{"id":3760,"date":"2006-03-25T13:34:55","date_gmt":"2006-03-25T13:34:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/viamedia\/2006\/03\/scrutinizing.html"},"modified":"2006-03-25T13:34:55","modified_gmt":"2006-03-25T13:34:55","slug":"scrutinizing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2006\/03\/scrutinizing.html","title":{"rendered":"Scrutinizing"},"content":{"rendered":"

Over the past couple of years, there has been much discussion about the touring "Bodyworks" exhibit, created and constructed by a German artist, made of plasticized human corpses. (The process happens in China, I believe.)<\/p>\n

Our favorite Catholic high school teacher, the Anonymous Teacher Person has recently blogged about her qualms about accompanying a school group to the exhibit. <\/a><\/p>\n

(Now, I don’t know if this is the same "bodyworks" exhibit that’s been, for example, in LA and Chicago, but it certainly seems the same.)<\/p>\n

\n
\n

The rest of this particular exhibit is organized by system, so each room has bodies stripped of all systems but one, basically. The exhibit contains bodies from a medical facility in Beijing – some of which were donated to science, and some of which were unidentified "John and Jane Does." I felt a visceral sorrow looking at the bodies of these people. To die with nobody to mourn you is a tragedy; to then be injected with polymers, stripped of your musculature, and exhibited for onlookers ready to drop $20 for the opportunity is a travesty.<\/p>\n

Then again, my students were very respectful and fascinated by the exhibit. I do think it enhanced their understanding of how intricately designed we are. Just…you know, people wouldn’t be lining up for this exhibit if it were Amazing Plastic Replicas of Bodies. It’s the macabre that makes it sensational.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n

And she has further, slightly less negative thoughts here..<\/a><\/p>\n

And it’s worth contemplating – the difference between this and the Capuchin ossuaries is….(fill in the blank)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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The Catholicism comes from her side. Amy grew up in a number of places - Indiana - Washington, DC - Lubbock Texas - Arlington, Virginia - DeKalb, Illinois - Lawrence, Kansas - and Knoxville, Tennessee, where the family settled in 1973. She attended Knoxville Catholic High School, then the University of Tennessee where she majored in history. She received an MA in Church History from Vanderbilt University, where she wrote a thesis on the changing role of women in 19th century American Protestantism, and the ways Scripture was used to justify those changes. She worked as as a teacher in Catholic high schools and a Parish Director of Religious Education and started writing for the diocesan press - the Florida Catholic - in 1988. Amy has written columns for Our Sunday Visitor and Catholic News Service at times over the past twenty years. Her articles have been published in venues ranging from Our Sunday Visitor to the New York Times to Commonweal. She has written 17 books. 18, if you included the as yet tragically unpublished novel. Amy has five children, ranging in age from 26 to 4 and was married to Michael Dubruiel, who died unexpectedly in February 2009. She lives in Birmingham, Alabama.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/author\/awelborn"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3760","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/180"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3760"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3760\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3760"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3760"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3760"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}