Bill Donohue is hopping mad again — he’s got another wild hare up his butt and is fuming over another insult to his very Catholic sensibilities:
Catholic League head Bill Donohue called it “one of the worst assaults on Christian sensibilities ever”.
The latest affront is a life-size sculpture of a naked man on a cross, made out of 200 pounds of chocolate, on display in New York just in time for Easter.
Come on, Bill, get over it. Shouldn’t Abu Ghraib have been “one of the worst assaults on Christian sensibilities ever”? How about the injustice of our war in the Iraq? What about the ongoing denial of civil rights to homosexuals? There are a lot of horrors in the world that might prompt a good Christian man to unleash his righteous fury, but a giant chocolate Jesus really isn’t one of them.
Besides, the only real dilemma here is which piece you’re going to start nibbling on first.
Aww, somebody already ate the big bunny ears!
Maybe the problem is that it shows “Jesus without a loincloth”? I mean, these conservative Christians really have a hard time thinking of Jesus having naughty bits.
Oh, man I’m cracking up here, thanks for that. I remember a few years back when a catholic brother was talking to me and some friends about some theater burnings in Brazil at the re-opening of The Last Temptation of Christ. We were saying how zealots are crazy, when he surprised us with the argument: “it’s understandable, imagine if someone insulted your mother, wouldn’t you be as pissed?” Oh I was just a stupid teenager, but what would I have told him now…
By the way, last word I heard from that brother (and this may be apocryphal, but its potential for hilarity if it were true is just too much to avoid telling) is that the congregation sent him to Rome, I guess the Vatican, to run some errands or something, and the guy never came back. Damn those Italian women (my best guess, come on, what else could it be?).
Didn’t Piss Chirst cause a huge ruckus? It looks really interesting though..
so, no chocolate Lamb for Easter this year?
I don’t see the problem here… Christianity is forever munching on bits of their Lord, including His body and blood, not to mention all of the symbolism of eating lamb at Easter. So now it’s chocolate… big deal.
Bill Donohue wouldn’t be half as angry if they had used white chocolate.
Isn’t it silly to make this when it is going to be summer pretty soon? I mean doesn’t it melt… well -I- hope it does, I’d pay to see that.
(My sensibilities would be under assualt since most chocolate is made from cacau(sp) which is produced by slave labour in Africa.)
This has to be “one of the worst assaults on CHOCOLATE ever”. I’m deeply offended…
Mmmmm, sacrilicious . . .
What makes it so offensive to Donohue is that it depicts a black Jesus.
This was my first thought, too. For a bunch of people that claim to believe in transubstantiation, I don’t see what the big deal is. Apparently chocolate just isn’t as serious as unleavened bread…?
Will from hereon in be known as the Ghirardelli Heresy, & the Willy Wonka Transubstantiation.
It’s the similarity to actual practices that’s causing the offense in the first place.
People tend to reject violently concepts which are almost, but not quite, the same as their own sociopolitical identification tags. If they’re too different it doesn’t register as competition/conflict and there’s no reason to respond.
Remember the miraculous chocolate Virgin Mary – no one thought that was offensive. What’s the logic here? Chocolate Jesus is a product of intelligent design and chocolate Mary was a chance product of physical processes, shouldn’t religionists like the first one better? :)
It is certainly more tasteful, in several senses of that word, than Andres Serrano’s Piss Christ.
Anybody remember the Tom Waites song “Chocolate Jesus”?
(with apologies to Hank Azaria)
Mmmmmm…..chocolate Jesus…..(drool)
Oh, how could you leave the title of the sculpture out? I’ve been listening to a lot of George Harrison lately, so I thought “My Sweet Lord” was especially amusing.
And of course, the real question is how many calories are in that thing?
Yes, yes. Saw this one posted in all the Italian newspapers for some reason. Hmm…Italy, Catholicism…I wonder why??
Anyway, it was encouraging to note that the “artist” (if that’s the right term in this case) and provocateur turns out to be an Italian-American or Italian-Canadian or whatever. The
Vatican has yet to comment; too busy organizing anti-gay “Family Day” manifestations and trying to keep at least Italian politicians firmly under control.
Scott: Dan Castellaneta is the voice of Homer.
