Emily Mapfuwa, a Christian from Essex, took out a private prosecution on the grounds that the statue outraged public decency. The Baltic Flour Mills people were bracing themselves for a trial by jury but then the Crown Prosecution Service intervened and ruled that there was no case to answer. Their statement included the following:
Many commentators have observed that the reference to the lack of violence is almost an incitement to Christians to go to such exhibitions and wreck them. If you are tempted to do this, do bear in mind that anti-terrorism legislation may very well be invoked and you could be slammed up for ages with vastly reduced rights.
It is worth noting that this judgement discriminates particularly against Christians. We do not generally resort to violence. Around the world at the moment, Christians are subjected to violence in many countries but do not retaliate with terrorism. I am sure that many secularists would love to see Christians goaded into violent action so that the secularist portrayal of religious "fundamentalism" can be supported by news articles about enthusiastic Christians smashing statues. The pictures won't show evidence of the blasphemous and obscene nature of the displays.
I rather feel like repeating my encouragement to people to read Michael O'Brien's "Father Elijah". (This combox has a couple of suggestions for how to obtain the book apart from my link to Amazon UK.)
"We have taken into account all the circumstances, including the fact that there was no public disorder relating to the exhibition and that there was a warning at the entrance to the gallery about the nature of the work on display. The case has therefore been discontinued."The CPS press release includes a statement from the Chief Crown Prosecutor Nicola Reasbeck, in which she says,
"Under the Prosecution of Offences Act 1985, which set up the CPS, we have the right to take over a private prosecution and prosecute it ourselves, take it over and stop the case, or allow the private prosecution to continue."Neil Addison of the Thomas More Legal centre is quoted in this week's Catholic Herald as pointing out that the CPS is only supposed to take this sort of action in cases which are "oppressive" or "perverse" - neither of which applies in this case.
Many commentators have observed that the reference to the lack of violence is almost an incitement to Christians to go to such exhibitions and wreck them. If you are tempted to do this, do bear in mind that anti-terrorism legislation may very well be invoked and you could be slammed up for ages with vastly reduced rights.
It is worth noting that this judgement discriminates particularly against Christians. We do not generally resort to violence. Around the world at the moment, Christians are subjected to violence in many countries but do not retaliate with terrorism. I am sure that many secularists would love to see Christians goaded into violent action so that the secularist portrayal of religious "fundamentalism" can be supported by news articles about enthusiastic Christians smashing statues. The pictures won't show evidence of the blasphemous and obscene nature of the displays.
I rather feel like repeating my encouragement to people to read Michael O'Brien's "Father Elijah". (This combox has a couple of suggestions for how to obtain the book apart from my link to Amazon UK.)
12 comments:
I agree that we shouldn't let ourselves get lured into violent action.
Some Christian denominations have a long and proud history of smashing statues that might come in handy, though... :)
One can just imagine how quick everyone would have been to take the case to Court had it been Islam that had been insulted by this blasphemous image!
This is clear discrimination against Christianity.
I wonder if someone could try again with a prosecution for blasphemy rather than public decency?
On a not dissimilar note:
True story that a friend of mine directly related to me.
There was a NYC church situated on the edge of a rough neighborhood. Somehow some local gang banger's home electronics interferred with the speaker system in the church. Some parishoners went around and rather nicely asked the kid to cut it out. It continued.
His next visit was from some mafioso members related to the people who asked nicely the 1st time. Suffice to say that after la cosa nostra "entreated" him to decist (holding him upside down over a 4th floor stairwell was involved) he had a change of heart.
Karen
This is very sad. On so many levels. Can you conceive of the hullaballoo if anyone was to THINK of portraying the Prophet Muhammed in this way? Governments would be toppled, mass murder would be excused.
Can the action be restarted? I would pay to a fund to prosecute the case.
Interesting, isn't it? There are other religions who wouldn't go to the niceties of law. A priapic statue of a "prophet" wouldn't be out of place given said "prophet"'s documented behaviour. Self-censorship under the permanent threat of violence and the cultural cringe determines that no such statue would ever be made. Such a point needs made over the The Guardian
Don't get me wrong, I don't advocate violence, but it just seems to be the case of one law for them......
I saw it. Aside from being blasphemous, it is terribly juvenile. When I was in 5th grade a kid defaced a holy card in similar fashion... I wonder if he never grew up and created that monstrosity. The artist is fortunate Christians do issue fatwas.
I have it on good authority that said Nicola Reasbeck is not too popular with her colleagues in Newcastle. Sounds like another blunder by a career civil-servant rather than one who has the interests of the people at heart...
Good advice to read Father Elijah linked with both your recent posts Fr Tim.
An excellent tale that brilliantly encapsulates the ever increasing struggle between good and evil.
Dear Father Tim
On my return from a 'moving statue' tour of Ireland in 1985,when I visited Ballinspittle and the Mount Mellory Cistercian Monastery,I dismissed the notion that any motion was involved and abandoned hope of finding any proof of miraculous movements.
A sledgehammer attack on Ballinspittle's 'moving statue' occurred after my return to London and it made me reassess the significance of the reported phenomena.
As a contract surveyor I was due to start work for the London Borough of Southwark's Direct Works Organisation at Pelican House.The night before I commenced the Southwark contract I had a 'big dream' featuring the Virgin Mary.The archetypal feminine may have remained completely motionless for me personally in the outside world,but inside my psyche she was 100% active.
When I attended Pelican House the next day I was appointed as surveyor for the UNITY PROJECT in Peckham High Street.This 'black' community project was staffed on site entirely with white contract labour and it was known in-house as 'COON DISCO'.I was therefore forced to take drastic remedial action and so I involved my old Addey & Stanhope School friend the Nigerian born film producer Faith Isiakpere.Faith had worked with UB40 and was at the time employed by Channel 4.A TV film called 'The Crossing' drew inspiration from the real life drama that we were confronted with on site.
