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U. Southern Maine Student Desecrates Bible for Art Class Project

U. Southern Maine Student Desecrates Bible for Art Class Project

“Unholy Bible: Very Revised Standard Edition”

This sort of thing is a cliche at this point. It’s certainly not edgy or brave.

The College Fix reports:

Student desecrates Bible for class assignment, gets put on display at U. Southern Maine

For an assignment in his art class, a student at the University of Southern Maine decided to deface a Bible — tear its pages to “look like flames,” and place images of Satan in place of Christ.

Riley Harris called his project the “Unholy Bible: Very Revised Standard Edition” for the task of “re-purpos[ing] a book into something new,” according to Central Maine.

Harris says he based his decision for the piece on “thinking a lot about questioning authority in general,” and how religious authority, in particular, seems above reproach.

Charlie Flynn, a member of the Casco Bay Church of Christ whose daughter had seen Harris’s work on display outside a classroom, said that while he “understands the right to freedom of speech,” he thinks Harris’s work is “repugnant.”

“I couldn’t help but feel no one’s sacred text should be treated that way,” Flynn said. “I think it’s very inappropriate …”

From the story:

“If I saw a Koran with pig blood on it I would certainly call someone, or a Torah with unclean foods on it,” [Flynn] said. “This is a Bible with Satan’s image put over Jesus’ image and around Christmastime. I don’t understand why that would be viewable in an institution of higher learning. This is USM, a school that services the community.” …

Jared Cash, vice president for enrollment management and marketing at the university, defended the piece Monday, saying in a statement, “The university supports freedom of speech rights for all students, affirmed and upheld by Board of Trustee System Policy 212.”

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Comments

Coward. He picked a Bible instead of a koran.

Golly gee…I wonder why???

That’s a public institution. Seems that this is a violation of the first amendment, since we’ve got lots of case law informing us of a strict separation of church and state.

    Milhouse in reply to RickH. | January 14, 2020 at 3:07 pm

    Huh? You’ve got it backwards. The first amendment protects precisely this cr*p. At a private college they could have disciplined the student, though it would have been a bad idea. At a public college they can’t treat this differently from any other speech, even if they wanted to.

Richard Aubrey | January 13, 2020 at 11:18 pm

I emailed the admin who responded, Cash, that showing real courage would be commissioning a defecate-on-the-koran exhibit would show some real courage,. Haven’t heard back

He wanted to “repurpose the book into something new.”

Yawn.
As if this hasn’t been done millions of times before.
Drat. I’m out of coffee. Looks like I’ll have to go to the store today.

Ever since dogs first walked the Earth they have been barking at the Moon.

Meanwhile, their sum effect has been nil and the Moon continues serenely in its orbit.

Woof.