Bereft of Shame

Michelangelo's teacher asked him, "Why are you painting nude pictures of people?" Michel's answer, "I want to see man as God sees man." Teacher, "Michel, you are not God."

My husband is a real estate broker and when my oldest son was, I think, 3 years old we went to a house that had a plethora of art. As we were driving up the drive to the house we were greeted with Greek statues. We all went with my husband into the house to look at the house and all that it had. I immediately regretted my decision to join him when we started to walk up the stairs of this amazing home. I was going to try and avoid taking with my son about what he was seeing, but he would not stop. He kept asking me. "Why don't they have any clothes on?" This whole experience was something that I was not prepared for.

Now that several years are passed, I am faced with more of a delima. How do I explain to my son that images on a computer screen of nude people is pornography, but a painting of the same image done by an artist, is art? What is the difference? Some may argue, "It is the intent of the one who is putting that image to paper. If the intent is to arouse sexual pleasure then it is pornography, but if it is to show beauty then it is art." This may be well and fine for the one painting the picture, but what about the others who will view it? Does the one who is painting have no responsibly for my son's response?

When I was in the fourth grade, I stumbled upon some Pent House magazines. What those images did to me as a young girl were enough to start me down a pathway I wish for no one. What is the difference in what we call art and what is pornography? It cannot all be left in the hand of the composer and what their intent was when they designed the "art." We are called to see what we may be doing to others. Even if what we are doing is not wrong in our own hearts and we have a clear conscience about it, we are called not to make others stumble.

I am not saying that we have to live our lives in fear of what everyone else is doing, but art, this one is a big one. For our foundations are being destroyed and our children are hanging in the noose. "When secularism has had its way, we will be left with a society bereft of shame,"(RZ).

When you see a painting of a nude woman, do we think of the heart that was hindered as she was putting herself out for all the artists around her to paint? When you see a woman on the internet, or in Play Boy magazine, do you see what it has done to her? Is there a difference? Those who look at the image in front of them, do they see a difference?

In our world today, I feel like I am fighting a no win battle for my children's eyes and their hearts. Everyone is trying to separate what is art and what is pornography, but how it affect them, how it affects my children, that is the same. When art has had its way, we will be left with a society bereft of shame. From the movies we watch, to the paintings on the wall, our children are standing at the gallows, while the artists paintbrush is dipped in their blood.