XPost: alt.christian.religion, alt.religion.christianity, alt.christnet.religion
XPost: alt.christnet.theology

Prof Jansen slams 'fake outrage' over 'demonic' art project at Curro
school

23 October 2019 11:11

Public intellectual Professor Jonathan Jansen has come out to defend
the controversial artwork made by a matric student at Curro's
Grantleigh School in Richards Bay.

The pupil's artwork has caused an outcry among parents and the
Christian community for its depictions of satan, Jesus, the Bible and
other references.

An internal investigation is underway after some parents complained
that the artwork goes against the Christian ethos of the school.

A parent at the school took a video of the controversial artwork while attending the year-end exhibition.

The upset father, who is a pastor, called the artwork demonic and
unacceptable in a video that has spread on social media.

Stellenbosch University's Prof Jonathan Jansen says the pupil's
artwork communicates a much bigger symbolic message. He says the
pupil's artwork should be applauded and not suppressed.

Prof Jansen has slammed what he calls fake outrage over the art and
says he wishes the so-called Christians expressed the same outrage
about poverty, racism and xenophobia.

If their Jesus is so small and so threatened by a young boy's
depiction of the divine then I suggest they go re-read their
scriptures.

The whole idea of art is to be offensive, to push the boundaries and
turn orthodoxy on its head.

Ashraf Jamal, a Cape Town-based academic, writer and cultural theorist
says he recognises why the artwork has caused hysteria.

Jamal argues that extremism has made a return into society,
threatening democratic principles and expression.

The age we are living in is an age where fundamentalist is returning
with enormous extremity.

There's nothing wrong with what the young student did and his
challenges to the monetisation of religion is absolutely on point.

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--
Steve Hayes
http://www.khanya.org.za/stevesig.htm
http://khanya.wordpress.com

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