Abolish NEA, Hard-Line Baptists Ask

A Southern Baptist agency, under the firm control of the political and theological fundamentalists in the denomination, urged today abolishing the National Endowment of the Arts unless it stops funding “offensive” art.

“Each week seems to bring new revelations about the activities of the NEA,” Richard Land, executive director of the Southern Baptist Christian Life Commission said in a letter to members of Congress. “Last year (photographer) Robert Mapplethorpe and (artist) Andreas Serrano became household names. This year America has learned about NEA’s funding of Annie Sprinkle, the ‘Tongues of Flame’ and the San Francisco International Lesbian and Gay Film Festival.”

The Christian Life Commission of the 14.7-million-member Southern Baptist Convention has taken on a new and higher profile since fundamentalists have taken control of the denomination, establishing a Washington lobbying office and moving into issues formerly shunned by the agency as matters of individual conscience for Baptists.

In his letter to members of Congress, Land dismissed those who defend the arts agency by arguing the “abuses” of the NEA “are not clear cut because the offensive programs and exhibits were not directly funded by the NEA and that most of the abuses occurred under a previous (head) of the NEA.”

“We believe these claims miss the point,” he said. “Clearly, those who are responsible for awarding grants have and will continue to fund activities which most Americans find highly offensive.”

Christian Life Commission officials also dismissed as “intellectually dishonest” people who argue that those placing limits on what the NEA may or may not fund are engaging in censorship.

Congress is currently considering a number of proposals to restrict the endowment, cut its budget or simply abolish it.

The endowment, meanwhile, in an effort to stem criticism, has demanded that grant recipients sign an “obscenity” oath promising not to use grant money for any art that “may be considered obscene.”

In response, groups have begun turning down the grants, including Joseph Papp, the director of the New York Shakespeare Festival; Paul Zimmer, director of the University of Iowa Press; the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and the Paris Review. Others are accepting grants but under protest.