Hundreds in Hong Kong complain Bible too sexual in apparent protest of obscenity ruling
HONG KONG: More than 1,700 people have complained to Hong Kong regulators that the Bible is overly sexual and violent, apparently to mock a recent ruling condemning a sex survey in a student newspaper.
The Television and Entertainment Licensing Authority said Thursday it had received 1,766 complaints since the launch of an anonymous Web site detailing sexual and violent content in the Bible.
The site and the deluge of complaints were sparked by last week's decision by regulatory authorities to classify a university student journal as "indecent."
"Student Press," published by students at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, was condemned by the Obscene Articles Tribunal for including a sex survey that asked readers whether they had fantasized about incest and bestiality.
The anonymous Web site — which claims to be authored by "a Hong Kong student" — says the holy book contains passages far more disturbing than the sex survey.
The Chinese-language Web site quotes lengthy Biblical passages containing scenes of rape, incest and cannibalism. It also includes a sample of a complaint letter, which it encourages readers to copy and submit to authorities.
"The Bible not only has incest, its obscenity far exceeds the university journal," the Web site said, after referencing last weeks regulatory decision.
The Television and Entertainment Licensing Authority referred the journal to the obscenity tribunal last week, after receiving more than 20 complaints. The authority said Thursday that a total of 184 complaints were lodged against the paper.
Editors at the student journal insisted they did nothing wrong. They also staged protests, saying the "indecent" label violated academic freedom.
Publications deemed "indecent" must be sealed in a wrapper with a warning, and people who publish or distribute such items without doing so may be fined up to HK$400,000 (US$51,152; €37,795) and jailed for one year.
The Bible should also be "wrapped in a plastic bag with a warning notice before it is sold to people over 18 years old," the anonymous Web site said.
So far no major Christian groups have publicly responded to the complaints against the Bible.
Hong Kong's Christian community, largely Protestant and Roman Catholic, is estimated at about 660,000, including 105,000 Filipino Catholics, many of whom work as domestic helpers in this wealthy city.
________________
On the Net:
Web site alleging Bible is obscene:
http://www.truthbible.net/
The Hong Kong Television and Entertainment Licensing Authority (TELA) has received 2,041 complaints within 3 days, calling for the  to be reclassified as "indecent", following a heated controversy sparked by the sex column of an university student newspaper, which was classified by the government's publication tribunal as "indecent". By 17 May, TELA decided not to submit the Bible to the tribunal. 

Two weeks ago, the 's student newspaper sparked a public debate when it was found that they had asked readers if they fantasised about incest or bestiality, along with some soft sex stories and an unrelated abstract drawing about sex. 

Although there is no explicit description or pornographic photos, the paper was classified as "Category II: Indecent" by Obscene Articles Tribunal (OAT) on 14 May because it asked the question— "Have you fantasised about incest or bestiality?". This classification means that the student editors have breached the law by distributing the paper to the public, will have a criminal record, and risk a jail sentence.

Since then, OAT's decision has been hotly contested among teachers, activists, commentators and scholars. 

Complaints about the Bible then immediately flooded in to the authorities, claiming that the Bible is "indecent" due to its textual descriptions of rape and incest. The accusation was first made by a web site truthbible.net which said the holy book is full of sexual and violent content and its "indecency" far exceeds that of the recent sex column published in the Chinese University's student newspaper. 

A webmaster of truthbible.net, who wishes to remain anonymous, said if the sex column of the student's newspaper is indecent because of public complaints, "there's no reasons not to judge the Bible as indecent" because of its sexual content.

By May 17 (UTC+8), TELA had received 2,041 complaints on the indecency of the Bible, up from 200 in three days. By the same day, TELA announced it will not submit the Bible to the Obscene Articles Tribunal for classification. "The Bible is a religious text which is part of civilisation. It has been passed on from generation to generation. TELA considers that such longstanding religious texts or literature have not violated standards of morality, decency and propriety generally accepted by reasonable members of the community."

According to the regulations in Hong Kong, any books classified as "indecent" by the OAT can only be sold or distributed to people over 18. All such publications must be sealed in a wrapper with a statutory warning notice.

The ''CUHK Student Journal''s editorial board stated that the Bible complaints are not related to them, and they had no prior knowledge of such a movement.