The Christmas Creche exhibition in the Mormon Church is once again in full swing and the question could be asked as to whether this is a religious display or an art display?
If this truly is only an art display, then it should be possible to have such a display sanctioned by the art council and displayed on public property. Unfortunately, a nativity scene no matter how artistic, cannot be displayed outside City Hall, in any park, or in any plaza around town in case it may offend someone.
Art is something that comes from the heart and conveys an emotional message from the artist in a visual form to communicate with the viewer. Whether a viewer wants to stop and meditate on its beauty and try to understand the emotional message from the artist or just enjoy the fact that there is art surrounding our everyday life, then that should be completely available to us all, all over our urban environment. If this art is Christian, or any other religion based, does it make it any less meaningful if it is art?
I would much rather see an artistic rendition of something meaningful from any and all religions around town rather than some of this ugly, meaningless, politically correct, so called public art we have at present.
Let's have Christmas nativity scenes as art, Menorrahs, Buddhas, and other artistic emotion stirring pieces to show and celebrate our diversity and mixed cultures, rather than making us look at heartless, meaningless, cold pc, pieces that only show us to be narrow thinking killjoys.
