Visitors to a gallery in Scotland have been defacing the Bible in the name of art.<\/p>\n
The Gallery of Modern Art in Glasgow has invited art lovers to write their thoughts down in an open Bible on display as part of its Made in God’s Image exhibition.<\/p>\n
Next to the Bible lie several pens with a note saying: “If you feel you have been excluded from the Bible, please write your way back into it”.<\/p>\n
Several visitors have already taken up the offer, choosing to leave messages of abuse and obscenity rather than support for the words of God.<\/p>\n
“This is all sexist pish, so disregard it all,” one message read.<\/p>\n
Another scrawled over the first page of Genesis: “I am Bi, Female & Proud. I want no god who is disappointed in this”.<\/p>\n
Others wrote: “The Gospel According to Luke Skywalker”, “F*** the Bible” and “Facist God”.<\/p>\n
The exhibition, which also includes a woman ripping pages from a Bible and stuffing them into her underwear, has outraged the Roman Catholic Church and the Church of Scotland.<\/p>\n
This has got to be the perfect illustration of the progressive mindset. Stuffing scripture pages into your underwear – because you know it is the Church that is obsessed by sex. The other day I heard Fr. Peter Stravinskas talk about his many visits to the Larry King show. He was being interviewed on “Al Kresta in the Afternoon” where he talked about how it is the Church that is obsessed by sex, yet he was always invited on the Larry King show in relation to some sex scandal.<\/p>\n
But the gallery’s artist in residence, Anthony Schrag, is unrepentant.<\/p>\n
“Any offensive things that have been written are not the point of the work,” Schrag told The Times newspaper.<\/p>\n
“It was an open gesture. Are those who say they are upset offended by the things that people write, or just by the very notion that someone should write on a Bible?<\/p>\n
People are not offended that people might write in a Bible, we do in all the time taking notes in the margin. It does seem more and more to me that “artists in residence” is one of the most amazing con jobs ever. It is like the Emperor News Clothes, but with people afraid to say “Thats’ junk.” For example I give you this artists “The Beer Tree” – you must read the description and watch the video<\/a>.<\/p>\n “If we are to open up the Bible for discussion, surely we have to invite people to speak out.”<\/p>\n The Metropolitan Community Church originally proposed the exhibition as a way of reclaiming the Bible as a sacred text.<\/p>\n No surprise that this church is “inclusive Christian ministry to the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities.” Inclusive that is if you fit in the category they want. Not very inclusive to those of us who take Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition seriously.<\/p>\n However, some of its members have been shocked by the insults written in the Bible on display.<\/p>\n “The Bible should never be used like that,” church minister Jane Clarke said.<\/p>\n “It was our intention to reclaim it as a sacred text.”<\/p>\n Yes the “write yourself in” really pushes the sacred aspect. They did not advance past what Mark Shea calls “What can it hurt?” Funny how so many “prophetic ministries” can’t seems to get a grasp on predicting predictable results.<\/p>\n