Protest fliers are now available for those who want to make their voices heard about the Brooklyn Museum of Art’s current exhibits which many Catholic consider blasphemous. The American TFP and its affiliate campaign America Needs Fatima announced the fliers are the latest development in its peaceful protest against the blasphemy.
According to press reports, two blasphemous portrayals of Jesus Christ are now on display at the museum – a photo of a nude woman standing in Jesus’ place at the Last Supper and another of a topless woman on a cross. (Daily News Express, 2/15/01; Reuters, 2/15/01)
The TFP already announced an April 21 rally of peaceful protest and reparation in front of the museum and urged its supporters to send emails of protest to the museum and emails of encouragement to Mayor Rudolph Giuliani.
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“Many of those outside New York want to participate in this protest. These cards are the ideal medium,” says campaign director Robert E. Ritchie. “With nearly a half million Stop Blasphemy fliers out there, we expect the museum will receive a flood of cards and the mayor can anticipate an outpouring of support for his efforts to stop blasphemies that use public money.”
Thousands of Catholics sent and distributed similar cards against the play Corpus Christi and the movie Dogma. Mr. Ritchie says thousands of volunteers have committed themselves to passing out the fliers nationwide.
The exhibit has recently come under attack by Edward Cardinal Egan who urged Catholics to stand for “what is right and decent.”(Daily News, 3/5/2001)
Do Postcards Work?
It is a common thought. Sitting in homes, a few thousand miles from a blasphemy or an attack on Catholic morality, many wonder if postcards have any results. Are these postcards meaningless? Rest assured, they can be quite effective. Postcard protests have all but stopped plays like Corpus Christi and The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told. Another telling example is the unrelenting debate over the Vermont civil unions law.
Last March, the American TFP began distributing hundreds of thousands of flyers around the country protesting a same-sex civil union bill in the Vermont State Legislature. The flyer had two postcards: one addressed to the President of the Vermont Senate and the other to the Speaker of the House. Through considerable debate, the bill narrowly became law. Most thought the battle had been lost.
“O ye of little faith” the adage goes. Seven months later, Vermont legislators have not let the issue die. The House has just passed a measure which unequivocally states “gay” marriage is not legal in Vermont. The bill extends the marriage statutes to outlawing man-to-man and woman-to-woman unions and limits discussion of homosexual topics in schools.
Republicans captured an outright majority in the House for the first time in fourteen years largely because of opposition to the civil union law. It was grassroots reaction that kept this issue in the forefront of controversy, a telltale sign that hard-hitting postcards were right on target.