John McDonald's point, as I understood it, is that without specific guidelines as to what religions are going to be represented in art and why, 'spiritual art' is no different from just plain 'art', and a spiritual art contest is going to get the same entries as any other art competition with the same level of public interest and prizes. It's not that the entries weren't 'spiritual', it was that they could have been -- and probably will be -- submitted to any other art competition.

If the competition setters really want 'religious art' then they should be specific about what that means, and put up with the consequences (and if modern religious art is anywhere near as bad as modern religious music, they will be pretty ghastly). If they can't stomach that prospect, then they should ditch the entry restrictions altogether and just have an open slather art competition. But by trying to have it both ways they are simply giving themselves over to being exploited.

Which, come to think of it, is a pretty religious thing to do.