The Last Supper Controversy

Image courtesy of Google.

One of Indonesia's top news weeklies has apologized about the cover of its latest issue, which depicts former president Suharto and his children in a composition impersonating Leonardo da Vinci's Last Supper.

Hayness states that something that is considered blasphemy can vary between religious groups and people (Michael 2007). Thus, due to cultural differences it shows that the Last Supper picture may not be sacred to other religious groups except for the Christians.
Tempo Chief Editor Toriq Hadad says, “We had no intention of hurting Christians. We were only inspired by the composition of the Leonardo painting, and not in the concept or context of the event told in the holy bible”. Several Christian groups and inter-religious organizations assembled at the Tempo office to protest over the cover. This has led to Hadad making a public apology: “For anything unacceptable arising from the publishing of that cover, I, in the name of the Tempo institution, offer an apology.”

The right and ethical thing that should be considered by everybody is taking responsibility for one’s action (Weber, 1995). Even though the Tempo magazine had already published but the Tempo chief editor nonetheless did the decent act by apologizing publicly to the Christians. This showed that he had ethics in publishing and he was liable for what was published by the Tempo magazine.

With regards to the issue, I felt that the cover of Tempo impersonating the last supper was undeniably wrong because it is something sensitive in the Christians believe as it is a fraction of the Holy Bible. Therefore, as Feijter (2008) states, “exploitation of religious themes or persons for the selling of products” is deemed as morally wrong and it should not be done by anyone.

Reference:

Feijter, I 2008, ‘The Art of Dialogue: Religion, Communication and Global Media Culture’, LIT Verlag Berlin-Hamburg-Münster [online, accessed on 9 November 2008]
URL:http://books.google.com/books?id=gq2yJFu3EUAC&printsec=frontcover

‘Indonesian weekly apologises over Last Supper Suharto cover’ 2008, ABC.net [online, accessed on 9 November 2008] URL:http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/02/06/2156269.htm

Michael, M 2007, ‘Freedom of Religion Confronts Journalism’, BCHeights.Com [online, accessed 10 November 2008] Url:http://media.www.bcheights.com/media/storage/paper144/news/2007/03/26/News/Freedom.Of.Religion.Confronts.Journalism-2791570-page2.shtml

Weber, J H 1995,’Ethics in scientific and technical communication’, WISENET Journal 38, [online, accessed 10 November 2008]
URL: http://www.jeanweber.com/newsite/?page_id=22