Furor over Jesus orgy

This news item carried by Associated Press today is rich with potential for discussion on so many levels - the impact of religious belief, tolerance of diverse viewpoints, definitions of profanity, depictions of Mohammed, definitions of art versus pornography, freedom of the press - that for now I'll just post the bare bones of the announcement without personal commentary.

Associated Press, April 11, 2008.
Austrians are locked in a nationwide debate touched off by the brief display in a prestigious Roman Catholic museum of an etching that depicts Jesus Christ and his disciples having an orgy during the biblical Last Supper.

A chastened and chagrined Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn, the top churchman in this largely conservative and overwhelmingly Catholic country, has ordered the offending artwork removed.

But the controversy rages on, with the Austrian media comparing it to the furor triggered by the Prophet Muhammad cartoons.

In some ways, it is proving as emotional as the political firestorm that occurred in New York in 1999, when then-Mayor Rudolph Giuliani was so offended by a portrait of the Virgin Mary adorned with elephant dung that he temporarily cut off funding to the Brooklyn Museum.

"I've even seen Web postings from extremists who have threatened to come to Vienna and blow up its museums with Molotov cocktails," exhibition curator Michael Kaufmann said Friday.

The dispute began on March 12 with the opening of "Religion, Flesh and Power," a collection of about 50 paintings, drawings and sculptures — some with homo-erotic themes — by Austrian artist Alfred Hrdlicka.

Among them is Hrdlicka's rendition of the Last Supper: a large, loosely rendered black and white etching that shows Jesus and his disciples engaging in sex acts on the table where they shared their final meal before Christ's crucifixion...

"The protests came primarily out of fundamentalist Christian circles in the USA and Germany," he said, referring to various Web sites...

Kaufmann concedes the whole point of the exhibition backfired badly.

"Their intention was to show that the church is wide open," he said. "Alfred (Hrdlicka) is more Christian than many people who go to church each Sunday."

More information at this news link (and probably many more websites before this day is over). The museum website has a discussion of the exhibit with some (SFW) images, but it's auf deutsch.