Furry ban in Cologne cathedral

As far as I understood it the built is neither a goverment nor a church related project. It was done by a group of people that loved the cathedral, and they had to get permission by the administration of the cathedral to create the model. Apparently those odd rules were the conditions the had to meet.

Unfortunately for them this incident is expanding to become an SL wide scandal with ugly implications for both the Catholic Church and the German state. Hopefully it will be resolved - the builders promised to eventually open the church for everyone. (I'm not affiliated with neither of the two bodies involved - I'm in it for the "furry cause" )

The only thing I disagree with, is people telling LAND OWNERS what they can and can not do.
Having a protest and screaming "furry rights" is useless, it isn't publically owned land, and you don't own the land, if you want to have a church that is furry only, then buy the land and build one, don't tell people paying and building their own deal who they have to allow on.

Half of SL is some form other then Human, they're going to have a problem.

I should bring my half naked fairy friend there! I wouldn't consider it any disrespect to God, since they are so bigoted.

No one here is saying that the land owner can't do damn well what he wants with his land, but it you're to have a build or whatever, that is suppose to be open to the public, then it should be open to ALL the public. If it's not, then it isn't really open to the public.

Quite correct. Landowners cna do as they wish.

However, to quote a popular literary read: "You reap what you sow."

~Jessy

I don't see what is wrong with telling people what they should do, unless it is in a rude fashion or becomes harassment. Clearly, they don't have to pay any attention. There is no reason to respect a landowner's judgement simply because they are a landowner; that is some sort of odd feudalism.

The simplest explanation is always the most likely to be right. They just don't understand SL. And frankly, being provocative about it is not going to help them understand.

This makes me so sad. How astonishingly silly.

Are they thinking attachments would cause lag and that is why they are preventing it?

now okay i can't resist unfortunately this is not the first sl furry scandal (and I have a baby dragon avatar i love a lot but..) this wont be pushing any pope or bishop or cardinal do worry a whole lot so I dont mean to sound harsh but this comment did make me laugh out loud hehe (wipes spittle from the screen). No i'm not catholic not even close I'm jewish so I aint even christian but still I dont think this will realy cause much scandal outside SL, but we were due for a new SL drama the old stuff the threads are getting long and age verification just aint doin' it for me so ...

*runs to get the pen and paper out!*

I don't think this is discrimination based on some religious notion of acceptability, but rather that they want to maintain a certain formality to the atmosphere, much like Gorean sims enforce a dress code (a comparison it amuses me greatly to make). However, since this isn't a roleplay location, I think a come as you are policy would make more sense. I wouldn't read too much into it, personally.

The restriction on the sim only being open from 11:00 SL time to 14:00 SL Time is another mistake based on them not being able (willing?) to translate from RL to SL successfully.

Jesus Christ (a known troublemaker who threw moneychangers out of temples and did other things that offended the religious establishment of His day): In my house are many mansions.

Common reminder passed around among evangelistic Christians when somebody is inclined to ge3t on his/her high horse and be holier-than-thou: Hate the sin, love the sinner.

Hey, it's a great build. I think the theory is right that they just don't understand SL. I think they are trying to promote the solemnity and respect they think is appropriate in a great house of worship, and are simply getting it wrong - like building a church in Samoa and forbidding sarongs, or something.

Rather than get on a PC high horse to match a presumed religiosity high horse, it might help to communicate with these people that no disrespect is intended (usually) when someone turns up in their normal (but VERY non-RL) avatar in an otherwise respectful manner.

I really think hammering these people for prejudice and arrogance is a cheap shot. More intelligent (if you want to be intelligent) would be to address their ignorance about the local mores here. After all, they clearly must want serious people to come to their costly and difficult - and admirable - build, and maybe don't realize that there is a real problem in SL with blind race-hatred of furries among certain troubled minds.

Is there any way to get in touch with these people?

They are part of a group, yes - I just forgot the name ...

And to be fair, the "official" people on location at the cathedral were fairly polite, if a bit overtaxed - they just couldn't do much without the consent of the people behind the project. They clearly said so and offered renegotiations, but couldn't give on-the-spot answers.