I was given to understand that Jesus was without sin, thus how could he have had naughty bits? Perhaps there’s some endowment jealousy at work here. But given that the Y chromosome would have come from God . . .
This Donohue fellow is a loon, plain and simple. In my view he is worse than the Dobson’s of the world by far. He is offended by anything other than total acceptence of his version of anything. You can’t offend his sensibilities simply because he is far from sensible to begin with. He is a parody of himself in the world’s fastest dying religion.
I had much the same thought as PZ, only my first example was the holocaust – they may have been Jews, but ultimately they were all God’s children (I’m told), and to kill 6 million of them would seem like a pretty big insult.
Seems to me Donohue took the bait hook, line and sinker. Or am I wrong to think that at least part of the purpose of this thing is to (somewhat eccentrically) challenge Christian grumbling over the pagan symbolism (chocolate bunnies, etc.) so heavily associated with Easter?
This is not something worth getting mad about, but then again, we’re talking about Bill Donahue here.
Heh heh. Thanks for those awful, awful Easter puns, PZ.
I like Caledonian’s point. I will never forget an experience in ninth grade, when I was still Catholic. Our science teacher gave a presentation on prehistoric man, and mentioned there were indications of ritualistic cannibalism. After we all went, “Ew!” he tossed in the notion that that is exactly what modern Catholics participates in every Sunday. My mind was blown. I didn’t become an atheist till about twenty years later, but I’m sure that planted a seed that was part of the process.
(Damn. Someone beat me to the joke about “Eat my body” ;-)
I don’t get the problem with this: what’s special about stone, wood, bronze etc. that makes it OK to make crucifixes out of them, but not out of milk chocolate? (But white chocolate, now that would be blasphemous).
Art is largely a mystery to me, but I suppose this sculpture could be taken as a statement (perhaps even a protest) on the conflation of the Christian significance of Easter with the cute-bunny-chocolate-eggs side of it.
In all my years of Catholic school I was never even once told that you couldn’t eat chocolate on Lent. I don’t see the problem here.
Would it be wrong of me to say I want to suck Chocolate Jesus’s cock?
Sigh. Donohoe is showing off his Muslim-envy again.
Bill Donohue is hopping mad again . . .
Bill Donahue not only gets hopping mad for a living, but he figures that if he gets sufficiently and publicly pissed-off over the right trivialities, Christ will personally welcome him into heaven.
He’s old enough, and Catholic enough, to have participated in the Feast of the Circumcision, which was a celebration of Jesus’s bris, and by extension, an acknowledgement that He had a willy. (His foreskin was also considered an important relic; up until the last century or so, Catholic lore held that the body parts of saints and Supreme Beings’ offspring didn’t deteriorate after death, so they figured it was still around, someplace.) So Donahue shouldn’t be worked up about the anatomical correctness, but I’m sure that’s a huge part of it–especially since Chocolate Jesus has a considerable package.
(BTW–wasn’t that a Tom Waits song?)
So is Donohue pissed because Little Jesus is bigger than Little Bill’s or smaller?
I think Pope Sturbanfurher Benedict needs to put Bill in the cooler. Maybe even send him to the “showers”, if you know what I mean?
There is a fantastic Tom Waits song on the Mule Variations album called Chocolate Jesus.
excerpt-
Don’t go to church on sunday
Don’t get on my knees to pray
Don’t memorize the books of the bible
I got my own special way
But I know jesus loves me
Maybe just a little bit more
I fall down on my knees every sunday
At zerelda lees candy store
Well its got to be a chocolate jesus
Make me feel good inside
Got to be a chocolate jesus
Keep me satisfied
I hope they are going to make an 8 oz. version. They could call it the “Word Made Chocolate Bar” or the “Take, Eat, This is My Body Bar.”
Mommy, mommy, look, I bit off Jesus’s peepee!
I guess Bill suffers from the same temptation that I do; sneaking in late at night, breaking off Christ’s head and eating it. I was never an “ears-first” kinda guy.
I also thought of the Tom Waits song. I wonder if this Jesus would make a nice parfait?
