Belgium bans the Bible. Or wants to, anyway.

Not content to let Saudi Arabia win the title of Most Oppressive Assholes, Belgium steps up to the plate!

An onscreen Bible reading which demanded women be submissive to their husbands has sparked calls to end religious broadcasting on public television in Belgium.

The New Testament reading, from Ephesians 5.22 - 33,  was broadcast on radio and Flemish TV station VRT from a Catholic mass in the town of Grimbergen.

A lay reader said, "Women, be submissive to your husband as the husband to the Lord. For the man is the head of the woman as Christ is the head of the church."

Sven Gatz, the media minister for the Dutch-speaking Belgian region of Flanders who represents the Flemish liberal party, tweeted: "No outdated, woman-unfriendly statements … please. What if, for example, an imam would have said this?"

He told newspaper Het Nieuwsblad: "The fact that they come from an old book is not an argument for letting them go to our people. This is not of this time, and that it is broadcast on the VRT for the whole of Flanders is already completely crazy."

Mr Gatz has been unsuccessfully calling for the end of Songs of Praise-style programmes at the taxpayer's expense since last year, but he now hopes the controversy will reignite the debate and insists different solutions could be found for religious people who are unable to attend mass.

"I want to examine all the technical possibilities to give these people their weekly celebration. But this cannot be an argument to keep these broadcasts, at the expense of the taxpayer," he said.

Well, if an imam would have said that, Mr. Sven Gatz, the media minister for Flanders, would not be talking shit about the Koran on Twitter and threatening to pull funding from the TV show. That type of thing is reserved for Christians, who to date have not habitually shown up to riot over slights like this.

Christians will no-doubt revisit that strategy fairly soon, if the likes of Mr. Gatz keep pushing the way they have been.

The Phantom