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Date: March 13, 2005 THE ARTICLEJudges in France have banned the public display of a fashion advertisement based on a parody of Leonardo da Vinci's Christ's Last Supper. Judge Jean-Claude Magendie agreed with France’s Roman Catholic bigwigs that the poster, used by a leading fashion house Girbaud, was offensive to the beliefs of French Catholics, and "a gratuitous and aggressive act of intrusion on people's innermost beliefs." He argued that the harm done to the Catholic Church was greater than any concerns for profit. If the posters are not removed within three days, they will be subject to a $100,000 per day fine. The ad was also banned last month in the Italian city of Milan. The sensational ad creating this storm shows female supermodels substituting for Jesus and his Apostles, one of whom is hugging a bare-chested man wearing Girbaud jeans. It is supposedly inspired by the best-selling book The Da Vinci Code, which controversially proposes that Jesus was married to his follower Mary Magdalene. Author Dan Brown indicates the Catholic Church has tried to hide this for centuries. He also suggests the person seated next to Christ in the Last Supper was really Mary Magdalene, and not, as the Christian Church believes, the Apostle Paul. Based on this, the role reversal Girbaud ad would have Jesus embracing Mary. Passions are running high on both sides of this controversy. Girbaud's lawyers are incensed by what they regard as censorship, something that goes against France’s liberal traditions. They argue that the ad is just a photograph based on a painting, not on the Bible, and that there was no intention of causing offense to Catholics. Lawyer Bernard Cahen says, "There is nothing in it that is offensive to the Catholic religion. It is a way of showing the place of women in society today, which is a reflection of our changing values." Opponents to the ad say it trivializes things sacred to the very heart of religion, and is dangerous for children. He warns of future ads in which the crucified Christ is commercialized, and selling socks. WARM UPS1. CHAT: Talk in pairs or groups about the Roman Catholic Church / Leonardo da Vinci's Christ's Last Supper / jeans / supermodels / The Da Vinci Code / censorship / the very heart of religion / socks / … To make things more dynamic, try telling your students they only have one minute (or 2) on each chat topic before changing topics / partners. Change topic / partner frequently to increase conversation. 2. CATHOLIC BRAINSTORM: Spend one minute writing down all of the different words you associate with the word ‘Catholic’. Share your words with your partner / group and talk about them. 3. JESUS CHRIST: Talk in groups about Jesus and his life. Discuss whether everything in the Bible about Jesus is 100% true. Talk about the kind of relationships Jesus might have had with the following people
4. RELIGION OPINIONS: Students A agree with the following opinions. Students B disagree:
PRE-READING IDEAS1. WORD SEARCH: Students look in their dictionaries / computer to find collocates, other meanings, information, synonyms … of the words ‘public’ and ‘display’. 2. TRUE / FALSE: Look at the headline and guess whether these sentences are true or false:
3. SYNONYM MATCH: Match the following synonyms from the article:
4. PHRASE MATCH: Match the following phrases from the article (sometimes more than one combination is possible):
WHILE READING ACTIVITIES1. GAP-FILL: Put the words on the right into the gaps. Christ’s Last Supper jeans ad banned again
2. TRUE/FALSE: Students check their answers to the T/F exercise. 3. SYNONYMS: Students check their answers to the synonyms exercise. 4. PHRASE MATCH: Students check their answers to the phrase match exercise. 5. QUESTIONS: Students make notes for questions they would like to ask the class about the article. 6. VOCABULARY: Students circle any words they do not understand. In groups, pool unknown words and use dictionaries to find the meanings. POST READING IDEAS1. GAP-FILL: Check the answers to the gap-fill exercise. 2. QUESTIONS: Students ask the discussion questions they thought of above to their partner / group / class. Pool the questions for all students to share. 3. VOCABULARY: As a class, go over the vocabulary students circled above. 4. STUDENT-GENERATED SURVEY: Pairs/Groups write down 3 questions based on the article. Conduct their surveys alone. Report back to partners to compare answers. Report to other groups / the whole class. 5. ‘PUBLIC’/ ‘DISPLAY’: Students make questions based on their findings from pre-reading activity #1. 6. DISCUSSION: Students ask each other the following questions:
HOMEWORK1. VOCAB EXTENSION: Choose several of the words from the text. Use a dictionary or Google’s search field (or another search engine) to build up more associations / collocations of each word. 2. INTERNET: Search the Internet and find information on The Da Vinci Code. Share your findings with your class next lesson. 3. GIRBAUD LAWYER: Imagine you are a lawyer for the Girbaud fashion house. Write a letter to the judge telling him what you think of his decision. 4. JESUS’ THOUGHTS: Write an imaginary diary entry for what Jesus would have made of the passions and arguments surrounding this case. ANSWERSTRUE / FALSE:
SYNONYM MATCH:
PHRASE MATCH:
GAP FILL: Christ’s Last Supper jeans ad banned againJudges in France have banned the public display of a fashion advertisement based on a parody of Leonardo da Vinci's Christ's Last Supper. Judge Jean-Claude Magendie agreed with France’s Roman Catholic bigwigs that the poster, used by a leading fashion house Girbaud, was offensive to the beliefs of French Catholics, and “a gratuitous and aggressive act of intrusion on people's innermost beliefs.” He argued that the harm done to the Catholic Church was greater than any concerns for profit. If the posters are not removed within three days, they will be subject to a $100,000 per day fine. The ad was also banned last month in the Italian city of Milan. The sensational ad creating this storm shows female supermodels substituting for Jesus and his Apostles, one of whom is hugging a bare-chested man wearing Girbaud jeans. It is supposedly inspired by the best-selling book The Da Vinci Code, which controversially proposes that Jesus was married to his follower Mary Magdalene. Author Dan Brown indicates the Catholic Church has tried to hide this for centuries. He also suggests the person seated next to Christ in The Last Supper was really Mary Magdalene, and not, as the Christian Church believes, the Apostle Paul. Based on this, the role reversal Girbaud ad would have Jesus embracing Mary. Passions are running high on both sides of this controversy. Girbaud's lawyers are incensed by what they regard as censorship, something that goes against France’s liberal traditions. They argue that the ad is just a photograph based on a painting, not on the Bible, and that there was no intention of causing offense to Catholics. Lawyer Bernard Cahen says, “There is nothing in it that is offensive to the Catholic religion. It is a way of showing the place of women in society today, which is a reflection of our changing values.” Opponents to the ad say it trivializes things sacred to the very heart of religion, and is dangerous for children. He warns of future ads in which the crucified Christ is commercialized, and selling socks. Help Support This Web Site
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