These are serious charges, and the emotional content of the charges has stirred up the population. Let s take a look at some specific works. Another controversial work by a different artist exhibited at the Gallery at Illinois State University showed a representation of Christ with a syringe. These two works have been cited repeatedly as works which are blatantly blasphemous and anti-religious. Yet it is curious that at no time have the artists been asked what they intended by their works, or what the thousands of art enthusiasts who have viewed the works have seen in the works.
Art requires interaction between the art work and the viewer.
He ministered to lepers and hung out with prostitutes. He disdained the religious leadership who had lost touch with the truly needy and troubled people of the world. I believe that He would be in the slums, ministering to the drug addicts and the needy - the people we try to forget and shut out of our world, rather than truly helping them. He would be helping and taking on the burden of those in real spiritual need. In the early days of Christianity, the crucifix was a horrifying icon - its purpose to remind us of the real agony and pain and humiliation which Christ endured for our sake.