TN Nude Statues and 10 Commandments

[NuTex]

I found this article interesting.

Ten Commandments signs go up at Music Row's nude statuary

The purpose of this posting isnt't to spark a Ten Commandment debate since I think that would belong in the Off Topic Misc section. But I wanted to spark a Nudity and Religion discussion on this.
NuTex

Ten Commandments signs go up at Music Row's nude statuary
By HOLLY EDWARDS
Staff Writer
About a dozen small blue cardboard signs listing the Ten Commandments appeared yesterday morning around the giant nude sculpture Musica near Music Row.

By afternoon, they were gone.

A phone number that was listed at the bottom of the signs connects callers to an answering machine at the American Rights Coalition in Chattanooga. According to the coalition's Web site, tenlaws.com, the organization is led by Charles and Brenda Wysong.

Brenda Wysong says her organization sells thousands of the signs nationwide.

''I don't know who put them around the nude sculpture, but I sure am glad they did,'' said Wysong, a homemaker and mother of 15.

''Right now there is no moral law in this country, and our children don't know right from wrong. The Bible tells us if we follow God's law, we will be happier.''

Unveiled in October, the $1.1 million, 40-foot-tall sculpture was privately funded and presented as a gift to the city. Sculptor Alan LeQuire has said it represents a celebration of music and of the creative spirit.

But critics of the sculpture have said it's obscene and inappropriate for children to see.

June Griffin, an advocate for the Ten Commandments from Dayton, Tenn., said the commandments were a good counterpoint to the sculpture, which she views as obscene. She is heading up an effort to create a new specialty license in Tennessee that reads ''Tennessee for the Ten Commandments.''

''Since we've had pornography for 50 years, nudity doesn't seem to bother anybody,'' she said. ''But I don't want to look at the statue. It's one of the things diverting people's minds from God, and the Ten Commandments are the answer to that.''

[Trailscout]

NuTex,

You are preaching to the choir, buddy! There's nothing that gives greater glory to God than the nude human body, either represented in the fine arts or by any of the living breathing souls who share this planet with us.

I hope someone will say a prayer for June Griffin and that she will listen with an open mind the next opportunity she has to hear our side of things.

[WacoTX]

How does a nude statue divert ones mind from God?

I agree with Trailscout, you're preaching to the choir. Speaking of the choir, does anyone like close harmony?

[NuTex]

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You are preaching to the choir, buddy!

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I suspected I was. [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img]

This whole issue seems odd to me. Here in the Dallas area we have a lot of public nude art. Anyone that visits the State Fair Grounds will see wonderful giant nude murals across the walls. The Dallas Museum of Art has many classic nude paintings and sculptures. And beautiful nude statutes surround the Trammel Crow tower in downtown Dallas.

Why TN is having such problems baffles me with their closeness in culture to us here in TX.
NuTex

[Jochanaan]

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Originally posted by NuTex:
[qb] Ten Commandments signs go up at Music Row's nude statuary
By HOLLY EDWARDS
Staff Writer

''Since we've had pornography for 50 years...''[/qb]

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A lot longer than that, actually!

Strange; I didn't know that one of the Ten Commandments was, "Thou shalt not go naked, nor allow thyself to see nakedness nor any likeness thereof." What version of the Bible were they using? [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif[/img]

[Vin]

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Originally posted by Jochanaan:
[qb]Strange; I didn't know that one of the Ten Commandments was, "Thou shalt not go naked, nor allow thyself to see nakedness nor any likeness thereof." What version of the Bible were they using? [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif[/img] [/qb]

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Being originally from TN, I suspect it was the Volunteers' Unique Literary Version Annotated -- VULVA for short. };>

Flaming from Tennesseeans may now commence....

Vin

[Trailscout]

NuTex,

I was not trying to brush off your question. Even though most of us here affirm the goodness of the body in its natural state of nudity, we MUST get inside the minds of those who so vigorously oppose us.

Having gone through a fundamentalist phase in my spiritual pilgrimage, I would like to offer my best guess about the doctrines and just as importantly the preconceptions about nudity.

