‘Defaced’ bible forced behind glass
An exhibit in Glasgow designed to promote gay rights within the church has had to be put in a glass case to prevent visitors scrawling obscene messages.
The “interactive” Bible had been placed on a stand with pens and the message: “If you feel you have been excluded from the Bible, please write your way back into it.”
However, the messages did not turn out as expected, with many people writing messages such as “f*** the bible” and “This is all sexist pish, so disregard it all”.
One message said: “I am bi, female & proud. I want no god who is disappointed in this.”
As a result of the protests this received, the Bible has been placed behind a glass case, with paper and pens placed beside it for comments. These will then be inserted into the Bible later.
Yesterday more than 100 people turned up outside Glasgow’s Gallery of Modern Art to protest the work.
The Vatican has also described it as “disgusting”.
The Pope’s adviser said it was “disgusting and offensive”.
“They would not think of doing it to the Koran,” he added.
The Metropolitan Community Church (MCC), an LGBT ministry which organised the event had said that it wanted to “reclaim the Bible as a sacred text”.
Jane Clarke, one of the artists and a minister at the Metropolitan Community Church, said she had not intended any offence.
Speaking to the Daily Telegraph, she said: “I am saddened that some people have chosen to write offensive messages.
“Writing our names in the margins of a Bible was to show how we have been marginalised by many Christian churches, and also our desire to be included in God’s love.
“As a young Christian I was encouraged by my church to write my own insights in the margins of the Bible I used for my devotions – this was an extension of that idea.”
The exhibition also included a woman ripping pages out of a Bible and stuffing them into her bra, knickers and mouth.
The MCC was founded in southern California in 1968, as a “positive ministry to gays, lesbians, bisexual, and transgender persons”.
