This image is one I found while searching the internet. Created by Michael Barber, John Bergsma, Brant Pitre, and John Kincaid, it is an image that shows two toilets: one featuring the Koran and another featuring the Holy Bible are depicted with the words “hate crime” over the toilet holding the Koran and “art” over the Holy Bible.
This piece of artwork is meant to provoke its audience as it displays the issues of religion in our world in terms of the anti-Christian prejudice that is found in different corners of our culture. And it shows that we have a long ways to go in terms of overcoming this prejudice against other cultures and their religions. This can be viewed by some as a degradation of their religion, but it that, is exactly what it is trying to do-show that we degrade others religion while lifting up our own.
Shavonee Eakins
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I can see the motivations behind the artist’s message, however I feel like it is slightly ignorant to the reality of how religion is viewed in our world. I am talking from a United States perspective so obviously this does not hold up in every country, but for a large majority of the world and throughout history, Christianity has been the dominant religion. Let’s be real here and not beat around the bush, the reason why Christianity has become one of the world’s foremost religions is through a long history of oppression, colonization, and violence against those who didn’t believe in the Christian God. This Christian hegemony still is prevalent to this day and can be found in a lot of facets of our society (Christian Calender, Christmas Break v.s. Holiday Break, stores being closed on Sunday) the examples are endless. To pretend this dynamic does not exist is ignoring the lived situation of anyone who is not Christian.
It’s quite obvious that Christians hold the power in this equation so when other religions criticize Christianity for the pain and violence it has wrought, it does not hold the societal weight that accompanies a hate crime. This is why I think the message of the art piece falls short. Christians play the victim yet again, and try to pretend that our whole society hasn’t been based around them.
Thats really interesting, sometimes I do feel a similar sentiment being a Christian. Hypocrisy is frustrating, where it seems like everyone is onboard for all religions and all points of view, but then trash Christianity. However, I know there is a lot of “church hurt” in America which is on us Christians, so we do have some blame in the matter.