CLINTON ADMINISTRATION PURGING
RELIGIOUS MASTERPIECES FROM MUSEUMS

           The following is from a recent edition of Christian
            Crusade Newspaper, P.O. Box 977, Tulsa, OK 
            74102. The newspaper is in its 42nd year of 
            publication. Dr. Hargis can be E-mailed on 
            America On Line as BJHargis, on Compuserve at 
            72204,541, and via the Internet as 
            BJHargis@aol.com .

            Permission is granted for this article to be used in 
            newsletters, on computer BBSs or  other otherwise 
            published, provided that attribution to Dr. Hargis 
            and Christian Crusade Newspaper is included. 

            copyright 1993 Christian Crusade Newspaper.
            All rights reserved. 

from CHRISTIAN CRUSADE NEWSPAPER
by Dr. Billy James Hargis, publisher
Keith Wilkerson, editor
     
The Clinton administration's quiet assault on America's 
traditional values is having a dramatic impact on the fine arts. 
    The Clintons' change in official policy has been particularly 
blatant at the National Endowment for the Arts, which is again 
funding obscene, pornographic, perverted and blasphemous art 
projects. Now, officials there are also refusing to fund anything 
with the slightest Christian taint. They cite separation of church 
and state for denying funding to believers.
    The trickle-down effect on the arts community has been 
stunning. For example, the Arts Council of Fairfax County, 
Virginia, which draws part of its funding from the NEA, has 
yanked  four works of art from a 400-piece exhibition because the 
four portray "religious scenes."
    One was a photograph of a weathered adobe church in Taos, 
New Mexico. Another portrayed an elderly grandfather reading a 
prayer book. 
    Tragically, the new anti-Christian policies are also affecting the 
National Gallery of Art -- for decades America's greatest museum 
of fine art. It is under political assault as never before by liberal 
bureaucrats from within the Clinton Administration who are 
determined that all symbols of Christianity be removed from 
public display -- particularly in government buildings.
    The Gallery's original art collection was donated on December 
22, 1936 by multimillionaire art collector Andrew Mellon -- and 
included many priceless masterpieces portraying scenes from the 
Bible by the old masters. Mellon also paid for the building, which 
was dedicated and opened to the public in March 1941. 
    Upon entering the Rotunda from the Mall entranceway, you 
will still see Salvador Dali's magnificent portrayal of "The 
Sacrament of the Last Supper," which declared the surrealist's 
dramatic 1955 return to Christianity -- after losing his faith as a 
result of conversations with Sigmund Freud in 1938. 
    In Gallery One  is the Italian master Giotto's Gothic 
masterpiece "Madonna and Child." In Gallery Three is "The 
Annunciation," by Giovanni di Paolo while in Gallery Four you 
will find Fra Angelico and Fra Filippo Lippi's world-renowned 
circular painting, "The Adoration of the Magi," done in 1445. 
Nearby is Botticelli's masterful portrayal of the child Jesus and 
his mother, entitled: "The Virgin Adoring the Child."
    However in Gallery Five, Francesco di Giorgio's "God the 
Father Surrounded by Angels and Cherubim" is mysteriously 
gone. It is only one of a significant number of Christian-oriented 
masterpieces that are quietly disappearing from view each week. 
Officials claim that National Gallery's art collection is so vast that 
it must be rotated regularly -- and the majority of the Gallery's 
artworks are held in storage, preserved for future display. 
However, a disproportionate number of masterpieces portraying 
Christ and scenes from the Bible are being shuttled off into 
storage bins.
    What is gone from public view so far in the National Gallery of 
Art alone? El Greco's magnificent "St. Jerome," "Madonna and 
Child," and "St. Martin and the Beggar" are in storage. Also gone 
is Rembrandt's "The Circumcision of the Baby Jesus." 
    At the Gallery's Seventh Street Entrance's central lobby, two 
magnificent sixteenth century Flemish tapestries once stood out 
-- portraying scenes from Christ's life. 
    They were designed by Bernaert van Orley and woven in wool, 
silk, gold and silver by Pieter van Pannemaker the Elder. "The 
Crucifixion" portrays Christ in agony. "The Garden of 
Gethsemane" portrays him in prayer before His Father. Both have 
been removed to storage -- along with "The Procession to 
Calvary" and "The Lamentation" although they had been popular 
favorites since 1944.
    To the left of the central lobby, an early sixteenth century 
Flemish tapestry, "The Triumph of Christ," also called "The 
Mazarin Tapestry," was composed of twenty-two warps to the inch 
-- considered to be the best surviving specimen of its kind from 
the Middle Ages. It has been removed from public view as well.
    On the opposite side of the ground floor Main Lobby are the 
National Gallery's collections of Prints and Drawings. There, "An 
Architectural Design with Christ Given Over to the People," by 
Guiseppe Galli da Bibiena is gone. So is Luca Cambiaso's "Cain 
and Abel," Hans Balding Grien's "The Lamentation" and a late 
15th Century work, "The Crucifixion." Also gone from this room 
is Rembrandt's magnificent and priceless "The Parable of the 
Publican and the Pharisee," taken from Luke 18:9-14. Every day, 
more Christian masterpieces are carted off to the basement.
    A Christian carillon on the Capitol Building grounds has been 
silenced as well. An 11-foot bronze statue of Senator Robert A. 
Taft, son of past President and Supreme Court Justice William 
Howard Taft, still stands out on the slope leading up to the 
Capitol dome. A carillon behind it towers 100 feet above the 
figure. Twenty-seven, beautifully-matched bells once pealed forth 
with hymns to the honor and glory of God, such as: "Nearer My 
God to Thee," "O God Our Help in Ages Past," and "Take Time to 
Be Holy" 
    At Christmas each year, carols rang out their joyous praise to 
the Messiah. However, the magnificent music of the Taft Carillon 
has been silenced. 
    The Chief Engineer of the Architect of the Capitol's Office cited 
complaints from the office buildings in the general vicinity of 
Capitol Hill and says religious music will never be played again 
during the week, although some may resume on weekends in the 
unspecified future. How can this be? 
    If you remember, when funding to blasphemous and anti-
Christian artworks was cut off during the Bush administration, 
the arts community loudly complained. Self-righteously, they 
howled that it was not the place of the government to censor 
artists or block their access to taxpayer subsidies. 
    "It's something you would see in the former Soviet Union," 
photographer Edgar Boshart, who took the picture of the Taos 
church, is quoted as saying about the removal of his work. His 
photographs were removed according to rules adopted that forbid 
the display of "religious scenes" as well as nudes, weapons, drug 
paraphernalia, violence, political expression or unpatriotic 
subjects. What?The Gospel of Jesus Christ has been classified as 
just as "politically incorrect" as drug abuse and street violence.
    The portrait of the grandfather and the prayer book was taken 
by Esta Gladstone, a professional photographer.  
    "It is a memory of my grandfather, knowing this is the way he 
chose to live his life," he said.  "I was trying to promote 
portraiture, not religion. That the arts council or a group of 
artists would shoot themselves in the foot and agree to this sort 
of thing astounds me."
         
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     Dr. Hargis can be E-mailed a number of ways:
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