Thou shalt not make bad art in the name of breaking down the wall between church and state

The Ten Commandments are on my mind a lot these days.

Has anyone read To Kill a Mockingbird recently?  I haven't looked at it since 9th grade.  It's been a long time since I've seen the movie too.  The book got under my skin and into my heart though and I remember most of it vividly.  Atticus shooting the rabid dog.  The haunted house at the school.  These are scenes as clear in my imagination as any from Dickens and Treasure Island and I see them on their own, apart from the movie.  I swear I can see myself reading it and see the page on which Tom describes breaking up the chiffonier.

What I don't remember is very many references to religion, although I have a vague memory of the Finch children being talked to about church---can't remember if it's about their going or not going or about their father's not going.  And doesn't the neighbor, the woman who is secretly, though mildly, in love with Atticus, discuss the differences between various brands of Protestantism?

The way I remember it, religion appears in the novel only as a fact of the cultural life of the town.  It's something that's there, like the school, the Radley house, racism, and hot weather.  I don't remember Scout doing any deep thinking on the subject herself, and I'm pretty sure I was impressed by Atticus as a non-believer or at least a non-church goer.  That was something else about him that set him apart from the rest of the town.  It was a part of his essential loneliness and another fact about him Scout could not understand.

That's how I remember it anyway.

A local artist remembers it differently.

She created a sculpture that she calls Atticus.  She says it's a tribute to Atticus Finch.  Apparently she remembers Atticus as a man of a strong and rather Fundamentalist faith.

At first glance, the larger-than-life statue of a horse crafted from Hudson River driftwood does not scream religion.

At closer look, the Ten Commandments unfurl in flowing calligraphy along thin branches of the skeleton, titled "Atticus." Wide planks deeper in the maze bear painted scenes: Adam and Eve loll in the Garden. Elephants, camels and lions march into Noah's Ark.

The sculpture's heart is a thick knot of wood painted red and is graven with an outline of the stone tablets Moses bore from the mountaintop in the Book of Exodus. The Roman numerals I through X are written on the tablets.

(From the story by Paul Brooks in Wednesday's Times Herald-Record.)

As I said, I don't remember Atticus as being a particularly religious man, but I think that however devout a Christian he may or may not be, he certainly is not an Old Testament sort of Christian.  If he has any passages from Scripture engraved on his heart they'd be the Beatitudes and this verse from Corinthians, which no one seems to want to monumentalize inside or outside a courthouse or any other government buildings.

The horse was set-up outside a courthouse.

The sculpture is a part of the Kingston Sculpture Biennial.  The city of Kingston is one of the sponsors.  Government money is involved then.  And apparently no one looked closely at the horse before the Biennial opened, and the artist, Rita Dee, neglected to point out the themes embedded in her sculpture.  The mayor was not happy when he found out that his city had ponied up the dough to put a target for an ACLU lawsuit on the courthouse lawn.  The mayor thinks it was a trap, deliberately set.

Mayor Jim Sottile said the move was calculated.

"I think the city was hoodwinked. She clearly wanted to make a statement," he said. "I think it's disrespectful to the Ten Commandments, and it was not appropriate to put the city and Ulster County into the belly of the beast. To promote one religion over another in a public place is inappropriate."

Now, if the artist's memory is better than mine, and Atticus Finch is a religious man who somehow derived his ideas about justice and the equality of man from the fairy tale of Noah and the Ark, then the sculpture does not present the city with any problems.  It's a literary statement, not a religious one, and I think a good case can be made that Atticus Finch has become as much an iconic figure as Davy Crockett, Pecos Bill, Calamity Jane, John Henry, Rosie the Riveter, and Ralph Kramden.  He's a representative American, not an exemplary Christian, and it would be appropriate for the city to fund a statue in his honor, even one including pictures of Adam and Eve lolling ("Lolling?") in the Garden and all the Thou Shalt Nots woven into its very bones.  If that's the case, Rita Dee could have said so.

But Dee gave herself away.  She didn't defend her sculpture on literary or even artistic grounds.  The beauty she finds in her own work is in its religiosity and explicity Christian message.

"I thought this piece is a thing of beauty," Dee said. "For a person that does share the faith, it gives them comfort.  For someone that doesn't, it gives them a little reminder of where our laws come from."

I wonder if she understands that what she just said is "Alas and alcak for you, all ye Jews, Buddhists, Hindus, Muslims, and other pagans and heathens, you live in America now and in America all our laws come from the Christian Bible!"  Possibly she's no better at interpreting her own words than she is at interpreting Harper Lee's.

Possibly.

