You Call This Art!

I read Philip Jenkins The New Anti-Catholicism: The Last Acceptable Prejudice (Which I highly recommend). In it he talks about the obvious things, such as the editorials during the sex scandal and books like Hitler's Pope, and Papal Sin. What I found most interesting though was his discussion of truly offensive art. The obvious examples being the Sensation exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum of Art, and the infamous Piss Christ. What is so maddening about things like this is that if you argue that they are blasphemous, offensive, and qualify as what liberals would call "hate speech" we are told that we are the offensive and hateful ones. "How dare we Catholics complain about an artist right of free expression. How dare we be so hateful as to censor a voice of dissent." Never mind the fact that artist and curators do it so that the will create a scandal in order to call attention the worthless art, and thus send up the price of the work in question. We just can't win no matter how insipid and offensive the artwork. And when we do complain the media takes the side of the artist and then draws analogies to Madam Bovary and Ulysses (Nevermind the fact that those required real skill and art, whereas Piss Christ only required a jar, cross, urine and a willingness to offend.) Thinking about these things sometimes makes me glad that I live in a red state.