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Bible 'Art' Exhibit Seen as Defacing
LONDON -- A controversial art exhibit in Glasgow, Scotland, is causing a stir among Christians in the United Kingdom. The display encouraged visitors to "write themselves back into the Bible," leading to what many called offensive remarks written on the pages.
It's part of an exhibit entitled "Made in God's Image" and was devised by a minister from a church that reaches out to gays and lesbians. Art gallery visitors were urged to write on the pages of the Bible and express their feelings if they felt they had been excluded from it.
On the first page of the book of Genesis, one woman wrote, "I am bi, female and proud. I want no god who is disappointed in this." Another wrote the Bible is "the biggest lie in human history." Others called God a fascist and included obscenities.
Earlier this summer, members of the Zion Baptist Church peacefully protested the defacing of the Bible displayed at the Glasgow Gallery of Modern Art.
More than 100 people gathered outside the gallery to protest what they claimed was an act of vandalism, but for the most part, the church in the U.K. has been silent.
Unlike the Pakistan incident, there was no violence there, no murder or mayhem or uncontrolled anger. However, the Evangelical Alliance's Justin Thacker says gallery curators did receive some rude and offensive e-mails.
"There's no place for that whatsoever," he said. "Now there is a place, a rightful place for Christians to stand up and say this is what we believe and we don't think you should scandalize the Bible in this way or deliberately seek to offend Christians in this way.
"But we ourselves must ensure the way we make those points is gracious and not offensive in itself," Thacker added.
Most of the outrage over the defaced Bible was muted.
The Glasgow Gallery of Modern Art responded to the protests by placing the Bible under a glass case. Instead of writing on the pages of the Bible, visitors were urged to write comments on sheets of paper provided alongside it.
"A compromise solution has been found," Thacker said. "The Bible is still on display, people can still write comments, but the really offensive, the really rude ones, will now be kind of weeded out and I think that is the right response."
The controversial exhibit came at a time when a recent report found that Bible knowledge in the U.K. is declining. Only one in 10 Brits can name all of the Ten Commandments and young people say they view the Bible as "old fashioned."
Some believe the U.K. is losing its Christian heritage, while making concessions to the Islamic faith and the growing number of Muslim immigrants who live there.
One official with the Catholic Church said he wondered if the museum and Bible exhibit organizers would have been so willing to have the Koran defaced.
I have no idea what is going on in Scotland. This is the same country that sent the Lockerbie bomber home to a hero’s welcome. I will pray for the people of Scotland but it seems as though they have given away their faith to fit in with the ways of the world.
Faith-Based Prison Changes Hardened Criminals
In Texas, faith is proving to be the antidote to crime.
The state has 156,000 people behind bars, each costing taxpayers $18,000 a year. Within three years of their release, nearly half are back.
Yet, one maximum security prison in Tennessee Colony, Texas, is changing those statistics by changing the hearts of hardened criminals.
The unit is called Beto 1, where 100 tiny cells are stacked three floors high. It seems just like any other cellblock, until the men start talking.
"E" wing is the faith-based cellblock, one of two at the prison that are trying to use faith to get 400 hardened convicts to change.
Rev. Casey Miner leads the program.
To get into E wing, inmates promise to obey strict rules and practice their religion. Casey and a team of volunteers spend time, earn trust and teach that faith is the antidote for a life of crime.
Three nights a week they meet for lessons in the chapel.
In the two years the program has been in existance, there have only been five major rule infractions-- four of them for tobacco use.
Even better, 46 men have been released on parole and only one has returned.
In a world of Bible illiteracy and faith handed away to the ACLU just to fit in, it happens all too often that young men and women don’t find Christ until they are behind bars. The one positive though, is that an overwhelming majority of them end up with a stronger conviction to their faith than those on the outside. I’ve seen incredible examples of that. I praise the Lord for their success and will always pray for them.