God Hates Renoir

18 January 2018

I was recently using Google to find some images by the French artist, Renoir. One caught my eye. It contained a group of people carrying signs, protesting outside a museum. The signs said things like "Renoir Sucks at Painting" and "ReNOir." The one that I really found interesting said "God Hates Renoir."

God hates Renoir. How did they know? Where in the Bible did God say so? This reminded me of a woman in line ahead of me in a store some time ago. She was telling the checkout clerk that she did not let her daughter watch some particular TV show about vampires because Jesus didn't like vampire stories. I was  curious and asked her where in the Bible Jesus had talked about vampire stories. She just looked at me, mumbled something as she took her change, and left the store.

How is it that so many people feel that they must speak for and act for an omniscient, all powerful God? If that God could destroy a civilization with a flood, or could rain fire and brimstone down on cities like Sodom and Gomorrah, why couldn't he demolish all of Renoir's paintings in the twinkling of an eye?

Is it possible that those protesters were wrong? Maybe it's just that THEY don't like Renoir's paintings. Or did the organizer think that he was God? I don't like sauerkraut, but I don't think that it should be banned from all the restaurants in the world. I'm certainly not going to march in front of a restaurant with a sign that says "God Hates Sauerkraut."

I don't order sauerkraut when I go out to eat. If I didn't like Renoir's paintings, I'd just pass them by in any museum where I found them. I certainly wouldn't try to justify my personal prejudices by putting words into God's mouth. Seems to me that this must be some sort of blasphemy. There must be something terribly wrong with people who do that.