Catholics back Hindus in Anti-SMITE PR Campaign?

Smite

File this under "Take with a grain of salt..."

According to the most recent press release from the very vocal Hindu Rights unofficial spokesman Rajan Zed, who has elevated attention and promotion of the upcoming bash-and-cast battle game SMITE with more success than any ten PR firms could manage in so short a time and with literally zero budget, the Roman Catholics have come on board to support Hindu outrage over the inclusion of Gods and Goddesses -- including and in particular the images of Kali and other Hindu deities -- by the Georgia (USA) online games developer Hi-Rez Studios in their upcoming online action video game SMITE.

Zed tells us that Father Charles T. Durante, a "well known Roman Catholic leader in Nevada," issued a statement declaring: "Respect for religious practice and beliefs is a basic tenet of our land. When using religious images in commercial media basic respect calls for understanding the teachings behind those images. This need is only heightened when using a religion's supreme images. I would hope that understanding and respect will bring a mutual agreement honoring these Hindu concerns."

Faithful readers here at GU will recall that past coverage of this very clever PR campaign promoting SMITE (at least we think that is what it is but we could be wrong here) revealed that Jews and Buddhists have already supported the cause of protesting Hindus with statements issued by Rabbi ElizaBeth W. Beyer and Buddhist the Reverend Jikai' Phil Bryan. Rabbi Beyer asked the video game company "to avoid trivializing the deeply held beliefs of Hindus by changing the product accordingly," while Reverend Bryan chided: "Shame on the game-makers for denigrating these Supreme Beings."

Meanwhile the self-styled and self-proclaimed Hindu "statesman" Rajan Zed, who is spearheading this protest from his "office" in his home (which is also the HQ for his Hindu Mission), urged developer Hi-Rez Studios to immediately remove Kali and other Hindu gods from the game, as he feels that the inclusion of those gods and goddesses "trivialized the highly revered deities of Hinduism."

Zed is the President of the Universal Society of Hinduism, an entity that he operates out of a Post Office Box and his residential dwelling near Reno, along with his son, who in addition to being outraged by the inclusion of Hindu gods and goddesses in a video game, fills all of the official positions other than president/director of the USH as well as simultaneously serving as the highest elected representative of the student body at his local community college.

Zed feels stressed that in a video game set-up, gamers would control the movements of goddess Kali and other Hindu deities, while in reality the devotees put the destinies of themselves in the hands of their deities. In a mountain of press releases he has made it clear that portrayal of the goddess Kali, who was highly revered by Hindus, appears like a porno star in the SMITE version shown on the company website, which he finds quite distressing for himself and for the devotees of the Hindu faith.