The First Amendment took center stage this week as the Brooklyn Museum of Art - the people who brought you the grotesque picture of Blessed Virgin Mary covered in elephant dung last year - unveiled "Yo Mama's Last Supper." This "work of art" is a photograph modeled after Da Vinci's Last Supper, in which Christ takes the form of a completely nude woman, depicted by the artist, Renee Cox, herself. Also, all the disciples in the photograph are black except for Judas Iscariot, who is a white man.

The artist claims that the photo is her way of responding to what she considers to be the repressive teachings of the Catholic Church. Unlike the elephant dung artist, who had claimed (spuriously in my opinion) that the dung was a symbolic attempt to make a spiritual connection with the earth, Ms. Cox makes little pretense as to her motivation for the work. It is her private declaration of war on the church.

In response to the controversy generated, Mayor Guiliani hopes to create a commission to screen art displayed in publicly funded museums.