Wondering about calories? Check it out: http://www.esquire.com/the-side/opinion/chocolatejesus032807
Is it hollow or solid? As a kid I always felt ripped-off by all the hollow chocolate bunnies… :)
Yeah, and they don’t like being laughed at or parodied, although there’s tons of stuff out there, be it soap or other objects, that do this. It’s another “attack the art exhibit in Manhattan” brouha for attnention, I’m gathering.
On the subject of what happens when Chocolate Jesus melts… I remember seeing candles shaped like Jesus and angels, in a store, a long time ago. I couldn’t help but think that it just seemed wrong (at least for a Christian) to burn these things.
You can’t really even consider transubstantiation, in the case of a Jesus candle, because it’s not even food. It’s wax melting into a puddle, and that sure seems like a waste of perfectly good Jesus goo.
Choco-Jesus is hung. I just hope he doesn’t get wood.
Oh, dear. I hope that’s not in bad taste. I definitely want Jesus to taste good.
Damn the Internet for making all of my jokes first! About all I have left is a memory of Bill Hicks’s Rant in E-Minor.
Hellfire would be especially useful here – Jesus fondue! I’ll bring the strawberries.
Be there or be square…
March 29, 2007
ARTIST WANTS PUBLIC TO EAT JESUS FIGURE
The Catholic League has learned that artist Cosimo Cavallaro has invited the public to show up at midnight on April 1 to take a bite of his 6-foot tall chocolate sculpture of a crucified Jesus with his genitals exposed; it is scheduled to be shown during Holy Week, from April 1 to April 7.
http://www.catholicleague.org/07press_releases/quarter_1/070329_artist_wants.htm
That first picture threw me for a loop, it looks more like Zombie Jesus.
You know, one of the really nice things about being an atheist is not being slavishly beholden to symbols. Have to wonder how Bill would react if someone told him that.
Seems to me having a bunch of chocolate sit unwrapped in an open area for an extended period is unhygenic even if one assumes it hasn’t been touched by the “I never wash my hands, ever” crowd. I’ll pass.
Abu Ghraib as one of the worst assaults on christian sensabilities? PLEASE. What a stupid idea. Abu Ghraib was a frat prank compared to things people have done to each other in the name of religion. Go study a history book about the crusades in the middle ages.
The chocolate jesus figure thing is in poor taste, but thats about it. Frankly I think its irrelevant.
You know, I’ve been looking for an excuse to visit New York, but Tim Gueguen has a point. I might be more in the market for bite-sized Chocolate Jesus figurines. Little. . . figurines. . . with their tiny. . . little. . . heads. . . {chomp) (mmrrgf) (mmmmm).
I don’t know why he’s so concerned about this – Jesus and the Virgin Mary show up in food all the time! He’s even shown up in a fish stick. If I were Jesus, I’d be happy to be in chocolate instead of frozen cod.
http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/WolfFiles/story?id=307227&page=1
That’ll be Jesus chocolatebar Joseph.
Isn’t the really offensive thing that a major religion has a tortured, dying, naked man as its symbol?
Whether made of solid gold or solid milk chocolate, it’s the subject matter itself that’s grotesque.
Bob ryuu, (#3), I thought piss was associated with Muhammad, not Christ – you know – the prophet Muhammad, piss be upon him.
“I don’t care if it rains or freezes
Long as I got my chocolate Jesus…”
Sweaty Hand Luke
Peter McGrath:
Go and sit in the corner and think about what you’ve done. That was awful ;-)
Wouldn’t it be the navel rather than the schlong that causes doctrinal problems?
You can’t really even consider transubstantiation, in the case of a Jesus candle, because it’s not even food. It’s wax melting into a puddle, and that sure seems like a waste of perfectly good Jesus goo.
Speaking pedantically: there *is* transubstantiation (well, actually it’s chemistry) when a candle burns. The wax is consumed as it reacts with the oxygen in the air, producing light and heat (and buckyballs). Notice that the amount of wax left after a candle has “burned down” (ie when the wick is no longer able to conduct liquid wax to the flame) is nowhere near the amount that was in the original candle.
…
…
If it’s life-sized, and weighs 200 pounds, it’s probably pretty much solid, not hollow like the chocolate Easter bunnies.
I’ll bet anything that somewhere out there is a devout Christian outraged because this son-o-god has a NAVEL.
…
I think the real sacrilege here is that it’s obviously MILK chocolate, instead of heavenly, soul-satisfying DARK.