The sculpture's being moved, to the grounds of the Old Dutch Church.

Comments

[Amanda]

I'm not positive, but wasn't Atticus criticized in the book for not taking the children to church?

[Amanda]

Quote from the book after a cursory glance online:

“Remember it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.” That was the only time I ever heard Atticus say it was a sin to do something, and I asked Miss Maudie about it.
“Your father’s right,” she said. “Mockingbirds don’t do one thing but make music for us to enjoy . . . but sing their hearts out for us. That’s why it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.”

[res publica]

Good lord I'm so tired of stuff like this. So very, very, very, very, very tired. This story has everything I hate: stupid art, stupid religion, stupid politicians. When did everyone go insane in this country?

[res publica]

And while I'm on this subject, more people need to say - loudly and publicly - how stupid the so-called Christian Right's obsession with the commandments is. Most obviously, the claim that the commandments are in any way the substantial foundation of the Anglo-American legal tradition is flat out wrong, which is why a failure to remember the Sabbath and keep it holy is not a felony.

Perhaps the more important point, however, is that the theological centrality the wingnuts assign to the Decalogue is a profound mistake. People who claim to be members of Christ’s church are bound, first and foremost, to follow our risen Lord, and his teaching in this regard is quite clear: “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you.” (John 13.34) And this is no simple fuzzy platitude. To my mind, it is the kernel of Christianity as a universal faith unbounded from any one culture or tradition. For in this command, God says to humankind: “obedience to me means that you will incarnate among yourselves the relationship of good will and passionate love that I have with you.” Beyond culture-bound rules and institutions, the horizons of God’s people are opened up to an infinite future wherein every possible form of historical human life becomes amenable to redemption on its own terms through the incarnation of divine love in ordinary human relationships. Now can you see why I wince every time I hear “Christians” braying and yapping about how important the commandments are to “people of faith”? Christianity is fundamentally an incarnational faith; the pedantic didacticism of the fundamentalists is only a measure of their massive (I would say near-total) deviation from classical orthodoxy. In short, to my mind, they seem to be practicing another religion altogether.

[Shakespeare's Sister]

I wonder if she understands that what she just said is "Alas and alcak for you, all ye Jews, Buddhists, Hindus, Muslims, and other pagans and heathens, you live in America now and in America all our laws come from the Christian Bible!"

I wonder, irrespective of understanding it or not, whether she cares.

I suspect not.

[Anne Laurie]

Any bets on how many cries about blasphemy you'd get if you posted John 13:34 as a religious icon? I've seen interviews with committed church-goers who reject the Beatitudes as "communist propaganda"... Like the "American Patriots" who reject a recitation of the Bill of Rights as "liberal quibblings", a demonstration that many of us worship not a faith but an object -- a mummified icon representing not ideas, but prejudices.

[Exiled in NJ]

Used to be those of lots of faith were content hammering broadsides to trees, or putting their word on a billboard. I recall my late wife, on our first drive east on NYS 66 from Greenport to Ghent seeing several signs telling us of the coming, or advising all to repent. She thought twice about moving there. She was Unitarian in nature. The signs were harmless; the only person who shunned us was the Republican who lived behind us. Kingston was about 30 miles south, and on the other side of the river, but I suspect that today we might find them coming up the road with torches, marching on the castle of those of little faith. Maybe they'd get there faster riding good old Atticus.

[Frederick]

Jeez. And here I thought Congress enacted the laws, and the president signed them or vetoed them (never the latter these days, unless Congress goes and passed some blastocyte-killing law). Shows the kind of shit you learn going to the public schools.

[Morgaine Swann]

I wish these Christians would try reading those 10 Commandments they're always trying to push. The first one forbids making "graven images" - you know, like STATUES!

[sfmike]

"To Kill a Mockingbird" was the first "adult" book I read as a precocious child and I reread it a number of times in early adolescence without quite understanding what rape, a "chiffarobe" or even racism was supposed to be all about. I wasn't as crazy about the movie, possibly because I had a very specific vision in my mind and it wasn't in black-and-white.

The idea of a sculpture of the enlightened Alabama lawyer Atticus, however, with the Ten Commandments, which are Jewish Old Testament, strikes me as laughably absurd.

And res publica, thanks for the beautifully written "Christian" comment.

[Arvin Hill]

These are the same folks who hail George W. Bush as the quintessential "strong Christian man." If they can project that on a weasel like him, doing the same with Atticus Finch - or anybody else they take a shine to - is a cakewalk.

