South Park's Chef takes his chocolate salty balls and goes home
"Many media outlets including Reuters are reporting that Isaac Hayes, voice of Chef on the TV series South Park, has quit the show:
'In ten years and over 150 episodes of 'South Park,' Isaac never had a problem with the show making fun of Christians, Muslim, Mormons or Jews,' Stone said in a statement issued by the Comedy Central network. 'He got a sudden case of religious sensitivity when it was his religion featured on the show.'
"Hayes is a long-time Scientologist. He's quoted as saying 'There is a place in this world for satire, but there is a time when satire ends and intolerance and bigotry toward religious beliefs ... begins.'
"It may appear on the surface that this is simply a principled, personal stand by the man beneath the hat, but there's likely more to it than that.
"A Wikipedia article says 'In a radio interview a week prior to the announcement on the XM Radio show Opie and Anthony, Hayes said he was not particularly offended by the episode because of the level of satire people have come to expect from the show.' So why the sudden turn?
"The 'intolerance and bigotry' line echoes Scientology's treatment of its critics. A Church-related site called religiousfreedomwatch.com paints critics of the organization as anti-religious extremists, bigots, and dangerous terrorists. The Church teaches that anyone who'd oppose Scientology has hidden crimes, and is an anti-social personality."