by Zach Bigalke

Created on: March 11, 2008

A student publication at the University of Oregon ignited a debate which inflamed a campus community and ignited a national debate on works of art depicting religious leaders. The Insurgent, a sporadic radical publication funded with student funds, published last year's March-April issue a series of paintings by a University of Oregon student depicting Jesus in several supposedly blasphemous poses - riding a pogo stick, listening to an iPod, posing as the Coppertone girl, sporting an erection...

The community was in an uproar. How could these students get away with such slander, with such blasphemy, using public dollars? Did freedom of the press and freedom of speech protect these students' right to publish such FILTH?! Even Bill O'Reilly and the Fox News team of hounds took up the cause...

Tyler Graf, editor of the rival Oregon Commentator student publication, was forced to sit in with O'Reilly when no one from the Insurgent would come forward. Graf did an admirable job defending the publication which his own so often derided as a point of policy...

The student who painted the artwork then printed a story explaining his thought process behind the depictions. His series of paintings was created for an art class; they were never created for publication beyond the canvas. Yet, after a Danish newspaper printed blasphemous photos of Muhammad as a terrorist, the Insurgent saw fit to approach the student to get the rights to publish his artwork in their own pages...

Art that mocks faith is as necessary as any other art. If we cannot question our faith and evaluate new possibilities within our faith, what is that faith really worth? A static faith is a dying faith... and our freedom of speech demands that we constantly question our values so as to keep them healthy and relevant. It is the job of a competent media to bring people the tools by which to evaluate their values vis-a-vis the current events of the day. The Insurgent sparked a conversation within the Eugene community and among the broader American public which would have been less incendiary, but less meaningful, without the radical images of Jesus.

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