Calls for Bible ban after Target pulls Grand Theft Auto from shelves

Calls to ban sales of the Bible in Target stores are rising in a retaliatory stunt by angry video gamers. The only problem: Target doesn’t sell the Bible.

Last week, a petition started on activist site change.org calling on Target Australia to withdraw the Grand Theft Auto 5 (GTA5) computer game. The call was made by three women who had worked in the sex industry and had “first hand experience” of the type of sexual violence they contest is prevalent and inappropriate in the popular, R-rated game.

Domestic violence and women’s rights organisations, including Collective Shout got behind the petition which has attracted over 48,000 online signatures.

Last Wednesday 3 December, Target announced it would remove the game from its shelves.

“We’ve been speaking to many customers over recent days about the game, and there is significant level of concern about the game’s content,” said Jim Cooper, Target’s general manager for corporate affairs.

“We feel the decision to stop selling GTA5 is in line with the majority view of our customers.”

GTA5 was released in 2013, but has recently been released on new games consoles for Playstation and Xbox. According to games commentators Kotaku, GTA5 was the best-selling game in Australia in 2013. Forbes reports the game has grossed over $2 billion in North America and Europe to date. So, it’s no surprise that fans of the game aren’t happy with Target’s decision.

In retaliation, some GTA5 fans have started their own satirical petitions to point out what they consider as the hypocrisy of Target’s decision, including a petition to ban the sale of the Bible.

And they’ve come out in force. The petition to ban the Bible from Target stores has amassed over 49,000 signatures, more than the original petition to take GTA5 off the shelves.

“This sickening book encourages readers to commit sexual violence and kill women,” reads the opening of the petition asking Target to withdraw the Bible. It quotes Leviticus 21:9: “And the daughter of any priest, if she profane herself by playing the whore, she profaneth her father: she shall be burnt with fire.”

But as Target’s Twitter account pointed out, the stores don’t sell the Bible. Not in book form, anyway. What they do sell are DVDs of Mark Burnett’s TV series The Bible that aired on Channel 9 in 2013. No word yet on whether Target will consider banning the sale of the DVD. It’s rated MA15+ for its depiction of violence, but there’s no sex in the series, let alone sexual violence.

The Bible’s not the only target (excuse the pun) at the source of the gamer rage. Other petitions including banning the selling of knives (218 supporters) and Fifty Shades of Grey (currently at 7,380 supporters). But the Bible ban petition has been entertainment for online news media today, including Daily Life, Buzzfeed and Reddit.