Telegraph: God-botherers upset over pen marks in book of fairy tales

23 July 2009 · Comments Off

Actually, the title of The Telegraph article is “Art gallery invites visitors to deface the Bible“, which isn’t particularly accurate either, according to the “facts” as presented in the article itself.

The article opens:

The open Bible is part of the Made in Godâ€™s Image exhibition at the Gallery of Modern Art (Goma) in Glasgow.

Its inclusion was the idea of a local church which hoped gallery visitors would suggest ways in which the Bible could be â€œreclaimed as a sacred textâ€.

A sign next to a container of pens says: â€œIf you feel you have been excluded from the Bible, please write your way back into it.â€

My emphasis.

Of course, the church in question (Metropolitan Community Church) didn’t actually like it when some people, invited to do so, went ahead and did so. Especially when those suggestions didn’t involve things church might have preferred, like leaving it well alone and saying that it’s just perfect as it is.

For some reason, it never seemed to occur to the church that asking anybody, especially Glaswegians, to offer their opinions on anything isn’t necessarily a good idea if you can’t stand alternate opinions, swearing, lack of undue respect, thinking and all the other things that people who run churches seemingly abhor.

I call this what it is: Big. Fat. Religious. FAIL.

The Bible has already been adorned with comments, according to The Times, including â€œ**** [fuck?] the Bibleâ€ and â€œThis is all sexist pish, so disregard it all.â€

A contributor wrote on the first page of Genesis: â€œI am Bi, Female & Proud. I want no god who is disappointed in this.â€

Good for her.

Oh, and no mention of any affecting something specifically christian would be complete without some senior god-bothering muppet expressing fatwa envy. They don’t disappoint:

The Church of Scotland said it condemned any sacrilegious act, while a spokesman for the Catholic Church said: â€œOne wonders whether the organisers would have been quite as willing to have the Koran defaced.â€

Perhaps the organisers wouldn’t, but some of us ungodly types wouldn’t mind.

I’ve not read any version of a bible in a while, but litigious queer-bashing wingnut Minichiello Williams doesn’t seem to have, either. Her memory is even worse than mine:

Andrea Minichiello Williams, director of the Christian Legal Centre, said: â€œWe have got to a point where we call the desecration of the Bible modern art. The Bible stands for everything this art does not: for creation, beauty, hope and regeneration.â€

If I recall, it also stands for cruelty and genocide, slavery, misogyny, intolerance, immorality and other, more general, bronze age magical stupidity. I seem to remember at least that much and, even if I didn’t, it’s not very difficult to find.

There’s also another exhibit on show, although this one I find a little more peculiar (or “arty pish” in the local vernacular):