Turkey’s Reality TV Show About Religious Conversion
July 13th, 2009Source: religionclause.blogspot.com
ISTANBUL, TURKEY, July 7, 2009: Istanbul-based television station Kanal T. Reuters last Friday reported that a planned show, “Penitents Compete,” will feature a rabbi, an imam, a priest and a Buddhist monk, each of whom will try, on camera, to convert ten atheists.Each convert will win a trip to his or her new religion’s holy site– Mecca, the Vatican, Jerusalem or Tibet.
Hamza Aktan, chairman of Turkey’s High Board of Religious Affairs, said: “Doing something like this for the sake of ratings is disrespectful to all religions. Religion should not be a subject for entertainment programs.”
There is another way of looking at this.
For a small time, there is a chance that questions of religious and philosophical import will be presented to viewers. It is a little bit different from the usual concentration on acquisition (winning money) or attachment (getting a relationship).
In fact, if the “contestants” are really atheists, then the “prize” of a trip to a pilgrimage place is hardly a prize, unless something influences their mind to make the place relevant.
It would be wonderful if the three adherents (imam, priest, monk) did not try to convert them, but instead engaged in respectful dialogue. This, of course, is the problem - this could so easily turn into a spitting match.