Religious Linkbait

Marketing Religion: The Pope Was Wrong:

From The Antichrist will be a pascifist:

Cardinal Biffi said that Christianity stood for "absolute values, such as goodness, truth, beauty". If "relative values" such as "solidarity, love of peace and respect for nature" became absolute, they would encourage "idolatry" and "put obstacles in the way of salvation".

Pope John Paul II said

Peace is not just the absence of war. Like a cathedral, peace must be constructed patiently and with unshakable faith.

And now peace is suddenly rubbish? A relative value? The only thing that is absolute is ignorance.

Does Cardinal Biffi believe his own words, did he let his political beliefs slide into his religious teachings, or was he marketing (for himself or some other agenda)? The only thing we can be certain of is that his thoughts are absolute.

Published: March 12, 2007 by Aaron Wall in marketing

Comments

March 12, 2007 - 1:24pm

There is no one man/woman in church who live what he theach.

They teach Christianity, that have nothing to do with Christ.

March 12, 2007 - 2:52pm

From a business perspective, I wouldn't go there. Why put this in your business blog? I'm personally not religious, but I never write about that or talk about that in my business or my professional life, because that's not the appropriate audience. I'm not condoning stifling your beliefs, but why write this in your professional blog? Very disappointing coming from such a smart marketer.

March 12, 2007 - 4:04pm

Nothing wrong with publishing one's thoughts on a blog one owns.

Personally I think religion is a total load of hoke and for warmongers - but hey this isn't my blog.

March 12, 2007 - 4:32pm

It might detract from marketing to jackasses that believe that rubbish the cardinal said but I wouldn't want to deal with people like that anyway. I mean certainly an institution with such a past, ie the Inquisition, keeping their silence during the Holocaust and more recently covering up for child molesters could come up with a better justification for supporting violence. They've had 2000 years to work on it.

March 12, 2007 - 4:38pm

Two insights:

1.) "Thus saith the LORD; Cursed be the man that trusteth in man (...)" Jeremiah: 17.5
Stick to what God says. Mankind isn't perfect and many times screws up (myself included)! :)

2.) Doesn't have much to do with SEO :S

Keep up the good Blog!
Diem

clarke
March 12, 2007 - 4:46pm

It has everything to do with SEO. The title, Religous Link Bait. Piss a bunch of people off enough to get them to link to you and you get links, who cares where they're from. This has everything to do with SEO. Search engines don't care what anyone thinks about the pope but they do like incoming 1 way links.

Clark

March 12, 2007 - 5:01pm

Religion is the ultimate MLM scam; usually to become popular, a religious idea needs to undergo 2-3 changes and cycles until it becomes hot and spreads like wildfire, incorporating various levels and vagueness of ideals.

Aaron, we should launch a consumerist religion affiliate program, where a person can be saved/reach paradise/etc by signing up and buying products, based on the old indulgences system of the middle ages. The sad part is it'd be successful.

Cygnus

Blake
March 12, 2007 - 7:00pm

I read this blog every day. I don't get the impression Aaron dangles posts here for their linkbait potential. I do know he's written about power in some of its broadest forms on a regular basis. I get annoyed when readers tell bloggers what to write and not write about. If I wanted topical consistency for the sake of creating a false sense of authority I'd be over at fox news.

March 12, 2007 - 7:15pm

Saying things to piss people off for the sake of getting links may work for SEO, but it's that exact reason why so many people HATE SEO and marketing for that matter.

This post has some of the most ignorant comments I've ever read on this blog especially this one: "It might detract from marketing to jackasses that believe that rubbish the cardinal said "

NO - it may make Catholics, or anyone with Catholics in their family less likely to buy from you and that's the largest organized religious group in the world. There are thousands of hypocritical groups and people you can post negative things about, but what marketing or business purpose does that serve for a professional SEO blog?

I don't care if you personally agree with it or not, that's not the issue. Ofcourse you can write whatever you want, but most blogs that mix professional authority articles with personal rants loose credibility and alienate readers.

SEObook already has an established readership so it's unlikely that it will hurt him much, but you never know. Go ahead and post negative stuff in your small time SEO blog. In fact why stop at Catholicism, why not write about all the major religions, see how many people you can alienate. How about Judaism, Islam, (insert group here) and see if it helps you be more successful online. In fact the world has lots of problems why not rant on about all of them? Or how about writing about SEO and online marketing and leaving irrelevant personal rants out of it. I still feel this post was a bad decision considering the intended audience.

March 12, 2007 - 8:25pm

but what marketing or business purpose does that serve for a professional SEO blog

The point is to show the inconsistent use of language by even some of the most powerful bodies in the world. And to get people to question language used around them and the purpose of it. And if we understand why and how people use language it should be easy to create ideas that spread.

I respect the words of Pope John Paul II. I only find it sad that I somehow remember them more than current Cardinals do.

March 12, 2007 - 8:58pm

Excellent! If that comment had been in the original post I wouldn't have brought into question the validity of putting it in your blog. In it's original form, it's business or marketing purpose is unclear, which opens it up for debate and speculation.

March 12, 2007 - 9:24pm

See how religion almost started another war and was averted at the last moment?

March 13, 2007 - 2:26am

from Cygnus :"The sad part is it'd be successful."

Hey, Don't be too sad , they all still need real estate and mortages :)

March 13, 2007 - 2:36pm

@ Cygnus: "we should launch a consumerist religion affiliate program, where a person can be saved/reach paradise/etc by signing up and buying products, based on the old indulgences system of the middle ages."

Sounds good! You make a lot of cash, swindle people, and then you get to go to hell! =D

Seriously guys, stick to marketing. It's what you're good at.

DIEM

delboy@freecron...
September 9, 2012 - 7:44pm

Interesting comment really interesting man

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