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Civil Liberties

Angry French Catholics Destroy "Piss Christ"

Matt Welch | 4.19.2011 11:06 AM

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Surprise! Grant enough heckler's vetos to Muslims, and the other religions will eventually catch on. As ever, Tim Cavanaugh predicted this years ago.

Reason on "Piss Christ" here.

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Matt Welch is an editor at large at Reason.

Civil LibertiesCultureArtFree SpeechReligion
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  1. Warty   14 years ago

    Pisschrist

    1. Bloody Stool Muhammad   14 years ago

      I am shocked!

  2. Fluffy   14 years ago

    I await the follow-up headline, "Angry Piss Christ Destroys France".

    What a day THAT would be. Great video, to be sure.

  3. shrike   14 years ago

    I demand revenge for the Cathars.

    1. Warty   14 years ago

      Good, an excuse for a better song by a better band.

  4. Fist of Etiquette   14 years ago

    Those French Catholics better not try to build a church near Ground Zero, I can tell you that. Secretly recruiting others into their jihads for urine-free idolatry would be an affront!

    1. Minnesota Golden Gophers   14 years ago

      Guess why we're golden. Go ahead. Guess.

      1. Best Sports Headline Ever   14 years ago

        Golden Gophers trim the Beavers.

  5. Fluffy   14 years ago

    Can't you just see the kilometer-tall amber-colored Christ stomping across Paris, giant geysers of piss streaming down from his stigmata to flood the streets, slaughtering French pedestrians and flooding overpriced condos with teeny-tiny bathrooms?

    1. shrike   14 years ago

      I think that scene is depicted in one of those Left Behind books.

      1. Fluffy   14 years ago

        I might have to check one of those books out, then.

        Which one has Obama in it?

        1. Pip   14 years ago

          The one about the anti-christ who hidden sign is a Kenyan birth.

        2. Paul   14 years ago

          Which one has Obama in it?

          The one where they do the Sexy Jesus dance number.

    2. SugarFree   14 years ago

      And with no advanced warning, because the country already reeks of piss.

      1. Fluffy   14 years ago

        Little-known fact:

        The destruction of New Orleans was really undertaken by Piss Christ on a bender.

        That whole hurricane thing was merely a government cover story.

        Piss Christ drank too many hurricanes and couldn't find a restroom, and he figured the whole city already smelled like pee anyway...and the next thing you know thousands were dead.

        1. SugarFree   14 years ago

          For truly Piss Christ is a mighty Savior.

      2. dbcooper   14 years ago

        Cleanest air in the OECD my friend. London is better for a good piss reeking alley.

        1. SugarFree   14 years ago

          Do not contradict me. Piss Christ might be busy, but I've Poop Buddha on speed dial.

          1. Scruffy Nerd Herder   14 years ago

            I laughed

            1. R C Dean   14 years ago

              Out loud?

              1. Almanian Bot   14 years ago

                LO!

  6. Restoras   14 years ago

    I'd love to see a comparative exhibit - Piss Christ, Piss Moses, Piss Mohammed, Piss Buddha - and watch which group gets more pissed off.

    Pay-per-view?

    1. Cyto   14 years ago

      Didn't Parker and Stone already perform that experiment?

  7. Gregory Smith   14 years ago

    Vandalism is bad, but murder is worst and let's face it people, Muslims kill people more often than anyone else.

    WEAR A VEIL OR DIE: WELCOME TO LONDONISTAN.
    http://libertarians4freedom.bl.....e-not.html

    1. Pip   14 years ago

      Maybe. But on the plus side, they never vandalize things.

      1. Almanian   14 years ago

        Really good kibbe and falafel, too.

      2. Bamiyan Buddha   14 years ago

        lol whut

      3. Buddhist Statues of Bam   14 years ago

        Muslims never vandalize? Say that to my fucking face, bro. Oh wait, you can't anymore.

        1. Buddhist Statues of Bam   14 years ago

          Shit. Beat to the punch again. Well, it's hard to be quick when somebody blows your face off.

    2. Jack On   14 years ago

      Yay for excusing our actions by holding our actions to the lowest common denominator!

  8. Mel Gibson   14 years ago

    I bet that's Jew piss.

  9. P Brooks   14 years ago

    Irreplaceable.

    The world has suffered a tragic cultural wound.

    1. !   14 years ago

      Threadwinner

  10. P Brooks   14 years ago

    ps- I don't particularly give a shit about Frenchmen, Papists, or "Art".

