Krang understands that I made a pretty clear jab at those who give religion a bad name and did so without having to explain the punchline. I mean, really, the joke would've been extremely lame if I had to insult the intelligence of religious people who don't use their beliefs to give everyone else a hard time by making this super huge political correctness disclaimer that was all like, "THIS JOKE, FOR THOSE WHO CAN'T SEE MY SMILEY OR READ BETWEEN THE LINES, IS ABOUT THOSE NUTJOBS WHO ABUSE YOUR FAITH AND RUIN IT FOR EVERYBODY!" in my post.

Aw, crap. Now I just ruined everything by explaining it.

Well, I made a similar comment in a thread once and it apparently wasn't taken that way.

Just because those people are stupid doesn't mean we have to be limited to speech only stupid people understand.

That's the same way I used to do it... back when I read comics that even had letters pages.
How 'bout hypocrites then?
Sure, it does. How would you like it if our obvious jokes went over your head? IDIOTS ARE PEOPLE TOO!! :x

Now, you reply with "good point" and start burning books.

Yep, not a problem.

If you're referring to the post I'm thinking of, "similar" would really be stretching it...

Anyway, thanks to everyone for keeping this discussion mature and civil so far.

"Hypocrites" works for me. ;) There certainly are a lot of them in the church. (Although I'd argue that someone making a bad choice and doing the opposite of what they would like others to do isn't the same as hypocrisy; if they're doing the opposite of what they preach regularly, then yeah, for sure that's a feigned religiosity.) But even that doesn't quite describe the really nutty people who are completely ignorant of what the Bible actually says (and I mean the ULTRA nutty people who are thankfully few but unfortunately very outspoken and covered by news outlets). They're just wackjobs...and they are everywhere in every religion or not a part of a religion and so on.

^ 100% agree...

By the way....I cannot remember an alone exemption or series of success that has not been banned/"insulted" by catholic extremists...

Even the most innocent show... :trazz::roll::roll::roll:

The Turtles are christian they celebrate Christmas right?

Christmas/X-mas/Yule is widely celebrated without being a part of the Christian religion, don't think that could be a proof of the Turtles own beliefs system.

I'm with you on this. I'm a practicing Christian, but I wouldn't say that I'm in anyway a "wet blanket". There are plenty of things that I read, watch, and listen to that aren't a reflection of my beliefs, but I enjoy them all the same.

I think it's ridiculous for these people to attack the creative team for presenting fictional ideas in their work. If parents are really that concerned about it, they should fulfill their job description. That's what my folks did, and I've turned out just fine.

I've found that "Christianist" has been a good catch-all term for the specific hypocrites that get bandied about the news as Fundamentalist Christians. I'd imagine it's also probably a whole lot less insulting than "Fundies."

Christmas is a holiday with two fiercely different sides: theistic and commercialist.

I'm atheist and I celebrate several commercial Christmas traditions. Doesn't make me Christian.

This is less of a "Christian thing" and more of a "narrowminded/paranoid/overbearing parent thing".

My mother's very very religious, but has never had a problem with me watching/reading Turtles, or really anything. But I have cousins with a not-so-religious mother who wouldn't let them watch Ed, Edd, and Eddy because they "worship jawbreakers".

And you know there's Muslim parents out there that would lose their minds if their children were watching, say, A Charlie Brown Christmas. And there's those who wouldn't really care. There's certainly examples for every single religion, but we tend to see more crazy Christians just because it's the most common religion here in America.

That's a sneaky way of saying "it's just plain stupid", huh? :P

I wouldn't fret too much about it. The false Rapture thinned the herd quite a bit and come October when someone's "math was off" again there will be even less. Looking forward to 2012 more by the day.

What's in October? O_o

These are sad people, trying to look at everything as if it contains the devil or is evil. I honestly feel sorry for people like this.

According to that one guy, it's game over for the human race.
Which cracks me up, because I'm running in a zombie themed obstacle course the very next day.