Artist: Michael A. McGrath
Confronting Bodies: An offended married couple.
Date of Action: Past event: 2004; Current event: between 01/20/2013 & 01/30/2013.
Specific Location: Lakewood, Colorado, USA.
Description of Artwork: Book cover with nude backside of human male, images of human sexuality used for instructional purposes only, writings by artist talking about different subjects related to human sexuality from (in his opinion) a biblical perspective.
Description of Incident: Married couple slandered and performed copyright infringement against artist/author named Michael A. McGrath, several years years ago, and had Michael and his wife removed from a church group. Church group rallied and invited Michael and his wife back into fellowship. This married couple followed Michael and his wife to another church group in late 2012, and have started slandering Michael's name, religious beliefs and his artwork. Church's pastor asked Michael to take down three of his websites because of the content, refused to allow Michael to function in leadership within the church group(s) the church is affiliated with, and has asked Michael to meet with him to explain his "theology of the body."
Results of Incident: The meeting with the pastor, and the realization that the married couple had slandered his work and ministry, forced Michael to shut down his three websites (tarnochtai-publishing.com, tarnochtai-e-zine.com and tarnochtai.net), stop doing prophetic sculptures for the church network's men's groups and Art & Worship Sessions, and to stop teaching those same men's groups. Michael A. McGrath is a retired, disabled U.S. Navy veteran, having spent 21years on active duty as a Navy artist. This incident nearly sent him to the hospital from depression and a Post Traumatic Stress Disorder relapse. Michael contacted the National Coalition Against Censorship and is awaiting their response.
Source: Michael A. McGrath
Submitted By: Michael A. McGrath