Glad that offensive exhibition is gone

I am delighted by that these pollutants are gone from the centre of our city.

Using giant photomontages, Gilbert and George issue calls for the molestation and rape of religious figures, articulating the kind of depraved speech that would have been at home in the mouths of those whose vile actions are described by Scripture in Genesis 19:4-5:

“But before they lay down, the men of the city, even the men of Sodom, compassed the house round, both old and young, all the people from every quarter: And they called unto Lot, and said unto him, ‘Where are the men which came in to thee this night? bring them out unto us, that we may know them’.”

Statements as perverse as the ones contained in the ‘Scapegoating Pictures’ are not only grossly offensive but, whatever the context, must be viewed as incitements to commit criminal offences against persons and should provoke an outpouring of public revulsion.

“Art” can never be used as a cloak to successfully disguise this kind of depravity.

While I note that the Senior Curator of the MAC expressed the opinion that he could not, “think of a better way to open our 2018 programme,” a more pertinent warning is delivered by the words of Isaiah 5:20, 24:

“Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; ... Therefore as the fire devoureth the stubble, and the flame consumeth the chaff, so their root shall be as rottenness, and their blossom shall go up as dust...”

Rev Ian Brown, Clerk, Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster, Martyrs Memorial FPC, Ravenhill Road, Belfast, BT6