The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) has once again come under fire for issuing grants that help fund pornographic and obscene “art”. The NEA was given $80 million from the federal government’s $787 billion economic stimulus bill to give as grants to a number of organizations it deemed worthy of financial support. But true to form the NEA has shown itself incapable of distinguishing between art and garbage.

Consider the following grants the NEA awarded, according to Fox News, using the $80 million it received courtesy of our tax dollars:

 •   $50,000 to Framline, a “gay and lesbian” film house that screened Thundercrack. This film is described as an “underground kinky art porno horror film, complete with four men, three women and a gorilla.”

•   $25,000 to CounterPULSE, a San Francisco based organization that produces a weekly event called “Perverts Put Out”. During the performance the guests are invited to “join your fellow pervs for some explicit, twisted fun.” 

•   $25,000 to The Symmetry Project, a dance by choreographer Jess Curtis that Fox News describes as “two people writhing naked on the floor, a government-funded tango in the altogether.”

When confronted with this information Victoria Hutter, current chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, told Fox News: “Our review process is very comprehensive – we take great care with applicants and with grantees. It’s a thorough, rigorous process that they all go through, and we’re proud of the projects that we’ve been able to support.” If what she is saying is true the government knowingly and proudly uses the NEA to sate the lust of the morally challenged – or perverts to use the more accurate, though not politically correct, terminology.

Surprised? Anyone who knows anything about the history of the NEA would not be. It has funded indecent, pornographic, obscene, and blasphemous projects for years.

A couple of examples will suffice. In 1989 Andres Serrano, a so-called artist, received $15,000 from Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art, which had previously received a larger grant from the NEA. Serrano used that money, our tax dollars, to fund a blasphemous exhibit. That exhibit featured a crucifix submerged in a plastic container filled with Serrano’s own urine. I find the name of the exhibit so offensive I will not print it.

A second example involves photographer, Robert Mapplethorpe. In the early 1990’s Mapplethorpe’s X Portfolio series was included in The Perfect Moment, a traveling exhibition funded by the NEA. Mapplethorpe’s photographs were explicitly autoerotic and homoerotic in nature. They were obviously pornographic.

Works such as these caused an uproar among some conservatives and religious organizations. They attempted to get Congress out of the art-funding business. They failed in that endeavor though they succeeded in reducing the NEA’s budget from a high of $175,954,680 in 1992 to a low of $97,627,600 in 2000. Since then, however, The National Endowment for the Arts has become an example of Ronald Reagan’s axiom that the closest thing to eternal life on this earth is a federally funded program. The NEA has proven its resiliency by withstanding all efforts to terminate it. Its 2009 budget is $155,000,000.

But does all of this matter? Does it matter that the government is using our tax dollars – stimulus or otherwise – to stimulate the deviant sexual desires of perverts? Yes, it matters.

In 1965 when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the bill creating the National Endowment for the Arts he made an insightful comment. “Art is a nation’s most precious heritage, for it is in our works of art that we reveal to ourselves, and to others, the inner vision which guides us as a nation. And where there is no vision, the people perish.” I agree. That which the people of a nation produces and calls “art” is a revelation of the moral makeup of its citizens. And that which a nation calls “art “and legitimizes by subsidizing it is a revelation of its moral makeup. Unfortunately what we all too often discover is that the “inner vision which guides us” is a depraved nature that delights in the deeds of darkness. The result is “art” that glorifies immorality, decadence, and evil. The result is a heritage that must be repented of and overcome rather than embraced.

Using stimulus dollars to stimulate the morally challenged is a great evil. It reveals a nation that has lost its way, a nation that can no longer distinguish right from wrong, good from evil, beauty (true art) from ugliness (so-called art), a nation that willfully poisons the souls and spirits of its citizens, a nation that suppresses “the truth in unrighteousness” (Romans 1:18 NASU), a nation in danger of divine judgment on an unprecedented scale.

Further, because the government is itself guilty of facilitating the production of pornography it weakens its ability to enforce any laws which restrict or prohibit others from doing so. It is the ultimate act of hypocrisy for a government to say, in effect, “Do as I say and not as I do”.

This may seem like a trivial matter to some. It is not. It is serious and it has serious consequences. The Bible plainly tells us, “God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap” (Galatians 6:7 ESV). If that is true for an individual and the sowing of lust results in broken relationships, heartache, disease, and even death, how much more destructive is the result of a nation that sows lust in the hearts and minds of its citizens?

Look around you. What do you see? “Since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Though they know God's decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them” (Romans 1:28-32 ESV). Such are the fruits that America has already begun to harvest. And with the government as the chief “Gardener” we can be sure our future harvest will be an abundance of the same.

Should we not rather heed the words of Hebrews 10:24: “Let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds” (NASU)? Such stimulation does not require government dollars or even your dollars. Indeed, all the wealth in the world cannot stimulate love and good deeds. Rather it requires something much more precious, your willingness to die to your own wants and desires. When you do so the harvest that is reaped is eternal life, both for yourself and for those who you have stimulated by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Soli Deo Gloria!