The exhibition, “Made in God’s Image,” at the city’s Gallery of Modern Art, opened on June 25 and is scheduled to end on August 22.
On show, as part of series of exhibitions focusing on human rights, was a Bible and a container of pens and a notice saying: “If you feel you have been excluded from the Bible, please write your way back into it.”
Comments written in the margins of the sacred text included, “f**k the Bible,” “Jesus is a bisexual.” “This is all sexist pish.” “I am bi[sexual] female and proud. I want no God who is disappointed in this.”
The controversy over the exhibit came days after the release of a report by Durham University that found that knowledge of the Bible is in decline in Britain, with fewer than one in 20 people able to name all Ten Commandments and youngsters viewing the Holy Book as “old fashioned.”
“It is the first recognition of something which we all knew in our gut,” said the Rev. Brian D. Brown, a visiting fellow at St John’s College in Durham University. “We knew it was there but we weren’t exactly willing to face it,” he was quoted as saying by Reuters news agency
In Glasgow, a group of about 100 Christians gathered outside the art gallery on July 28 to protest against the exhibition. After the protests, organizers placed the Bible in a transparent container so it can be seen, but not touched.
Visitors are now given pieces of blank paper where they can register their names, their feelings about religion and the, and their comments.
The Daily Telegraph newspaper reported an unnamed advisor to Pope Benedict XVI as describing the project as “disgusting and offensive,” and saying, “They would not think of doing it to the Quran.”
The exhibit was meant to enable people who feel marginalized by society and the churches to express themselves, said artist Jane Clarke, a minister of the Metropolitan Community Church, which caters mainly for the spiritual needs of gay men and lesbian women.
“I am saddened that some people have chosen to write offensive messages,” she said in a statement. “Writing our names in the margins of a Bible was to show how we have been marginalized by many Christian churches, and also our desire to be included in God’s love.”
Two artists, Anthony Schrag and David Malone, created the exhibition in association with organizations representing Gay Christians and Muslims. Schrag is the gallery’s artist in residence.