  11. Pro Libertate   14 years ago

    Destroyed in Avignon? Interesting. By a renegade anti-pope?

    1. SugarFree   14 years ago

      I was sadden when I found out what an anti-pope really was. In my ignorance, I had made it a far cooler concept.

      1. Warty   14 years ago

        Got your fucking antipope right here. Like a lion kills an antelope; like a hammer hits a canteloupe; I am the antipope.

        1. rac   14 years ago

          The Schism was a wonderful time on earth. TWO voices of God speaking to us. Then, God started taking his medicine again. Fucking psychiatrists!

          1. Pro Libertate   14 years ago

            It's worse than that. There have been as many as three popes at once, and, of course, there are the non-Catholic churches, too.

            1. pancakes   14 years ago

              Those aren't the real Church, they don't even have a Pope!

              1. Pro Libertate   14 years ago

                Who died and made the Bishop of Rome god?

                1. The Pope   14 years ago

                  Jesus.

                  1. Fluffy   14 years ago

                    Good one.

                  2. AlmightyJB   14 years ago

                    :)nice

    2. Agammamon   14 years ago

      Epop!

  12. Concerned Citizen   14 years ago

    It should have been destroyed by an Ameican. After all, we paid for it.

  13. TFG   14 years ago

    How many people did they decapitate? Oh right, none.

    Guess they lack the deep religious conviction that Muslims seem to have.

    1. Heroic Mulatto   14 years ago

      Baby steps, TFG, baby steps...

  14. Savonarola   14 years ago

    Things are looking up!

  15. P Brooks   14 years ago

    I was sadden when I found out what an anti-pope really was.

    Something to nibble on while you're waiting for your Pope to come out of the oven?

    1. SugarFree   14 years ago

      No, it was more like anti-pope and pope touch each other and there's a giant explosion.

      1. Fluffy   14 years ago

        I thought it referred to art and literature depicting a time before there was a pope.

        1. Arcaster   14 years ago

          I think that would be ante-pope.

          1. Fluffy   14 years ago

            I stand corrected.

            1. Pro Libertate   14 years ago

              There's also Auntie Pope.

              1. Almanian   14 years ago

                Did she run Barter Town? No...hmmm...can't place her.

                1. Pro Libertate   14 years ago

                  She and her nephew Patrick ran a stage show in Barter Town. She married a rich landowner in Southern Australia.

      2. Buddhist Statues of Bam   14 years ago

        That's how the Enterprise is powered.

  16. P Brooks   14 years ago

    a time before there was a pope.

    Sacre Bleu!

  17. SugarFree   14 years ago

    It's sad to think how many of us have strayed from the One True Faith: Angry Hillbilly God.

    1. Warty   14 years ago

      Isn't it a sin to make graven images of His holy trucker bombs?

    2. Hillbilly Jim   14 years ago

      Me?

    3. AlmightyJB   14 years ago

      Freebird!

  18. rather   14 years ago

    I saw a picture of the damage and they intended to open the gallery the next day with the art kept 'as is'. I wondered if it smelled?

    1. Fluffy   14 years ago

      ?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

      I hear that "The Scream" painting is really loud.

      1. rather   14 years ago

        Holy shit Fluffy 😉

  19. waffles   14 years ago

    On this whole draw mohammed and burn koran thing. It just seems stupid to me that one religion is "protected" while other aren't. Well, what the fuck? This is a stupid reaction, I hope the religulous peoples of the world would grow up. Blasphemy is just about the dumbest thing in the world to get violent over.

    1. Almanian   14 years ago

      I hope the religulous peoples of the world would grow up

      HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! *slaps knee*

      Ohhhhh, good one, waffles!

  20. PIRS   14 years ago

    So what would happen if French Capitalists tried the "heckler's veto" concept? Would they be listened to? Suppose the French Capitalists complained that they were / are an oppressed minority and that their unique way of life should be respected?

    1. sloopyinca   14 years ago

      French Capitalists

      Error. Error. Does not compute.

      1. cynical   14 years ago

        I dunno, there are probably enough to constitute an oppressed minority.

      2. Isaac Bartram   14 years ago

        France actually has a quite vibrant private sector with a surprising number of small businesses, considering the regulatory climate.

        The amount of big business is not quite as surprising since the French state has always been big on corporate handouts. plus the fact that big companies are far better able to absorb the costs of regulations and unionism.

  21. Tim   14 years ago

    "The protest group included a regional councillor for the extreme-right Front National, which recently scored well in the Vaucluse area in local elections."

