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I don't know if anyone has actually PMed Art about this to ask his motivations, but has it occured to anyone that he did not want to shock people by mocking christianity because it is a soft target, but was simply telling the truth... Y'know, Art, beauty, beauty, truth, etc... maybe I should fuck off back to the philosophy board, if only it wasn't full of Christians, Muslims, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists, Daoists, Agnostics and goddamned Atheists giving out about their various spiritual beliefs.
I'm with Stuart Lee on this one. Stuart Lee is a British comedian who once received a letter of complaint regarding his occasional christian-themed comic monologues and sketches. The complaint was essentially the same as this one. Sadly I can't find his response as it was originally worded (and it was very funny), but it was along the following lines:
"...As a comedian I naturally take my humour, to some extent, from the world around me and my experiences of it. As someone who was born a Catholic, was confirmed, attended a Roman Catholic school, was a chorister in my church choir, studied theology at A-level, etc, etc... I feel that I have enough knowledge and experience of Christianity to make some comment on it. Not having been raised a Muslim or Jew, I do not have enough experience of these religions to write informed, intelligent material on the subject..."
As an artist, Art is to some extent limited to making portrayals based upon his own experience. Is it more offensive for someone to make an ill-informed attack on a culture they know very little about, than to share with you the experiences of their childhood? Yes. A lot.
As for the idea that people tiptoe around other religions and wrap them up in cotton wool: Was there outcry amongst the international Christian or Atheist communities against Salman Rushdie, for the attack on Islam he published in 'The Satanic Verses'? No. Nor should there have been.
Endymon: Maybe in the States you don't hear about Muslims condemning Al Quaeda, but I don't know how free the media are over there. I'm not claiming that the British media are any more free, but over here we have quite a large Muslim population, so I guess their views are better represented, or maybe we have fewer extremists in general. Anyway, I have seen many many Muslims on TV here condemning Al Quaeda as completely against the principles of Islam, as a slur on the name of Islam, as evil, as murderers etc etc.
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"No one was behaving from very Buddhist motives. Then, thought Pigsy, he was hardly a Buddha, nor was he a monkey. Presently, he was a pig spirit changed into a little girl pretending to be a little boy to be offered to a water monster. It was all very simple to a pig spirit."
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