It should be clear by now Christian fundamentalism is a communicable mental illness, and a vast, troubled segment of America is experiencing an epidemic of mass delusion. LSD in the Red State water supply may be our only hope.

[mac macgillicuddy]

"Christianity is fundamentally an incarnational faith; the pedantic didacticism of the fundamentalists is only a measure of their massive (I would say near-total) deviation from classical orthodoxy"

This may be relevant. May not be. Anyway, I have an excuse to link to the Gnostic gospel of Mary which, I think, helps underscore the point about an incarnational faith:

http://www.gnosis.org/library/marygosp.htm

By the way, just read the text. Don't read the introductory stuff. And some people may want to blast me for posting the gnostic gospels. Don't do that, either.

[grishaxxx]

I don't recall the Decalogue having much to do with the foundations of English common law. I'd like these theocrats to show me in, say, Pollack & Maitland, where they find this thread. Their assertions are fantasy, and as easy as it is to rip the rug out from under them, no one does. Why?
I was reading yesterday afternoon an account in The New Yorker of the Met's acquisition of a 13thC Madonna and Child by Duccio, a Sienese painter. The price was very high. The painting is quite small, roughly the size of a piece of letter paper. It shows all the signs of having been used for private devotions (including candle burns on the original frame), but it is not valued as a religious icon, but as a work of art that speaks beyond the tradition that was its original reason for being.
Is it necessary for an image, an icon, to have a users' manual inscribed on it, like this sculpture in Kingston? The artist can do whatever the hell she wants, but she is not Constantine, she cannot impose her beliefs on the rest of us by fiat, and if she feels (as, it seems, she does in common with many grumpy evangelicals) that she is being spurned because of her beliefs, she can go right ahead - it's not the beliefs, it's the vulgarity, and the nagging. Just shut up, honey.

[Avedon]

I've read TKAM about 14 times or so, and that artist is a very, very dishonest person.

[StarFish]

Christianty is all about love, respect for self and others and living a good enjoyable life. What could be wrong with that? Nothing! Many of you so called liberal democrats(communists, socialist etc.) should read and study the ten commandments. Like it or not, the civilized portions of this world are built on a foundation of these words.

1]I AM THE LORD THY GOD, THOU SHALT NOT HAVE strange gods BEFORE ME.

"Idolizing material images to the point they are held in superstition, and as men would suspect, suppose, determine 'The Creator of All Things' would be like; such as idols of human form or animal likeness also.

Eliminating the Mystery of a Divine Being that no man can touch, see or feel. Replacing this Mystery with physical means and emphasis put on knowledge and man's own senses.

Interpreting God to fit a manner, mood and way, making Him humanly understandable rather than Divine."

Pentecostalism - Idolatry - Power - Communism - Atheism - Humanism - Cults

2]THOU SHALT NOT TAKE THE NAME OF THE LORD THY GOD IN VAIN.

"Men use blasphemy to stress their point of action, thoughts and desires. They abuse the Name of God by connecting Him in a damned way or in an arrogant, sarcastic, facetious manner. Men very often swear against God to impress another man with their false strength. Men abuse the Name of God to eliminate having to face in a dignified way, truth. Also, when a man is suspicious of his own lack of integrity, stability, masculinity, he abuses God, for the cowardice within himself tells him he will not be struck down immediately."

Cursing - Blasphemy - Satanism - Pride - Lack of Self-discipline - Abusive discrediting to another man

3]REMEMBER THOU KEEP HOLY THE SABBATH DAY.

"In order to truly Honor God and to be aware of Him, it was necessary to tell man that a given time had to be set aside frequently to do this. God, in delivering this Commandment, announced to Moses, 'Without this Rule men would not be able to hold up as a goal, the other nine.' God meant this time to be union with Him in a special manner, perhaps with a small sacrifice attached to complete this union.

God, at a later time, gave man incentive to spend more time with Him. Through His Son He gave to the world a specific Church and that Beautiful Sacrament, the Holy Eucharist, Which is without doubt a Part of Him. It was God Himself who completed the final need for man to be able to obey and love this great Commandment."

Not attending Holy Mass on days set down to fulfill this obligation to God.

The discipline of a specific day and time is necessary because of man's need for such discipline.

4]HONOR THY FATHER AND THY MOTHER.

"This Commandment was set down for men to better understand that honor, love, respect, dignity, had to be for The Father Himself, Our Heavenly Mother, and then the earthly parents from which all men would come. This Rule would automatically stabilize man's thinking, and permit man to rationalize the order of things. When a man upholds this Commandment, he is just with his neighbor and is aware of the need that respect brings. A solid foundation helps men to be able to withstand weakness and conquer it when needed."

