Barry Duke, the Angry Atheist

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   “The curriculum had already drawn tensions among the county’s religious parents, with some worrying about appropriateness and arguing the material…

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   As someone who produced dozens of nativity plays as a teacher and a Sunday School leader, that title ‘A Gay…

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BACK in 2014 Argentinian artists local Emiliano Pool Paolini and Marianela Perelli received death threats when they staged an exhibition entitled “Barbie: The Plastic Religion” which was later taken to centres outside the country—including the Vatican!

In addition to featuring Barbie Mary and Jesus Ken, the exhibition included religious figures from Catholicism, Judaism, Hinduism and Buddhism.

In 2016, the artists were invited by Mattel and Les Art Decoratifs (Palais du Louvre, Paris) to display four of their pieces,

They were also received in the Vatican by Pope Francis, who accepted a gift of their Barbie, “Our Lady of Lujan”.

Despite the outrage, the exhibition proved a great success, prompting the pair to announce that they plan to recreate the exhibition in Argentina in December.

Yesterday (Saturday) The Christian Post reported that the planned relaunch has sparked outrage globally, “especially among Catholic groups in Buenos Aires, the birthplace of Pope Francis.”

It pointed out that the artists’ decision comes in the wake of the thunderous success of the Barbie movie, which itself has been slammed by Christian media.

According to the CP when the first exhibition was staged, a priest—Adrian Santarelli from St. Thomas More parish in Buenos Aires—questioned the appropriateness of the dolls, saying their representation of sacred images “might damage a child’s understanding of the sacred.”

In response to the latest howls of protest, the artists insist that the exhibit is purely artwork and not intended to cause offence. Paolini insists that the creations are:

Simply the union of the two most popular elements of history: the Barbie doll and religion. Frankly, we don’t understand why we’re being attacked Religion has always depicted virgins as the most beautiful women. Today, the most beautiful woman is Barbie.

Paolini said the new exhibition in which 33 Barbies will be featured, along with other artworks.

Perelli and Paolini conceived the idea after witnessing the Day of the Dead celebrations in Mexico. They argue that if there are Barbies representing various professions, why not a religious one?

Hindus were among those outraged by the original exhibition

Image via YouTube

When it was announced that the original exhibition was to travel to Paris and Rome among other cities, Hindu “statesman” Rajan Zed, above, urged museums not to include a “Barbie-ized” Goddess Kali as it “trivialised the highly revered deity of Hinduism.

Zed, President of Universal Society of Hinduism, stressed that reimagining Hindu scriptures and deities for commercial or other purposes “was not okay” as it hurt the feelings of devotees.

Goddess Kali and other Hindu deities were meant to be worshipped in temples and home shrines and not meant to be reduced to a Barbie character.

Zed pointed out that Hindus were for free speech as much as anybody else if not more. But faith was something sacred and attempts at belittling it hurt the devotees. Artists should be more sensitive while handling faith related subjects, Zed added.

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