Center for Reclaiming America

The Center for Reclaiming America is an outreach of Coral Ridge Ministries, a religious institution whose goal is to reestablish traditional moral values in America. In the following viewpoint, the Center argues that art once celebrated the human spirit, but today, it degrades humanity with pornographic images and other assaults on traditional moral values. The Center contends that the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA)—a federal program that funds artists and art projects—should censor all obscene art.

As you read, consider the following questions:

1. What does Harold O.J. Brown argue is the function of art?
2. Why does the Center for Reclaiming America oppose Robert Mapplethorpe’s art?
3. How can art become a weapon in the class struggle, according to Herbert Marcuse"

Most Americans hold a...