October 13, 2010

Loveland's St. John Parish spearheads prayerful protest of pornographic art

By Anna Maria Basquez

LOVELAND, Colo.—Parishioners and clergy from St. John the Evangelist Parish spearheaded a week-long peaceful demonstration last week outside Loveland Art Museum in protest of what appears to be a pornographic image of Christ that sparked an uproar in the community and received national attention.    

“Other faith denominations started showing up after the Sunday sermons when they got word that Jesus was (being) depicted that way and we got more and more people joining us,” said Deacon Ed Armijo of St. John the Evangelist. “If we’d have continued, I think you’d have seen half of Loveland down there.”

The image showed Jesus Christ in a sexual act in a comic book-style drawing with the word “orgasm” in capital letters beside it. The artist, Stanford University art professor Enrique Chigoya, has said he intended his work to be a critique of religious institutions.

The publicly-funded museum hosted the image as a part of the traveling 82-print exhibit titled “The Misadventures of the Romantic Cannibals.”

On Wednesday, Oct. 6, a 56-year-old woman who had driven from her home in Kalispell, Mont., took a crowbar to it soon after the demonstrators, who had been saying rosaries and chaplets outside, dispersed at 4 p.m. The woman, Kathleen Folden, reportedly was screaming as she broke into the plexiglass case, “How could you desecrate my Lord?”

She was freed by Friday on bail with permission to leave the state and return to her work as a truck driver as she waits for her next court date. Folden’s bail was paid by an anonymous person.

The image she destroyed was a copy. The city announced Thursday they were not replacing it and the string of other images that had been attached to it in accordion fashion for the remainder of the exhibit’s time there, which is through Nov. 28.

The artist has said the image is to express a corruption of the spiritual by the Church.

Father Frank Garcia, pastor of St. John the Evangelist, said he thought it brought hatred to the community, with the constant bullying of his prayerful protestors. He also said he thought the city might have violated its own codes in approving the art. The City Council refused to formally address the issue on its council agenda, against Councilman Daryle Klassen’s advice, the lawmaker said. 

“In my opinion, it was a depiction that was in direct violation of the city of Loveland’s municipal codes,” Father Garcia said. The codes, which are sections 9.20.010 and 9.20.020, he said, “have to do with patently offensive representations or descriptions of ultimate sex acts, normal or perverted, actual or simulated….”

Deacon Armijo first saw the image when he visited the museum on a weekday—a day when a class of elementary school students was also at the museum, he said.

The ones that weren’t giggling, he said, seemed to be staring in shock at the depiction.

John Yockey, 44, a former resident of Loveland of 21 years and a parishioner of St. John the Evangelist, said after seeing the image, “I would not want to explain this to children.

“I think the artist disagreed with some aspects of the Catholic Church, and expressed his opinion poorly,” Yockey said. “I would compare this to the drawings of Muhammad which offended Islam. We should set a good example and forgive the artist.”

In defense of the artist, Deacon Armijo said the print did have words in Spanish saying it should not be viewed by children under 18.

“In Spanish, it said, ‘For 18-year-olds or older,’” Deacon Armijo said. “He had put a warning on there that it can’t be viewed by children. Clearly, it was his intent to warn. This City Council decided they were going to classify it as art, never mind that the artist himself has named his work Mexican pornography.”

The word “orgasm” written in English right next to Jesus Christ, should have raised a red flag in addition to the image itself, however, he said.

In response to the issues of censorship versus intolerance of Christian values, Deacon Armijo said, “If they claim First Amendment rights, I’m going to claim Second Amendment rights. I’m going to be vocal and be on them every time they bring a new exhibit. I want them to get a committee of lay people to tell them when there is art that is objectionable. We cannot stay quiet.”

The vast majority, three-fourths of those picketing, were protesting the art and approximately one-fourth were in support of it, parishioner Doris Armijo said.

By Wednesday evening, the Colorado Springs Gazette reported, among 1,247 people who responded to a poll, 61 percent said it should be taken down, 37 percent said it shouldn’t be taken down, 1 percent did not know and 2 percent did not care.