BJCPA and Public Funding for the Arts

According to a 1994 left-wing political training manual, produced by a coalition of over 60 liberal religious/political organizations, including the BJCPA: "public funding for the arts...is not a matter of indulgence but of necessity." Linking "freedom of expression" to government funding, the training manual states: "The main battle over freedom of expression and the arts...involves ‘public funding’ - i.e. ‘taxpayers dollars.’" (How to Win, A Practical Guide for Defeating the Radical Right in Your Community, pp. 100-101) See BJCPA and the "How to Win" Manual for more information on the BJCPA's involvement in the How To Win manual.

At the height of the congressional battle over federal funding of obscene and offensive "art" by the National Endowment for the Arts, the Free Expression Network sponsored a February 2, 1993 meeting called the "Free Expression Briefing." Among the speakers expressing their support for the arts was BJCPA Executive Director James Dunn. In his prepared comments before the group, Dunn stated: "...all the freedoms guaranteed in the First Amendment are indivisible. If freedom of religion suffers, freedom of the press is in danger. If the press is stifled, the pulpit is not free. If the arts are censored, no dissenter is safe. Full freedom of conscience is essential to the search for truth. There can be no government thought control." (emphasis ours)

Other speakers at the Free Expression Briefing included John Buchanan, Executive Vice President of People for the American Way and Robert Peck, Legislative Director for the ACLU, two of the most influential and best known defenders of pornography on the American political landscape. Among the organizational participants of the Free Expression Briefing were:

BJCPA and the American Arts Alliance: Government Funding for the Desecration of Christ

In November of 1994, BJCPA Executive Director, James Dunn was a participant in a conference sponsored by the American Arts Alliance (AAA), an organization "representing the 2,600 non-profit arts institutions nationwide... The AAA works with Congress, the Administration, regulatory and other relevant agencies to advance arts interests in areas including: support for the NEA; defending an individual’s right to freedom of expression and opposing content restrictions on NEA grants; [and] increased federal funding for the arts..." (emphasis ours) (1993 Free Expression Resource Book, published by the Free Expression Network)

According to Robert Peck, legislative counsel for the ACLU, and also one of the AAA conference participants, government funded "art" depicting Christ immersed in a container of urine or depicting Jesus "injecting drugs into His veins," can be quite "beautiful" depending on our perspective. Describing the AAA meeting in a speech at the 1994 annual national conference of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, Peck stated: "The last two days I’ve actually been at [the AAA] conference where I delivered a paper and chaired a discussion on religion and the arts... Inevitably, the discussion came down to certain kinds of artistic works and what they said about religion. For example, obviously, Andres Serrano’s ‘piss christ’ came into the discussion... [A] minister from a Baptist church in New York, said actually he had looked upon the thing and he had seen nothing ever so beautiful as Christ in this amber glow. The fact was that he knew Serrano and he knew that the message he was trying to send was a deeply spiritual one - that had to do with the fact that Christ is a part of all of us including our bodily fluids... So, it was clearly in the eyes of the beholders." (Peck also serves on the governing board of Americans United with numerous BJCPA staff and board members. Peck’s presentation was tape recorded by Americans United.) (For more information see "defense" section XII)

AU Gives Award to Congressman for Defending NEA

In 1990, Americans United, an organization where BJCPA Executive Director James Dunn has served as a trustee since the early 1980’s, gave their highest award, the Madison-Jefferson Award, to Congressman Pat Williams in part "for defending the National Endowment for the Arts against charges that it has funded ‘sacrilegious’ works of art." Speaking before the 1990 National Americans United Conference, Congressman Williams stated that "recent threats to separation [of church and state]" include "the NEA controversy," because "several proposed amendments were offered to restrict funding of art deemed ‘sacrilegious’ by the standards of narrow sectarian interests."

(Church and State, Nov. 1990, p. 4-5)

(For more information see "defense" section XIII)