On Friday June 3, a Judge of the Supreme Court in Greece delayed the trial of an art curator who was charged for hanging an apparently obscene painting. The curator of the exhibit, Christos Ioakimidis, was imprisoned last year around the time of the Olympics. According to sources, he could be waiting until early next year for his trial.

After hanging a painting by Belgian artist Thierry de Cordier, Ioakimidis was arrested and charged with publicly insulting the Eastern Orthodox Church. The painting depicted a figure whose manhood was in a vertical state with the image of the cross nearby. According to the Eastern Orthodox Church, the painting broke the law by combining Christian and sexual imagery. If Ioakimidis is found guilty, he could face up to five years in prison.

It's amazing to believe that such incidents still occur in a modern society in the 21st century. I understand that church could've found the painting to be in bad taste and therefore had it removed. However, to imprison an individual for a case of misjudgment is beyond me. Perhaps my opinions of censorship are too Americanized to understand such a mentality, but we're talking about Greece here, not some religiously fanatical third world country typically found in the more arid regions of Earth.

After all, the ancient Greek civilization is considered one of the most advanced to ever exist; credited with the creation of philosophy and other modern concepts in a time when most were still learning how to use fire. In my opinion, maybe they should devout more of their attention to the great minds of the ancients rather than to those of the Greek Orthodox Church.