I pray I will be forgiven for taking His name in vain, but I thank God for all He has done to make sure we have leaders, stand-up guys, noble elected officials, you might even call them mensches, like Majority Leader Eric Cantor and incoming House Speaker, John Boehner, who called today for the closing, or "censoring" as an American would say, of part of an exhibit at the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery lest some visitors conclude "that we (the artists) were intentionally trying to spoil the Christmas season."
Don't you just love that? With all the joblessness, foreclosures, homelessness, an exploding deficit and a couple of wars we are fighting, these dedicated leaders are battling to keep a piece of art from spoiling our Christmas season. But it isn't just the art they're preventing from spoiling our Christmas season. They don't want new taxes to spoil peoples' Christmas either, especially people who make millions, or even billions. I suppose because the richer they are the bigger the gifts like boats and villas and things, and when you spoil Christmases of that size -- I mean that is so much spoilage!.
Then, too, can you imagine how bad those big corporations would have felt if their Christmases had been spoiled because they were kept from pouring all that anonymous money into the recent elections to put people in office who will vote with Cantor and Boehner on things that are important to them? If they had failed, the Christmases that would have been spoiled would likely have included the entire Republican Party and the Tea Partiers and a fellow named Bill Donohue who calls himself the Catholic League.
The part of the exhibit that was cut from the installation at the National Portrait Gallery, which dealt with sex and the AIDS epidemic in Latin America, was 11 seconds of a video that shows ants crawling on a Christ figure. Now I confess to being made uneasy by that. At the same time I recognize that those words and the image conveyed in those words are totally out of context. In context I might be more accepting. But the artist responsible for the piece doesn't require my acceptance. Or Eric Cantor's. Or John Boehner's. In or out of context. He was expressing himself in his art and, God Bless America, the First Amendment guarantees his right to that expression.
It guaranteed the right all those years ago for that group of Nazis to march in Skokie, Illinois. Talk about my feeling uneasy! But I supported their right to express themselves. The morning after the march a dead pig was tossed over a fence to the front door of our home. And a homemade sign on the fence read, "Die, Nazi-lover!"
Sound like something the extreme right might have done? Maybe the Religious Right? Uh-uh. It was the Jewish Defense League. It isn't politics that makes for strange bedfellows. Or religion. It's hate. And fear.
Chris Korzen: Head of Catholic Bishops Conference Backs Culture Warrior Bill Donohue
He does not require food anymore, at least not as we perceive it.
Be careful about your assertions unless you are certain.
It might not be easy to tell who worships the true God but it is quite easy to tell who worships money. As you said, if you can not serve both (and you can't); then, those who worship money are not worshiping God.
Thanks for reminding me of that truth.
faved and already fanned tonight
I wrote an letter to Rep. Kingston about "Hide/Seek" and posted it on The Examiner.
http://www.examiner.com/women-s-issues-in-seattle/a-letter-to-congress-regarding-the-removal-of-david-wojnarowicz-s-hide-seek
Please feel free to copy it (and change it, if you want to personalize it) and sign your own name, then send it to Kingston, Cantor, and Boehner, as I've already done.
Oh well, they get all their Bible wrong.
Posturing and preening as "public servants" who do anything and everything except serve the public.
I think God would rather see the desperate unemployed, the poor and the sick taken care of and doesn't much car about a few ants.
From the mouth of the prophet Ezekiel spoken to the leadership and powerful of Israel (note that it is addressed to them and not to everyone):
"The princes of Israel in you, everyone according to his power, have been bent on bloodshed. Father and mother are treated with contempt in you" (my aside: threateninÂg and dropping benefits for the elderly); " the alien residing with you suffers" (my aside: Arizona, need I say more); "the orphan and the widow are wronged in you" (my aside: cutting ADC, WIC, CHIPS).
It is obvious that this prophet of God (actually if you check, all of them) knew exactly who to blame for the harm and suffering of the poor. - the national leadership and the powerful
Sound familiar!
F&F
Please, anyone reading this, read and study the prophecies of Jeremiah and Ezekiel. See if you can imagine the apparitions that Ezekiel observed. Some explain them as extra terrestrial aliens. What do you think?
One suspects that those who asked for the removal of this piece from the exhibit are among those who felt that Muslims were overreacting to cartoons in Holland that made fun of Muhammad.
It is unfortunate that artists and others make light of the deeply held beliefs of theists.
Keep in mind the Gospel story about the Master who sewed wheat in his field and the next day his servants found that someone had sewed tares along with the wheat. The servants proposed to dig up the tares,but the Master decided to let them grow together until the harvest lest some wheat be destroyed in the process of digging up the tares. At the harvest, they would be separated and the wheat would be saved and the tares burned.
In short, if God has a problem with what's going on, he will eventually take care of it. Meanwhile, relax and enjoy the rest of the exhibit. Not everyone likes all the art in a Museum.
The rebirth of Christ was the good thing, ....not his murder! Screw the ants!
Why should they have such a say about something they obviously don't understand?
The article wasn't Catholic specific, the comment wasn't Catholic specific and you are as far as I'm aware not the registered spokesperson for all Catholics or Roman Catholics so I fail to understand what you're on about, can you explain?
My comment was referring to those in office who don't seem to understand the importance of art in society, and how they are the exact wrong people to be making decisions effecting such. I don't care if they're rep, dem, cath, jwsh, mslm, wht, blk, ppl...
As far as your statement goes, yes, the Church has sanctioned art (propaganda) of their liking for many centuries. It's the reason so many Catholics imagine Jesus was lily white!
But seriously, yes. Some of the most incredible visual art as well as tremendous music too. But let's keep in mind the artists were being paid for their work by the church/state - they were actually artists and composers for hire. I imagine they would have been inspired by whoever the highest bidder was.
While Jesus was teaching in the temple, he said, “How can the scribes say that the Messiah is the son of David? David himself, by the Holy Spirit declared,
‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at my right hand, until I put your enemies under your foot.†’
David himself calls him Lord; so how can he be his son?†And the large crowd was listening to him with delight. [Mark 12.35-37]
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/12/01/hide-seek-portrait-congressional-investigation_n_790521.html
Guess who the ants are.