"Mark and Bev Tindall" wrote in message

WHY CENSOR ART??????

I think the photo in question it is like Lenny Bruce saying that if Jesus were here in the flesh today he would be killed and the symbol of Christianity would be the electric chair.

The photo depicts Jesus being nailed to the cross with a nail gun. If

Jesus had been crucified today they probably would have used a nail gun because of its economuic efficiency.

from Franky Scaheffer's "Sham Pearls For Real Swine: Beyond the Cultural Dark Age (Wolgemuth & Hyatt; Brentwood , Tennesse: 1990) [Son

of fundamentalist theologian Francis A Schaeffer]

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ p. 27 -28

The arts ask hard questions. Art incinerates polyester / velvet dreams of inner healing and cheap grace. Art hurts, slaps and defines. Art is interested in truth: in bad words spoken by bad people, in good words spoken by good people, in sin and goodness, in life, sex, birth, colopur, texture, death, love, hate, nature, man, religion, music, God, fire, water and air. Art tears down, builds up, and redefines. Art is uncomfortable.

Good art (which, among other things, means truth-telling art) is good in itself, even when it is about bad things. All art is in a sense an

icon - an image of man who is created in God's image; a testament to the fact that the physical world has been redeemed by the incarnation of Christ. Good art expresses an interest in everything. Art, like the Bible, is not defined by one period of history. Art explores immorality and immortality. There are no taboo subjects for good art,

any more than there is taboo news for newspapers, because art is unafraid of the truth. Art, like Christ, comes to sinners in an imperfect world. People who imagine themselves to be perfect do not like at. The middle-class church, living in a cocoon of false expectations, resents people who weild sharp razor blades or worse, disturb their sleep. Art is fleshly yet eternal. Art is human. Art is a mirror to the world. Art is the bridge between flesh and soul. "Art is science in the flesh," as jean Cocteau wrote in Le Rappel a L'Orde.

Because art destroys a false sense of security, it is looked on with suspeicion, even perceived as the enemy by the middle class and its spokespersons in the church, who, through ignorance, subdue artists and discourage talent. "Do not offend yiour brother" is a Bible verse

often misused to intimidate the same way as "turn the other cheek" is sometimes taken out of biblical context to justify "Christian" pacificism. There is a bible verse handily available for every tyrannical cuase, to be exploited by those who use the Bible as an idealogical weapon.

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"Art has its own meaning as God's creation; it does not need justification. it's justification is being a God-given possibility." -

H R R Rookmaaker

Another poster:

What is immoral or aweful and what is considered art?

Mark:

All subjects are able to be used by the artist ... including the immoral and awful. This is included in the bible's injunction "whatever is TRUE ... think about these things." (Phillipians 4:8)

Other:

Would your wife naked in a huge painting on your front lawn be art?

Mark:

It could be.

Could a couple having sex be the subject of a work of art? Yes! The Christin artist depicted just that in the "The Great Bed"!

Could a old person urinating be a subject for a work of art? Yes! The Christian artist Rembrandt drew a series of sketches on it!

Rembrandt was the first Christian artist to feature Chruist at the centre of all his work. Remabrandt also painted himself at the foot of the cross - helpoing to raise it -in "The Raising of the Cross" thus acknowledging his own sin.

I previously posted the anger of the Christian Michelangelo at the attempt to censor his work in the Sistine Chapel as it was considered obscene. Hisd contemporary Vasari wrote: "There are many kings but only one Michelangelo!"

Would you find that objectionable?

No. The nude is a great theme within art. Read

- The Nude - Kenneth Clark - Ways of Seeing - John Berger

I think you would, so why shouldn't I find it objectionable to see Thy Holy Mikita as a joke under the nailing of my savior!

If you understood art you would not object.

It is wrong and is in bad taste!

I disagree as a Christian artist. My Christian art has constantly been

banned over the last 30 years by pietist Christians who do not understand art. My new novel will be a shocker ... as will the illustrations!

CHRISTIAN READING LIST ON VISUAL ART (Painting / Photography)

Hans R Rookmaaker - Art Needs No Justification - Modern Art and the Death of A Culture - The Creative Gift: The Arts and the Christian Life

Francis A Schaeffer - Art and the Bible

Franky Schaeffer - Sham Pearls for Real Swine: Beyond the Cultural Dark Age - Addicted to Mediocrity: 20th Century Christians and the Arts

Vasari - Lives of The Painters

J R R Tolkein

- Tree and Leaf (by Niggle)

The Letters of Vincent Van Gogh

Albert J Lublin - Stranger On Earth: Vincent Van Gogh