There were some participants on both sides (protesters as well as onlookers) who went a bit ... over the edge. It also didn't help that at one stage someone used a voice imitator to make it seem like the church spokesman had actually changed his mind and was allowing furries in.

Their land, their rules.

If you form a big protest group outside or inside about it you are griefing them which will proberbly lead to them leaving in disgust, it hitting the newspapers and (since its media worthy and therefore will get the lindens attention) you getting permanent bans
Also furries will get an extremely bad name as the ones who drove the church out of SL.

When someone creates a themed place, they often have dress codes:
Elven sims dont allow technology or guns
gorean sims dont allow non humans or most high technology
It doesnt seem far fetched that someone who wants their church to be serious wouldnt want people to look like buggs bunny.

And no they arnt being racist. Furry is not a RL race, its an avatar choice which you can change as easily as changing your clothes.

Of course, in SL, race is also as easily changed.

They should be able to ban whoever they want. Especially if it's suppose to be a church since they have their own views. I imagine gays are next in line. Should they choose to do this too, it's their church, their views and other then public opinion there's nothing you can do but accept it.
You may disagree but you can't always get what you want in life.

Oh nonsense. There's always things you can do other than sit back and accept something. It may not produce the results you want, but there are always other things you can do.

This is one of the most extreme examples of an odd phenomenon whereby the SL medium brings out messages the communicator must have hoped would stay hidden. As it happens, Cologne is currently in the news (e.g., ) for a hauntingly similar sentiment of RL intolerance. I can't imagine that the sponsors of the SL cathedral intended to bring this even more public attention.

No one disputes this.
That's absurd. Trying to change someone's opinion hardly counts as greifing.
Your choice of avatar is a matter of personal expression, which many consider that to be the core point of SL. There is not a thing wrong with the opinion that banning certain clearly innoffensive avatars as missing the point of the platform, and saying so to those missing said point. I doubt very much anyone would care to foce a policy change. I also doubt there would be more than a collective shrug of the shoulders should they choose to stick with thier current policy.

All that's happenning is disagreement and an attempt to change minds, as well as a wonder as to why furries were singled out like that. It's just silly to make such a big case out of it, suggesting everyone protesting will be banned and all. Just silly.

But using a voice imitator to pretend there already has been a change of opinion does. That's a fine line some of the protesters were walking there.

And yes, I know these things are fairly easy to detect nowadays since the imitation is in green, but two persons actually fell for it anyway.

No, that's one person crossing a line. It's not fair to paint everyone else the same.
One must make allowances. *shrug*

I find it odd (being the rabid atheist I am) to be on the side of the cathedral owners on this one (at least for the time being). This really isn't any different than Gorean dress codes, and no one seems to have much of an issue with those. I think people are assuming that the furry ban is due to them thinking furries are immoral or wicked or something and I doubt that's the reasoning behind this. I guess the way to test what's behind the thinking would be to go there as a robot, or in a clown suit, or something similar and see if they object to that as well. If they do then it's safe to assume that they just want their build populated by conservatively dressed humans. If they don't care about mechas or other non-human avs then it's safe to assume this is some kind of moral stance. Until someone proves the latter I think any outrage is premature and misplaced.

Of course it's not fair, but such behaviour opens the way for "reports" such as "The protesters gained entry by mans of trickery." or somesuch.

But that's the usual problem you have with protests: there's always the occasional black sheep that reflects badly on the rest.

And to be fair, there were some on the anti-furry side whose comments were rather ... personal.

Uhm, was there not several long silly threads on furries being POed about the dress codes in Gor sims? (Not that this won't settle down in exactly the same manner, after all "Thier land thier rules" is pretty much inarguable.)They state thier reason clearly, and it's an established rule about wearing masks or costumes in church. It's odd they singled out furrs, however. Though that's nothing more than poor communications choice.
There's some interesting history behind that rule, I think they missed an opportunity to really grab some positive attention by going into detail about it. But that's another thread =^.^=