Welcome to Breakpoint, a daily look, in an ever-changing culture through the lens of unchanging

truth. For the Colson Center, I'm John Stone Street. In a recent substack, Rod Dreher described

an art exhibit in Austria entitled, and I quote, You shall make for yourself an image. As the name

suggests, the point of the installation is to blaspheme Christianity,

particularly during this season of Advent. One photograph in the exhibit was entitled,

I am the mother too, featured a man dressed as Mary holding the baby Jesus. The caption reads,

The illusion to the Virgin Mary is clear. The artist addresses the fears and struggles of

Bangladeshis severely oppressed and socially isolated, elderly. the Virgin Mary is clear. The artist addresses the fears and struggles of Bangladesh's severely

oppressed and socially isolated LGBTQI-plus community, end quote. And another piece,

latex nubs are arranged to look like maggots in the shape of a man crucified on a cross.

The exhibition's description for this one says, the artist transforms one of

Western culture's most potent symbols into a tactile erotically charged object, end quote.

But the most scandalous piece is Mary holding Jesus after his death. Except in this version,

it's a naked woman in a suggestive pose, cradling a Jesus who died not from crucifixion,

but from an overdose of heroin.

In one sense, the entire exhibit should just be dismissed as a childish, boorish attempt to break taboos.

It is a particularly crass example of desecration, the growing tendency in Western society

to not merely deny but also violate transcendent truth, objective beauty, and goodness.

To a much lesser degree, the insistent backstoring of movie villains is a tamer example of desecration.

With sequels, remakes, and reimagining's, well-loved stories are retold in a way that encourages the audience to reconsider

the good guys and bad guys, the heroes are deeply flawed, the villains are misunderstood,

no one should judge between them. Take, for example, the new wicked movie. The whole point

...