A reader mails:

You know Pieter, it really irritates me to no end how the libs have been jumping all over this as the group against offensiveness towards religions. You remember that whole "Piss Christ" thing years back? Weren't it the libs back then jumping up and down for freedom of expression?

Yes, I instantly remembered "Piss Christ" and when I did some research I was surprised that it was almost twenty years ago that it happened. And it was a double controversy, the left fighting for freedom of expression while the right was furious over the fact that a piece of blasphemy had been funded by the American taxpayer.

My reader is of course right. Our culture has accepted the notion that there is nothing wrong in using whatever means to argue that the dogmas and teachings of Jesus Christ are morally corrupt. Freedom of expression, fine, although we can discuss matters of good taste when it comes to Andres Serrano's now infamous depiction of Christ. Still, that assertion has somehow been accompanied by the argument that it is simply not acceptable to apply any criticism or ridicule to any other religion, most notably the one that finds itself increasingly in the spotlight of recent intellectual and public scrutiny. I leave it to your imagination if Serrano’s original work was somehow amended with another deity taking Christ’s place. I guess we would not be debating freedom of expression or who funded it, we would probably be debating something completely different.

Again, the ability to apply criticism and ridicule are the basic rights of anyone living in a western democracy. As a society we should expect citizens and artists alike to apply a measure of good taste. It is very hard to argue that the Jyllands-Posten's cartoons were offensive, but a case could be made that Serrano's "Piss Christ" was testing the limits of that somewhat arbitrary 'taste measure'. But we didn't kill Serrano, we didn't destroy his career, we didn't ask him for damages and a rectification, no, we debated it and we are still debating it today, twenty years on. That's freedom, that's democracy.