Aussie Catholics rioting over Osama-Jesus?

No, of course they aren't.

It's the time of year for the Blake Prize in the land down under, but it's always season for taking potshots at us Catholics, so here we have what passes for art these days:

Artist defends Osama-as-Jesus

Priscilla Joyce Bracks' Bearded Orientals, Making the Empire Cross is a lenticular image in which the viewer can flip between portraits of Jesus and Osama bin Laden, by shifting slightly from side to side.

Isn't that precious: Bearded Orientals, Making the Empire Cross. Because you know, you gotta include references to empire (be it British, or whatever) and the Cross, since the image itself wasn't laying on the offensive stuff thick enough.

Of course anyone who awards a prize for this "religious art" is morally bankrupt, and it shows: Reverend Rod Pattenden, who awarded the $15,000 prize to the competition winner says about Bearded Orientals, Making the Empire Cross that

the artist was questioning "the idea that you can have absolute good and absolute evil. Life's a bit more complicated than that".

Ponder that for a moment: A clergyman who does not believe in absolute good.

Completing the dhimmitude and complete moral equivalence of the bien pensant, a statue of the Virgin Mary shrouded by a Muslim burqa was also a Blake Prize entry.

If you haven't heard of the Blake Prize, it's a $15,000 prize awarded for religious art,

The Reverend Rod Pattenden, who awarded the $15,000 prize to the competition winner in Sydney yesterday, said his mission was to spark debate about spirituality in a world that was "cynical, degraded and in crisis".

With competition like this, it ought to be.

As if the anti-Catholic imagery is not insulting enough, Reverend Rod manages to fling yet one more insult while he's at it,

Mr Pattenden said he did not expect controversy to result from the exhibition at the National Art School Gallery "because the Christian community doesn't look at art a great deal".

With crap like this being called prize-winning "art", why would it want to?

Meanwhile, over in Sweden, Lars Vilks is receiving death threats.

Captain Ed wants to know, When Exactly Did Art Die?

Update:
Aussie Islamic Leader: Mary in a Burqa is 'Not At All Offensive'

Update, Friday 31 August:
Don't take offense, shut the gate, via Janette.