SALT LAKE CITY (RNS) The Rev. France Davis doesn't want any nude Adam-and-Eve figures at his Calvary Baptist Church -- even if they were painted by the famed Michelangelo himself.
Davis is unequivocal in his view that there is nothing inspiring or redeeming about naked figures in religious art.
"Since we sinned, as it said in the book of Genesis, the human body has certain parts that are private," the outspoken pastor said. "We should keep them for more intimate settings like people's bedrooms."
Davis is hardly alone in that view.
From the prudish impulses of the Counter-Reformation, to the Vatican's use of the fig leaf as a genital cover-up a century later, to modern Christians objecting to a nude Christ sculpted out of chocolate, there have always been those who wanted to see everything clothed.
Scores of believers oppose any nakedness in art as blasphemous -- even a glimpse of the Virgin Mary's breast as she nurses her baby son -- or akin to pornography.
For other Christians, though, the line between celebrating and eschewing artistic nudity is neither easy nor clear-cut... Read More.
TEXT SOURCE URL: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/08/religious-art-nudity_n_872765.html
