re: #434 Gus 802

Frankly. I don’t know what to think of “Piss Christ”. I never did. But you’re missing an important factor here. Piss Christ was not intended to be a political act. The West is also not at war with Christianity and the Muslims see this as a war against them perpetrated by American Christians. Whether we like to believe that or not — it’s how they see it. The same thing holds true with the Allah cartoons in Denmark. That was done within the context of a military invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan. We are also looking at two distinct cultures and varying forms of reactions.

Jones does not equal Serrano.

Those are good points I’ll grant, there are differences and no analogy is perfect. However the principle is the same in both cases, and if the Serrano piece is less inflammatory, the Christian response is correspondingly much much less severe than in the Koran burning example. Political expression should also receive the same protection as art, Jones is no less entitled to his expression because of its political nature. It’s also a bad idea to grant the offended party the implicit right to define in what context a work of art or political expression should be interpreted when deciding if it is acceptable. Then we would have to interpret Serrano’s work from the perspective of a SSPX Catholic. Why privilege the Muslim perception of a crusade against them over Jones (admittedly crazy) perception of a Muslim war of conquest on the West?