Categories: uncategorized
Date: 22 February 2005 19:07:47
Last night I came across the Channel Four Dispatches programme which was looking at the issue of art and faith and the recent cases where there have been protests by Sikhs, Muslims and Christians against various pieces of art.
Whilst I can kinda see both sides of the argument I have to in the end come down on the side that says you don't have to watch or buy the product. However there were two points in the part of the programme about Jerry Springer the Opera that I found interesting.
The first was about whether it was ok or not and there was a priest (Bishop of Chelmsford I think) saying that Christianity only grew through free speech and offending people.
The second point made by one of the writers related to a line in the opera about the relationship between Mary and God at the inception being rape. Whilst this shocked me I had to say that the explanation of the line being based on the fact that a teenager could not possibly have understood what was happening to her (in terms of being told she was to give birth to the Son of God) and there was a complete power imbalance in that situation was one I found disturbing because it must be, to a certain extent true. Whilst I think that rape is too strong a word, the argument about the imbalance of power was one which has left me thinking.
I'm beginning to think that these contraversial pieces of art are important because they raise questions that we would not normally think of or simply dismiss as unthinkable. Personally I think this is helpful if it gets us out of the comfort zone of the faith we like to create.