Controversial artwork won't be returned to display

A piece of artwork denounced as obscene by church members and allegedly ripped up by a Montana woman using a crowbar won't be returned to display because of safety concerns, city officials said Thursday.

"The incident yesterday was very troubling and also very impactful on the city staff, volunteers and the public at the venue," said Rod Wensing, acting city manager.

Kathleen Folden, 56, of Kalispell, Mont., was arrested Wednesday on a charge of criminal mischief. Witnesses told police that she used a crowbar to smash glass shielding the print at the Loveland Museum Gallery and then tore part of it up.

Folden, a truck driver, told police that she drove from Montana and bought a crowbar in Loveland before going to the museum to destroy the artwork, according to an arrest affidavit obtained by The Coloradoan in Fort Collins.

Police said the damaged part includes what critics say was a depiction of Jesus Christ engaged in a sex act.

Museum visitor Mark Michaels told the Loveland Reporter-Herald that Folden screamed "How can you desecrate my Lord?" during the incident.

The artist, Stanford University professor Enrique Chagoya, told The Associated Press on Thursday that the work has been mischaracterized. He said while the part in question is suggestive, it's not graphic.

The panel includes figures cut out from a comic book, a head resembling Christ and a skeleton with a pope's hat.

"This is not Christ. It's a collage," Chagoya said. "What I'm trying to express is the corruption of the spiritual by the church."

The print was taken by police as evidence.

Folden was released on a $350 cash bond during a court appearance Thursday. Another hearing is set for Oct. 15.

The work that was damaged, "The Misadventures of the Romantic Cannibals," is a 12-panel lithograph that that includes comic book characters, Mexican pornography, Mayan symbols and ethnic stereotypes. It is part of an 82-print exhibit by 10 artists that have worked with Colorado printer Bud Shark that opened in mid-September.

Members of a local church have been among those peacefully protesting outside the city-owned museum for most of the week. A city councilman and some residents had demanded that Chagoya's work be removed, but the council decided Tuesday to leave it on display.

Some of the outspoken critics have condemned the attack on the artwork.

The museum has seen a significant increase in visitors since the controversy started, said Maureen Corey, the museum's art curator. Visitors include supporters and opponents of the piece.

"In my opinion, it's rather sad taking away people's freedom to see the art," Corey said.

Loveland police originally got reports of gunfire at the museum, but said it appears people mistook the banging of the crowbar against the glass for shots. No firearm was involved, police said.

Chagoya said he was sad and disappointed that the work, one of 30 limited prints, won't be on display again in Loveland.

"It will be a loss for everybody, not just for me, but for everybody that believes in the First Amendment," Chagoya said. Suppression of art and ideas is something that happens in totalitarian regimes, not this country, he added.

Time for a Museum of American Religion

By Chris Stevenson

In 1995, my high school geometry class in south-central Montana was scheduled to learn about the ubiquitous ratio pi. Hoping to broaden their mathematical outlook, I told the students to bring in a Bible the following day, if they had one, and we would see that the author of 1 Kings gives us an early value of pi by using the measured circumference and diameter of Israel's "molten sea," or baptismal font (which they calculated to be three - accurate if not precise). The students were both unified and somewhat militant in their cry: "We can't bring the Bible to school. That's unconstitutional. What about the separation of church and state?" In case you think this is too far removed from us in time, I gave my two children attending our local public high school the same scenario just the other day and heard almost the exact same response.

We are all familiar, and most of us even are comfortable, with this avoidance of faith at school, work and play. However, because most of us still believe religion is indispensable to the country, we've also hoped that our public square, void of religious talk and behavior, would be easily compensated by private worship that would give us robust religious understanding and pious behavior. But, as religious and cultural experts tell us and our everyday observations confirm, this hasn't worked out. For example, more and more Americans find it difficult to marry and then remain married, a religious act with powerful social consequences. It also would be hard to argue that America's religious majority can "remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy."

Nonetheless, America continues to be unique among developed countries in having a robust and peaceful religious landscape. Yet the forces and movements that make it easier to disregard and even forget America's religious self, such as secularism, materialism, evangelical atheism and even religious extremism, continue to grow and prosper. It appears that the time has come to establish and maintain a National Museum of American Religion on the Mall, which would continuously invite Americans to explore the role religion has played and does play in shaping the social, political and cultural lives of Americans and thus America itself.

Seen as unfortunate and often embarrassing by nonbelievers and as gratifying and often provident by believers, religion has been a viscerally powerful force in American history. From the early explorers and the Puritans to the 13 Colonies; from the Revolution, the Founding Fathers and the writing of the Bill of Rights to Manifest Destiny, the Civil War and the freeing of the slaves; from the devastating wars, an emergent middle class, and the epic social movements of the 20th century to the Cold War and our response to the terrorist attacks of 2001, the strong hand of American religion is everywhere to be seen. This also implies the necessarily broader and deeper influence American religion has wielded in our homes all along. Furthermore, there is a bright thread running through our history, seen by believer and nonbeliever alike, true or false, declaring that God has a special roll for America to play in the world. This exceptional story, in all its representations, stands on its own and begs to be told through a museum in our nation's capital.

James Madison wrote that "the Religion then of every man must be left to the conviction and conscience of every man." In this spirit, the National Museum of American Religion must do at least three things with great care and without fail: (1) Present U.S. religious history objectively; (2) remain silent relative to the supremacy of one faith or denomination; and (3) refrain from judging whether American religion has been beneficial or detrimental to the country. Visitors will decide this for themselves. The museum must be philosophically built around what some have called our greatest export, the First Amendment's dual religious liberty clause: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof."

Each citizen, now and in the following generations, needs to be thoroughly reminded of America's religious history, judge it for ourselves and decide on a religious path of progress forward with at least some thought given to the country's long-term health. The National Museum of American Religion would be a treasured jewel in the crown of the many other celebrated museums in Washington that exist as testaments to, and teachers of, this country's wonder, progress and endurance.