Unfortunately a few years later Mandela's 'Children of Africa' film producer, the same Faith Isiakpere, refused to become involved in my Football Against Racism in Europe (FARE) JUSTICE NOT VENGEANCE FOCUS case in 1991 after I was imprisoned following direct action taken after I had discovered that the NF/BNP were being allowed to use the Old Addeyans F.C / Densitron International plc development space for their Planning meetings.
The Met Police and the CPS had no hesitation in producing a malevolent prosecution backing NF/BNP Planning and Densitron International plc's development.
Following the intervention by Lucy Faulkner,the English FA’s Ethics & Sports Equity Manager, my individual (FARE) JUSTICE NOT VENGEANCE FOCUS 1991-2008 case has reached a critical juncture,involving myself,the MPA,the IPCC and the Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis.
The dream that I had in 1985 and which has since found it's way into verse will I hope provide us all with some true UNITY IN THE COMMUNITY 2012 development inspiration.
A SINNER'S DREAM OF MARY
When I was out a wandering upon the hills so green.
I spied myself a vision of a bright celestial Queen.
(Refrain)
A rosary,a rosary with rainbows all around.
A blood red cross she gave to me upon that hallowed ground.
She wore a crown of silver and in her arms she bore.
A child who was the future of mans peace and not of war.
(Refrain)
A rosary,a rosary with rainbows all around.
A blood red cross she gave to me upon that hallowed ground.
"Corpus Christi woman" was the lady that I saw.
Build inside she said to me mans inner self once more.
(Refrain)
A rosary,a rosary with rainbows all around.
A blood red cross she gave to me upon that hallowed ground.
Our Lady of the Rosary pray for us Amen.
Whilst this particular statue is clearly intended to be provocative, and is therefore despicable, I wonder if the portrayal of Our Lord in Christian Art and Literature doesn't sometimes sanitise the reality of his suffering, or downplay the reality of his Sacred Humanity.
I am not enough of a historian to be able to say whether Our Lord would have been crucified naked or whether he would have worn a loin cloth to spare the modesty of the Jews. Nor am I enough of a medical expert to be able to say whether the physiological effects of crucifixion may not have provoked some involuntary sexual response. But there appears to be at least a prima facie case for suggesting that the Romans would have crucified Our Lord naked with the intention of inflicting the maximum degree of humiliation on him, and that the gradual asphyxiation resulting from the weight of his body might have meant that his penis became erect as a result.
Of course, the picture of a naked Jesus experiencing an involuntary sexual reaction is one that our minds find difficult to acknowledge. But I think that says more about us, and the kind of warped attitudes to sexuality evinced by the statue in question, than about the historical circumstances in which Our Lord actually died. The reality is likely to have been so grisly that it is something we would have found difficult to take in, even if we had witnessed it first hand.
"He hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him." Is 53:2-3.
Please understand that I make this point not to shock, still less endorse any blasphemous iconography. For me, it is a new reason to love Him, and I would hope that others might see it in this way as well.
Sickening stuff, so I looked up the Baltic Flour Mill and found an email address, wrote to them earlier today expressing my 'disappointment' at their choice of 'artistic' content for their exhibition to which I received the following reply:
OUTRAGING PUBLIC DECENCY
PRIVATE PROSECUTION AGAINST BALTIC DROPPED
Further to your letter concerning recent publicity about a previous exhibition at BALTIC:-
A private prosecution was brought by Ms Mapfuwa of Brentwood, Essex in July 2008 and related to the exhibition of a single work by Chinese born artist Terence Koh displayed at BALTIC between 21 September 2007 and 20 January 2008. The work, Gone, Yet Still included a Sacred Heart figure amongst 74 small figurative statues.
The alleged offence was that of outraging public decency, contrary to common law.
On 10 November, the Crown Prosecution Service, having reviewed the case, decided to take it over and to discontinue it, thereby bringing the case to a conclusion without it having gone to court.
On 11 November, BALTIC issue the following statement,
BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art welcomes yesterday’s decision by the Crown Prosecution Service to discontinue the private prosecution launched against BALTIC on the grounds that there is no case to answer. Speaking yesterday, Andrew Lovett, BALTIC’s Director of Corporate Resources said, “It is the right decision. We are particularly pleased that, in meticulously considering the case, the CPS has recognized and fully taken into account the importance and influence of the right of freedom of expression. This was the critical issue for BALTIC and we take the CPS’s decision as supportive of the role that galleries have in promoting such freedoms. Yesterday’s decision will be welcomed by galleries across the UK.
The CPS’s full statement on this matter can be viewed at: www.cps.gov.uk/news/pressreleases/165_08.html
Yours sincerely
Andrew Lovett
Director of Corporate Resources
No expression of regret whatsoever!
So far as these particular 'artists' are concerned as long as they are allowed 'freedom of expression', they will continue to do as they please (provided they stay within their 'safe zone' and don't upset any fundamentalists!). They do not understand that with the priviledge of 'freedom', which few peoples enjoy on this earth of ours, comes the responsibility to do what is right! No, to the secular world freedom is simply a means to practice and flaunt the worship of EXCESS!!!!
Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.
How hideous! Yes, we have all been reading Father Elijah at home after seeing Michael O'Brien's interview on EWTN and friends recommended the book too. We ordered them from Amazon.com - they took about 3 and a half weeks to be delivered from the U.S but they were cheaper and the paperbacks were all in stock there. Amazon UK seems a bit low on stock - which is good as people are obviously reading it! It is VERY interesting so far!
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