Please be aware that if you follow the link to the source article at CNS News, you will see some very disturbing pictures.  The article is reporting on an exhibit currently at the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery which features “images of an ant-covered Jesus, male genitals, naked brothers kissing, men in chains, Ellen DeGeneres grabbing her breasts, and a painting the Smithsonian itself describes in the show’s catalog as “homoerotic.””   The exhibit is titled, “Hide/Seek: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture,” and will be there until February 13th. 

According to the article:

“The Smithsonian Institution has an annual budget of $761 million, 65 percent of which comes from the federal government, according to Linda St. Thomas, the Smithsonian’s chief spokesperson. The National Portrait Gallery itself received $5.8 million in federal funding in fiscal year 2010, according to St. Thomas. It also received $5.8 million in federal funding in fiscal 2009, according to the museum’s annual report. The gallery’s overall funding in that year was $8 million.”

I am not opposed to free speech, but I am for respect.  An ant-covered Jesus is not appropriate at any time, much less Christmas.  Paying for this picture with American tax dollars is obscene.  Why is it that the FBI paid a visit to a pastor in Florida who was going to burn a Koran because they were afraid of the Muslim backlash, but no one cares if Christians are insulted?  Why is this not considered hate-speech?