CJ DeStefano is an artist and art educator from New York. He has been in the education system for 15 years and has been married to artist Marie DeStefano for 11 years. A self-described ultraist, he has written to countless organizations, politicians, and celebrities in an unwavering attempt to alter what he sees as a narrow and self-aggrandizing world view.
I belive that S. John the Divine is also the place where they have a 'Christa', that is a depiction of the cruficixion with Our Lord as a woman.
Ping
-The Blessed Virgin Mary at Fatima, 13 July 1917
What do you expect when you have non-Christians in charge of your church?
I look for the Episcopal Church to start ordaining moslem imams into their clergy in the not-too-distant future.
Ecumenism, tolerance, and open-mindedness, you know.
The Episcopal Church - at least those directing it - is no longer a traditional Christian Church in the sense that Episcopalians and Christians of the past would recognize it. The same may be said of the United Methodists and Presbyterians.
St. John the Divine has a long history of abberrant and bizaar behavior. They have a "Blesing of the Animals" ritual which includes Elephants and other strange beasts and a Winter Festival which is little short of neo-pagan.
If mainstream Christianity is not capapble of resurrecting its traditional moral base and jettisoning such odd and deviant beliefs such as oppositon to moral warfare, the right of the people to self-defense, the right of society to permanently rid itself of serial murderers, etc, the west will collapse like a ripe plum before the onslaught of militant Islam.
A "Charch of England" apostasy BTTT.
Re: "...many of us were sickened at the selection of works permitted to be displayed inside this holy place."
That was her first mistake, her class was in an Episcopalian Church, nothing holy about it.
As a recovering Episcopalian I can tell you the ECUSA is not even remotely Christian let alone holy.
What else can we expect from St. John the Divine? If I recall correctly, they hosted a production of "Hair" (which featured full body nudity) in the hippie heydays.<P.
Incidentally, it's a magnificent structure. I visited as part of a Gray Line Tour.
Arrogance is bliss, apparently.
Why should anyone be surprised at what happens at Satan's Shrine, formerly known as the Cathedral of St. John the Divine? If one is going to take students there for edification, one should ALWAYS visit first to be sure some heinous exhibit is not in place. Remember Christa? This place went off the deep end long, long, long ago.
This person has undermined his own argument. Art was never about being radical until the French Revolution. "Epater la bougeousie" has been the dominant motif for the last few centuries except that it gets harder and harder to shock a jaded and decadent middle class.
Art is meant to reflect a cultures highest ideals and spiritual values. When it strays from this it becomes degenerate, it may have some aesthetic value, but quite frankly, if it contains a didactic socio-political content designed to be "provocative" or "create awareness" it has sunk to the level of propaganda. If it shows nudity it is ipso facto porneia. Nobody wants to say this, though, because it's too narrow-minded and backward.