Kersti Kaljulaid, President of Estonia
Christians in Estonia are outraged over the National Museum’s choice to feature an exhibit where a virtual image of Our Lady can be desecrated by kicking a spot marked on the display.
Breitbart is reporting on the growing outrage over the exhibit which is on display at the new National Museum of Estonia and is supposedly in “celebration” of the Protestant Reformation in this historically Lutheran nation.
The image of Our Lady is projected onto a screen in a glass box and remains on view until a visitor kicks a spot marked on the display. Once this spot is kicked, the image of Mary shatters into pieces and is replaced by the word, “Reformation.” The exhibit then resets itself back to the image of Our Lady until the next visitor kicks the spot.
Kersti Kaljulaid, the newly elected president of Estonia, inaugurated the new museum just last month, but it’s opening season has been marred by controversy over the shocking display.
Christian leaders and politicians throughout the country have protested the exhibit which they claim mocks religion as well as desecrates the Mother of God.
Urmas Viilma, Archbishop of the Estonian Evangelical Lutheran Church took to Facebook to vent his anger over the exhibit, saying that it ridicules religion and insults the feelings of believers.
“I very seriously doubt that this exhibit is suitable for the permanent collection of the National Museum of Estonia, even if it is interesting from a technical point of view or from the perspective of modern approach to the depiction of historical events,” he said.
He added that for a “huge number of believers,” the Virgin Mary is “not some historical figure or event, gone into oblivion, but a reality today. The ridicule was an insult to the feelings of believers.”
Political figures have also come forward to complain about the exhibit, such as Mart Helme, chairman of the opposition Conservative People’s Party and a former ambassador to Russia. Helme believes the desecration is particularly offensive to the Russian-speaking community of Estonia who have a strong devotion to Our Lady.
“Mocking the symbols of faith also has a political dimension to it,” Helme added. “An attack on symbols may lead to an escalation of social tensions and a cooling of inter-state relations.”
Even though faith inside the country is strong, Estonia remains one of the least religious countries in the world with almost two-thirds of the population declaring no religious affiliation.
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