-By Warner Todd Huston
An art exhibit sponsored by the City of Loveland, Colorado that depicts Jesus Christ engaging in gay sex is causing some heartburn among local Christians.
The piece by a 10-artist group going under the title, “The Legend of Bud Shark and His Indelible Ink,” depicts Jesus receiving oral sex from a man.
Christian groups have protested the exhibit and are pressuring the city to pull this particular piece from display in the museum.
One of the reasons that Christians are asking that this piece be pulled is that the exhibit hall is open to all ages — children included. Protesters point out the sexual, perhaps pornographic, nature of the art and contend it is unfit for an all-ages showing.
Ronald Minto is sure where he stands. He was among the 50 or so people standing outside the Loveland Museum/Gallery on Friday, protesting the 7 1/2-inch-high, 90-inch-wide color lithograph by Stanford University’s Enrique Chagoya.
“This is not art — it’s smut, pure and simple,” said Minto, who said he’s not against graphic art per se. “(But) this is a museum, not an X-rated bookstore.”
Opinions are mixed on the suitability of this work being sponsored by city funds.
Another interesting aspect of this controversy is the lack of riots, suicide bombings, and murders connected to the protest over the image depicting Christ, Christian’s messiah, in such a pornographic display. Notice that no one is shooting anyone, no one has been harmed, in fact no one is even threatening violence.
This is a far cry from the Muhammed cartoon riots and other extreme reactions seen in the Muslim world when their messiah is depicted in artwork, isn’t it?
Here is the full work:
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“The only end of writing is to enable the reader better to enjoy life, or better to endure it.”
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Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer. He has been writing opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and before that he wrote articles on U.S. history for several small American magazines. His political columns are featured on many websites such as Andrew Breitbart’s BigGovernment.com, BigHollywood.com, and BigJournalism.com, as well as RightWingNews.com, CanadaFreePress.com, StoptheACLU.com, AmericanDaily.com, among many, many others. Mr. Huston is also endlessly amused that one of his articles formed the basis of an article in Germany’s Der Spiegel Magazine in 2008.
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