Before I begin this commentary, I would like to clarify that this post was not created for the encouragement of perverting sacred and religious items, people, quotes, or ideals. There will be no encouragement of robbing the offering plate, recommendations of pissing on Buddah statues, or claims that Keanu Reeves is the most multi-dimensional actor who ever lived (Well, from me, at least because I certainly can't speak for my two or three readers out there.). That being said, I have been thinking a lot about blasphemy lately.
No, I have no desire to graffeti a statue of Jesus with my feces (although statues of Lot are fair game for me, but that is a completely different story), I am just curious about what we, as humans with some education on the subject of religion, consider to be "blasphemous". This specific thought came to mind after completing an assignment for my costume class where we were asked to choose an emotionally-charged word and design a costume around it. We would then all gawk at each others' drawings, fumble around for words to describe how we "feel" about it, then be overtaken with dread as the group inched ever closer to our own drawing.
Once they came to my drawing (which depicted blasphemy, obviously), and after my ego was suitably stroked and my gut-wrenching fears allayed, people began to comment on how to enhance the drawing to further depict my word. I was surprised with how many suggestions sounded more goth-like to my ears. A spiked collar, or a converse with pentagrams doesn't sound blasphemous to me because I don't perceive a Converse as sacred (although the tween group that worships Converse Sneakers may disagree with me on that, but that's fine because we all know that tweens are not people but meat sacks full of nothing but hormones).
So, I began to wonder, what does blasphemy mean to me? In my drawing, it took the form of a sexy nun with an upside-down cross on her slinky dress, but I could still think of some other examples of it. Printing Bible verses on toilet paper, for example, seems pretty blasphemous to me. It would, however, make for some fun conversation:
"Honey, I need some toilet paper."
"Well, we have Acts, Genesis, Matthew, Revelations-"
"Yeah, well, I kinda had Mexican food for lunch, so..."
"Oh! Then you want Exodus!"
*Side note: I call dibs on the copyrights idea because I am very seriously considering starting a chain of Houswear items specifically for atheists, not because I am in any way atheistically-inclined, but because I know that "trend" atheists will rush to own anything with a clever little quip that gives them a holier-than-thou feeling over the stupid religious folk. On that note, do atheists get "holier-than-thou" feelings? I thought the whole purpose of atheism was to be UNholier-than-thou...so, what do they call it when an atheist is having overly and undeserved smug feelings of superiority?
Back to the original topic, though, it really does surprise me how different my view of blasphemy is. Does anyone else feel the way I do about it? Why do people associate gothic-style with blasphemy? Why do we tolerate certain levels of blasphemy for the sake of art? Would we be so tolerant if the blasphemy was OF art? I mean, nobody's even TRIED to kill Keanu Reeves yet...
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