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"Осторожно - религия!"
Mar. 24th, 2005 01:14 pmИз одного из моих любимых публикаций - журнала Reason:
http://www.reason.com/cy/cy032305.shtml
Religion in Art? Nyet!
Casualties in Russia's culture wars
Cathy Young
Culture wars over blasphemous art, such as Andres Serrano's urine-dipped crucifix or Chris Ofili's elephant dung-decorated Madonna, have flared up periodically in the United States in recent years. A similar conflict is now raging in post-Soviet Russia. But there, the debate is not about whether taxpayer money should be used for museum displays that offend some people's religious beliefs. It's about whether a provocative exhibition at a privately owned museum should be a crime with harsh penalties for the accused blasphemers.
The exhibition, called "Caution: Religion!" opened in January 2003 at the Andrei Sakharov Museum and Center in Moscow. The works on display were pretty tame compared to some of their American counterparts. One controversial exhibit superimposed an image of Christ on a Coca-Cola logo, with the words, ''Coca-Cola. This is my blood"—arguably, a pointed commentary on the commercialization of religion, not a mockery of faith itself. A triptych called In the Beginning Was the Word juxtaposed images of a man crucified on a cross, a five-pointed star and a swastika, with accompanying quotations from the Gospels, The Communist Manifesto, and Mein Kampf.
( Read more... )
To Elena Bonner, Sakharov's widow and a human rights activist in her own right, these latest developments signal the rise of a new fascist state in Russia. If the case ends in conviction, it will be hard to dispute her pessimistic assessment. The old Soviet state vilified and persecuted religion; the new one is converting it into a quasi-official ideology. The hostility to true freedom remains a constant.
The absurd witch-hunt in Russia is a cautionary tale for the United States as well. If nothing else, it should show us the true worth of President Vladimir Putin's protestations that Russia is firmly on the road to democracy. It is also a demonstration of the dangers of hate speech laws, of criminalizing expression that offends people's sensibilities, and of equating criticism of religion with bigotry. These are relevant issues we face at home, too.
Cathy Young is a Reason contributing editor. This column originally appeared in the Boston Globe.
http://www.reason.com/cy/cy032305.shtml
Religion in Art? Nyet!
Casualties in Russia's culture wars
Cathy Young
Culture wars over blasphemous art, such as Andres Serrano's urine-dipped crucifix or Chris Ofili's elephant dung-decorated Madonna, have flared up periodically in the United States in recent years. A similar conflict is now raging in post-Soviet Russia. But there, the debate is not about whether taxpayer money should be used for museum displays that offend some people's religious beliefs. It's about whether a provocative exhibition at a privately owned museum should be a crime with harsh penalties for the accused blasphemers.
The exhibition, called "Caution: Religion!" opened in January 2003 at the Andrei Sakharov Museum and Center in Moscow. The works on display were pretty tame compared to some of their American counterparts. One controversial exhibit superimposed an image of Christ on a Coca-Cola logo, with the words, ''Coca-Cola. This is my blood"—arguably, a pointed commentary on the commercialization of religion, not a mockery of faith itself. A triptych called In the Beginning Was the Word juxtaposed images of a man crucified on a cross, a five-pointed star and a swastika, with accompanying quotations from the Gospels, The Communist Manifesto, and Mein Kampf.
( Read more... )
To Elena Bonner, Sakharov's widow and a human rights activist in her own right, these latest developments signal the rise of a new fascist state in Russia. If the case ends in conviction, it will be hard to dispute her pessimistic assessment. The old Soviet state vilified and persecuted religion; the new one is converting it into a quasi-official ideology. The hostility to true freedom remains a constant.
The absurd witch-hunt in Russia is a cautionary tale for the United States as well. If nothing else, it should show us the true worth of President Vladimir Putin's protestations that Russia is firmly on the road to democracy. It is also a demonstration of the dangers of hate speech laws, of criminalizing expression that offends people's sensibilities, and of equating criticism of religion with bigotry. These are relevant issues we face at home, too.
Cathy Young is a Reason contributing editor. This column originally appeared in the Boston Globe.
