Recalling the Piss Christ Art of 1988 and the Christian and Liberal Left Re-action

The Autonomist has an excellent writeup about the 1988 'art exhibit' of a cross in a jar of urine. Remember that piece of 'art'? Remember all the death threats, bombing threats, attacks on art institutes, and boycotts? I remember the controversy. I thought it was in bad taste and insulting, but that is part of the cost of freedom of expression. You don't regulate 'bad taste' and here's the part that Muslims really hate, religion is not above satire. You criticize it and ignore it. ... and you move on. I see stuff all the time that I think is in bad taste or downright rude. You would go crazy if you cannot blow it off. The movie Paradise Now offends me. But I don't demand it be banned. I just won't pay to see it. I won't stop going to the theatre that shows Paradise Now and boycott it. Do you remember all the newspaper editorials and liberals who ferociously defended Serrano and berated the Christians? I do. Where are they now? We all know the answer to that. Can you spell D..h..i..mm..i?

As Denmark Fights Islamo-fascism, Cultural Elite Cowers

Back in 1988, Andres Serrano submerged a crucifix in a vat of his urine, photographed the result and called it "art."

Naturally, many of the world's two billion Christians were bothered by his antics. Members of the U.S. Congress called for a hard look at the National Endowment for the Arts, which had helped fund Serrano. Public outcry against Serrano was vocal and widespread.

As the uproar grew, numerous editorials in defense of Piss Christ, Serrano's controversial creation, were printed in U.S. and European newspapers and the Western cultural elite quickly sprang to his defense. For months, the New York Times beat the "freedom of expression" drum for all its worth, publishing numerous articles and opinion pieces sympathetic to Serrano and depicting him as courageous. In New York City, where Serrano lived, 400 New York artists held a public rally in support of his work and his right to create and display it. Serrano became a celebrated art-world hero.

Though some criticisms of Piss Christ, and the man who created it, were blistering, Serrano's art was never forced underground, nor was his life ever seriously threatened, nor was he forced into hiding a la Salman Rushdie or placed in protective custody. Violence-prone packs of Christians did not roam the streets of Paris, or London or Frankfurt or Madrid or New York, calling for, literally, the head of Piss Christ's creator.

Serrano as "art-star," soon faded like the controversy caused by his tasteless creation. Today, as in the 1980s, he freely and openly produces provocative, blasphemous and often pornographic art including that which reflects the cultural elite's unending obsessions with, and deification of, homosexuality, transgenderism and bodily mutilation. He never has, nor will he likely ever, push the outer limit of controversial artistic expression by creating work critical of, or disrespectful towards Islam.

Contrast the Christian reaction to Serrano's blasphemous Piss Christ, with that of the Muslim reaction to a series of cartoons recently published in the Jyllands-Posten, a Danish newspaper.........