The Prudish States of America

In order to fit in with the mindset of Americans, I have decided to start wearing big brass buckles on my shoes, you know, in the conservative fashion of the Purtians. Our country was founded by Calvinists and remains a religiously conservative nation. Proof of point: 20/20. I sat down to watch their special report on the Sistine Chapel and nearly fell off the couch at the first frames shown: "The following program features paintings containg nudity, viewer discretion advised." If ever there were an example of irony. The religious right has made such an impact on American culture that a television program about one of the holiest places on earth had to be pre-empted by a warning fueled by the prudishness of religious fanatics.

Mormons believe the larger the family, the greater chance of celestial salvation. Lots of kids comes from lots of sex. But heaven forbid we should actually show the penis on the sculpture of David, a piece of marble whose sole purpose is to exemplify the perfection of God's creation in Man. How do you build a bigger family without knowledge of sex? How can groups proclaim such a devotion to protecting the sanctity of life and the beauty of all God's creatures when they protest actually seeing the work of God in all it's glory, purely as art, and not as pornography. This was a program about an artist and his relationship with the Catholic Church. This was a program about an artist whose sole purpose in life was to wrought the beauty of the human form as tribute to God's great work, the creation of man. And now, a nation founded by pilgrims, devout of religion, have mutated into a nation ashamed of God's creation, all the while claiming to be speaking the will and intent of God. The hypocrisy of that singular warning at the beginning of the program was the single greatest example of the twisted nature of religious belief permeating this nation. It shows just how backward we as a people are. If we cannot be trusted to recognize art for what it is, then we have, indeed taken one step further toward George Orwell's vision of a Thought Police. When his book was celebrated in 1984, we laughed at how improbable his predictions were. Re-read it now, and it takes on a whole new meaning.

As a side note, I love a program like "Art With Sister Wendy", a discourse on art and art history, hosted by a NUN, showing the same pieces of work as the 20/20 special, has never received a bit of protest, but because a program on the Sistine Chapel was aired by "the liberal mainstream media", it was met with warnings and pre-emption.

The pilgrims left Europe to escape the hypocrisy of the ruling religious figures, only to have founded a new nation conceived in the same. I only hope my brass shoe buckles and big black hat won't offend. At least the Constitution allows me to carry a blunderbuss.....


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