Disobedience - Disrespect - Neglect - Impatience - Abuse

5]THOU SHALT NOT KILL.

"Moses was taught that men were living in such unruly ways, lacking self-discipline, and all men were to be told that to kill was against God, for do not forget, God is The Creator and The Judge. Men do not have the right to kill another human being, whether it be to take his life, his will, his dignity, his skill, his mind, his hope, his trust, his integrity. Men can be depleted of physical energy, emotional control and spiritual strength by another man's lack of self-discipline, emotional instability, greed, hate, lust, anger, lack of charity.

To kill is to rob man of the great privilege reserved for God alone. Only God has the right to judge when the physical must end."

Physical - Will - Love - Trust - Hope - Faith - Gifts of Talent - Abortion - Moral Standards - Spirit - Mind

6]THOU SHALT NOT COMMIT ADULTERY.

"This Commandment is to allow men to better understand that wrong use of bodily communication with other men has a definite disgrace in God's Plan. Promiscuous involvement to satisfy only the senses has many areas wherein men sin against their role in God's Plan. This Commandment definitely says that homosexuality, lesbianism, abortion, pornography, and all promiscuous endeavors of man, have a permissiveness that is against the reason for creating mankind.

God said to Moses, 'Men will have many excuses and will justify their sins against this Commandment. Also, men will deliberately attach only specific sins on this Commandment, for shame will make them call this The Hidden Commandment'."

Impurity - attack through the senses, lack of self-discipline, permissiveness, self-love.

Promiscuity - encouraging men to act without dignity, degrading the purpose of human intimate relationship.

Self-abuse - physically, mentally, emotionally.

Mental abuse causes grave sins, sometimes grave intention for sin, permitting the intellect to become so permeated with sinful thoughts that men sin consistently and it weakens them in every way.

Homosexuality - Lesbianism

7]THOU SHALT NOT STEAL.

"To steal means, to most men, to take a material thing that belongs to another. In reality, there are many facets to stealing. First, many men steal the dignity and respect that The Holy Trinity must have, that The Beloved Heavenly Queen must have, and that all men must have for the Church of My Choice.

Men belittle the act of stealing, calling it instinct. In reality, men must know that to take anything they do not come by justly, is against My Will. They must be aware that to steal drains them of purity. Tell them, Moses, no man will steal Heaven, for I will stand in Judgment and no man will be allowed Here until reparation is made, whether the stealing be of material things, any part of man, or the manner in which men walk."

Time - Will - Pride - Physical Energies - Material Wealth - Patience - Talents - Hope - Dignity - Gifts From God

8]THOU SHALT NOT BEAR FALSE WITNESS AGAINST THY NEIGHBOR.

"All men must be aware that to gossip or to darken another man's name or way will most certainly be accountable to Me. Each man is accountable for himself and will have to stand solely alone on the merits he earned walking the human role. Men who sin against this Rule will most likely sin against several of the others, for to bear false witness says ego, pride, jealousy, contempt, and a lack of self-discipline."

Gossip - Slander - Lying - Defamation of Character - Hating

9]THOU SHALT NOT COVET THY NEIGHBOR'S WIFE.

"To covet, whether it be by grave intention or full action, what belongs in the procreative plan, will be answerable in more depth than men will want to believe. What men do to restrict, corrupt or eliminate the beauty I have planned for man and woman in the role of the physical life, must be held accountable to Me, for I have made man to My Image and Likeness, and all things must remain in the beauty I have designed and in the Plan I had in mind. No man must allow his thinking or lack of self-discipline to cause weakness in himself or another who belongs to another. No woman is permitted to intrude or invite such a sin against Me."

Adultery - Temptation through thought, word and deed.

10]THOU SHALT NOT COVET THY NEIGHBOR'S GOODS.

"This Rule applies first to all I have created, for I Am The Lord Of All Things.

When men better understand that they must earn the profits, whether they be material in a large way or small, they will better understand the justice in this Rule. There are many areas men will abuse in this Commandment. Men will frivolously borrow many things from other men and never account for them. Time is one of them. Time taking, without reason, good purpose, can stop another man's progress, profits and gain. Men must not judge another man's reasoning, but must take care first of their own needs and concentrate on their own Souls, for a man who has been sinned against is sometimes weakened and it creates within him the desire to retaliate, causing a graver sin through weakness."

Stealing - Time, Talents, Material Wealth.

Usury - Through subterfuge - denying a man his rightful property, position and acclaim.

[Steve]

Of course the sculptor didn't get away with it - whoever heard of a city being fooled by a wooden horse?