Because our bodies have the potential for sensuality, there has been an element within the stricter sects of the Protestant movement and perhaps some segments of Catholicism that has always been nervous about bare skin, at least in the northern latitudes where nudity was a rarity before central heating.

In the past century, we have seen a remarkable increase in the acceptance of bare skin, even among very conservative religious people.

But there seems to be a backlash in recent years as ultra-conservative religious folks lash out against increasingly lewd displays of sexual behavior in the cinema, television and in tabloid journals.

NuTex, there are a lot of people who have linked simple nudity with lewdness. These people are not easy to reason with. They are full of preconceptions, make a lot of decisions out of a crude sense of "feels right" vs. "feels wrong".
These are the same people you often hear crying out, "Let's take America back for God!" And who knows what Godawful laws they would pass if they could muster a big enough posse at the polls.

These people do NOT represent mainstream mature Christian thought, but we MUST take them seriously. They seem to have amassed a lot more political power and media presence than ever before. Believe me, you would not like the kind of America they envision. It remains to be seen whether we will have a more liberal humane society or become more like the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

(For the benefit of those who are not familiar with this episode of American history, much of New England was dominated by religious zealots who could not tolerate the slightest deviation from their beliefs and they backed this up by force of law. Quakers, Baptists and Catholics were driven out in fear of their lives. Witches or anyone you would like to "frame" as a witch were killed using outlandish means of torture to determine guilt or innocence).

[NuTex]

Trailscout wrote:

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I was not trying to brush off your question.

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I never thought you were. Don't worry about it.

You made some really good points. I think you're on to something there.

I just find it interesting that Nashville TN, being historically and culturally so close to TX, is having this problem.

But again I think you did a very good analysis of the textile reactions we're seeing.
NuTex

[HansM]

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Originally posted by NuTex:
[qb] I found this article interesting.

Brenda Wysong says her organization sells thousands of the signs nationwide.

''I don't know who put them around the nude sculpture, but I sure am glad they did,'' said Wysong, a homemaker and mother of 15.

''Right now there is no moral law in this country, and our children don't know right from wrong. The Bible tells us if we follow God's law, we will be happier.''
.'' [/qb]

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Isn't this the truth, once one knows the truth that God created us naked and unashamed, how free that lets us feel. To bad more people cannot come to this realization. For Jesus says, once you know the truth you can never turn away from it again.

[Jochanaan]

A lot of those "fundamentalists" seem to believe, "If it feels good, don't do it!" [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_eek.gif[/img] But "at [the Lord's] right hand there are pleasures for evermore." (Psalm 16:11) As C.S. Lewis writes in The Screwtape Letters, "He's a hedonist at heart."

[Bob S.]

That woman is extremely fundamentalist. Did you see in the column how many children she has? 15! Ouch is all I can say about that!

I am going to assume that unless she lives in a 50,000 square foot house, privacy is a valued commodity at her house. I am sure everyone has seen everyone else naked there. But we cannot have art! Heathenous art!

Bob S.

[fred950]

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Originally posted by Bob S.:
[qb] That woman is extremely fundamentalist. Did you see in the column how many children she has? 15! Ouch is all I can say about that!

Bob S. [/qb]

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As the great philosopher Marx (Groucho, that is) once said to the husband of a woman whom had a mere thirteen children. "Sir, I love to smoke cigars, but I do occasionally take it out of my mouth!" [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_rolleyes.gif[/img]

[Nude in the North]

Apparently She doesn't know God's Law.

''Right now there is no moral law in this country, and our children don't know right from wrong. The Bible tells us if we follow God's law, we will be happier.''

Maybe she needs to read the Bible herself instead of taking the word of the preachers that have their own agendas.

I don't remember any commandment that says "thou shalt not be nude" .

Steve

[Elton]

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I don't remember any commandment that says "thou shalt not be nude" .

Steve [/QB]

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There isn't. In fact, it could be health-threatening not be nude.

[Trailscout]

With all this flurry of posting, we seem to have forgotten the sculptor who made Musica, these beautiful nude bronze statues that are displayed outdoors in Nashville. The sculptor's name is Alan Lequire. Perhaps you would like to visit his Web site and write him: [email protected] to show your support.