for 28 MAY 05: QUO-WRANGLE

Did you see what's planned for the front of the Columbus Public Library - a 35-foot-tall statue? Why don't they simply put it on top of the rotunda, to double as a lightning rod and cell phone tower?

But it was a quote about the statue in Friday's Ledger-Enquirer which made me stop and think. A supporter said: "Art is supposed to question the status quo, and be questioned." The story did not say which liberal public university that person obviously attended....

Do you agree with that statement about the purpose of art? I personally don't -- because art can have many purposes. Take Presidential portraits, such as George Washington's. Are we supposed to question whether his teeth were wooden?

Admittedly there are some works of art which raise questions. I've heard church pastors challenge the Washington Monument, calling it a giant phallic symbol -- and perhaps (ahem) the inspiration for Viagra.

(Which reminds me, I can't resist -- isn't there an obvious lesson in the national concern about Viagra and similar medicines causing vision problems? If you don't stop it, you CAN go blind....)

But let's go a bit deeper. SHOULD you question the status quo, at all? Many conservatives and evangelicals sound like they're supporting the national status quo, while liberals try to steal it away. So why do they sound like they don't like the status quo, when it comes to taxes and abortion?

Perhaps we should put the issue another way. The debates in Columbus and other places, whether about art or politics, involve WHICH status quo we want. Do we want the 1970 version, or the 1950 version? Of course, either way I suspect we'd still want to keep our current salaries....

This fight even extends to religion. I attend a church denomination which contends the Catholic Church ruined the Bible's "status quo" around A.D. 100. If you're wondering what I mean, here's a clue: try to find the word "Pope" in the Bible.

Yet our denomination is so concerned about its own "status quo" that it becomes downright nit-picky at times. Would you believe a study group was formed, to discuss whether church services should have hymns before the opening prayer or after it -- denomination-wide? Apparently the "Spirit's move" is only discerned in a corporate board room.

My usual denomination likes to say God didn't create humans to be robots, in a "cookie-cutter" way. Yet it often seems the top ministers want people to look, act and speak as alike as possible. I started blogging two years before church ministers did - but I don't dare call myself a pioneer. They'd call me a rebel.

I went to a different denomination for church last weekend, and some of what I saw was stunning. For one thing, the Pastor wore a tie but NO suit. In my usual denomination, this would be against the status quo and called sloppy dress. As someone wrote humorously about it on a message board: "We all know God wears a suit."

Perhaps the fight over the status quo can be summed up by a sign I saw outside a Kansas church while on my road trip: "The only people who like change have wet diapers."

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