The February 6 edition of Salon.com, the online magazine, features an excerpt from “The Erotica Project.” The selection, which was written by Lillian Ann Slugocki (she co-authored the volume with Erin Cressida Wilson), is an obscene portrait of Jesus Christ and Mary Magdalene. With graphic detail, Slugocki depicts them performing oral sex on each other.
William Donohue, president of the Catholic League, responded this way:
“On December 14, 2000, I issued a news release entitled, ‘Salon.com Slugs Catholics Once Again.’ Now the struggling online magazine is back again, this time seeking to offend all Christians. That it has succeeded in doing so is clear, though it is not clear why. Is it because, like adolescents, they enjoy pushing the envelope? Or is it because they see in Christianity a force that must be defeated? No matter, the last time we checked, its stock was going for $1 a share. The Penny Stocks can’t be far behind, but we sincerely hope they tank completely before delivering up another one of their sick statements on Christianity.
“Today’s Wall Street Journal has an interesting piece by Charles Murray on the ‘proletarianization’ of our elites. Murray discusses the extent to which those at the top of the socio-economic scale have begun to imitate the behavior and outward appearances of those at the bottom. In the case of Salon.com, we can take it one step further. Marx referred to the ‘scum of the earth’ as being members of the lumpenproletariat, and that, it seems, is the proper way to understand our online savants. The preppy boys and girls at Salon.com represent the lumpenproletarianization of our elites: they have more in common with the pimps and thugs who inhabit this social circle than with anyone else. Save for their bottled water.”