    "scored in the vaucluse area" Heheh.

  22. R C Dean   14 years ago

    Utterly predictable under the Iron Law:

    You get more of what you reward, and less of what you punish.

    Muslims were rewarded when they imported violence into cultural disputes, why wouldn't Catholics do the same?

    1. Vermont Gun Owner   14 years ago

      As a French Catholic, I am going to say, off the top of my head:

      "Turn the other cheek"

  23. Tim   14 years ago

    All this time I thought the thing was an actual jar of piss, not a photgraph. Smashing a twenty five old jar of piss would have been a better story.

    1. Almanian   14 years ago

      What Tim said. I feel so...silly and un-hip to not have known that.

      *slinks back to boring, cultureless, Midwestern life*

      PS 25 year-old piss spilled everywhere would have RULED!

  24. fdasdfasdfas   14 years ago

    you stupid imbecilic asshole, so you put the Catholics, for destroying a picture of a "work of art" which is neither work nor art and it's insulting and blasphemous, on the same ground as the murderous rage of muslims? Should Catholics let themselves be trampled, insulted even killed in the name of laicite? As Catholics were murdered and their churches destroyed during the french revolution or the Spanish Civil War? YOU IMBECILE!

    1. Almanian   14 years ago

      Do you know Hercule?

    2. pancakes   14 years ago

      sounds like someone should right this wrong and get to murderin' some blasphemers. That's how respect is won for your version of the Allmighty.

    3. Warty   14 years ago

      Hey...pssst...your god doesn't exist. Pass it on.

    4. Fluffy   14 years ago

      Yup.

    5. oncogenesis   14 years ago

      Flying Spaghetti Monster absolves you, child.

    6. TBP   14 years ago

      I don't think that destroying a work of art because you're offended by it is the same thing as killing people because you're offended, but they spring from the same mind-set, and the one can easily lead to the other. Indeed, in reading comments here and on other sites about this incident, it is clear that many on the religious right have what others describe as "fatwah envy." They really, really wish they could kill people when they are offended. And Catholics have no more right not be offended or insulted than anyone else.

  25. Publilius   14 years ago

    I like the end of the article in the Guardian: This article was amended on 19 April 2011. The original referred to the Senator Jesse Helms as Jesse James.

    I can see the confusion between a robber and a senator.

    1. Arcaster   14 years ago

      At least a robber is honest enough to let you know he's taking your stuff.

  26. Abdul   14 years ago

    This story really buried the lede: who knew there was still a faithful Christian in France?

    1. Fluffy   14 years ago

      Maybe it's French hipsters who are only ironically pretending to be faithful Catholics in order to try to score with closet lesbian French hipster chicks.

      1. AlmightyJB   14 years ago

        Kind of like the all of the anarchist that tear shit up at the G7 meeting sites (along with all of their CWA friends) who are not really anarchist at all.

      2. Abdul   14 years ago

        "This relic? It's from St. Jude the Obscure. You probably haven't heard of him."

  27. Retail Assistant   14 years ago

    Wait. Are they closet lesbians or closet hipsters chicks. Because the former will be frustrating to some dude who just smashed up a museum.

  28. Isaac Bartram   14 years ago

    From the Gruniad article:

    It was vandalised in Australia, and neo-Nazis ransacked a Serrano show in Sweden in 2007.

    (my emphasis)

    It will be worthwhile to remember this the next time someone tells us how super-violent Americans are.

    The strongest reaction here was from a few religious people and some libertarians who objected to have their tax money used to pay for an exhibition of it. Plenty of Australians that I heard from took this as evidence of what intolerant religious extremists Americans are.

  29. Kreel Sarloo   14 years ago

    I occurs to this observer that since it is a photograph Serrano can just make another print (unless he's lost the negative).

    It's not like it's all that difficult a creation. What's to stop him from just passing in another jar with a crucifix in it?

    Silly French protesters.

  30. Miguel   14 years ago

    "French Catholics"

    There are Catholics in France? That's news to me.

  31. Krazy Kartoon Mohamet   14 years ago

    Hey, my buddy Pissed-Off Pope Benedict is trying to cut in on my action.

  32. Disgusted American   14 years ago

    Fuckin' Eurotrash....

  33. Swede   14 years ago

    Funniest thread ever! I'm still laughing over "cultural wound."

  34. octothorpe   14 years ago

    The patron saint of France is an armed bull dyke who hears voices. Artistes better run for the hills.

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