…
…
Man is this dumb. It doesn’t even look like the common images of Jesus, save the posing of the figure in such a way that recalls Jesus on the cross. My guess is either chocolate is too difficult to form into a full head of hair and a beard, and that a loin cloth produces interesting technical challenges for the stuff.
This is lame. Probably an artist just looking for some attention. I am surprised however that *THIS* was targeted as “one of the worst assaults on Christian sensibilities ever”. I would’ve thought the Virgin Mary smeared with feces and urine would’ve been moreso, but I guess that’s why the religion is called Christianity, not Maryianity.
No no no, it’s Adam who didn’t have a navel. Jesus was conceived by God-sperm but gestated inside a young woman’s womb. He didn’t pop out of God’s thigh like a Jewish Dionysus, you know.
You’d have thought someone like Donohue wouold be in favour of an artist bringing Easter back to the crucifixion. What the hell is there to be upset about? Seriously, what’s his fucking problem? If I were a Christian I’d be proud to have it on display.
Who is to say that the statue is meant to represent Jeebus, anyway, and not one of the millions of other poor wretches who suffered this method of torture/execution under the Assyrians, Persians, Romans and others?
Christians seem to think that Jesus was the only person ever put to death in this manner. Sadly, that was not the case; it was an unfortunately common method of execution in the ancient world.
Bill Donohue needs to get a frickin’ life, fer Chrissakes.
How novel.
cigarette Jesus
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/collective/A1002268
Jesus in a toaster
http://tinyurl.com/3xlhyq
‘forgive yourself’ Jesus
http://www.londonist.com/archives/2006/02/review_gilbert.php
Jesus slingshot
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:ToMegaTherion.jpg
The Onion had a masterful take on this:
http://www.theonion.com/content/node/28377/print/
I would be more impressed if some of those now cackling over the choco-Jesus hadn’t been so gushingly sensitive and respectful when it came to relatively mild caricatures of Mohammed.
(And if your rationale is that Christians are everywhere oppressors and Muslims are everywhere oppressed – but ask Southern Sudanese and Southern Thai Buddhists for a different opinion – recall that Muslims are also offended by disrespectful portrayals of Jesus. The playwright of gay Jesus play Corpus Cristi was the subject of a British Muslim death fatwah and Ramsey Clark had to apologize to the Muslim community when he said that Jesus would have been called a terrorist.)
Amen.
For all those who referenced Tom;
I’m glad someone corrected Scott Hatfield re: Dan Castellaneta.
These are same folks who find images of their holy mother on tortillas, right?
One has to wonder when people won’t just respond to assholes like donohue with, “oh not that idiot again”.
Does Bill Donohue travel around the country looking for things to be outraged about, or does he have a staff to do that for him?
Is it hollow or solid? As a kid I always felt ripped-off by all the hollow chocolate bunnies… :)
Jesus was such a softy. He ought to have a marshmallow center.
That or a cherry cordial-type filling that would ooze out lusciously when he (it?) is poked in the ribs.
James, don’t you have a sister named Tanith? I think she works for Donohue.
You know, for a religion that’s not supposed to worship idols’n’stuff, its members sure do get worked up about the choice of medium when it’s rendering time. (And, as others here have pointed out, very arbitrarily so. I mean, grilled cheese? Come on now.)
Chocolate Jesus is sinfully delicious.
Did you notice that his balls are Cadbury cream eggs? Nice touch.
A statue.
Huh.
There was me getting quite excited when I saw the pics.I thought they’d found another Oetzi.
Maybe he could make one out of the marshmallow stuff they use to make Peeps. Then we could stick it in the microwave and feed thousands.
Don, thanks for posting the Tom Waits link. He’s f*ing incredible.
Why isn’t he on a big peanut butter cross or something? (You got cross on my Jesus! You got Jesus on my cross!) Strange pose to be in if one isn’t actually hanging from it.
As for my earlier comment, I see that it is actually the post title. My bad.
As a practical matter, I would eat the arms first. He takes up too much space, and would be easier to wrap up and store after the arms are gone. (Do they make refigerated coffins?)
Donahue is a publicity hog and a nasty moral cretin in my book. I’m a Christian and I get what this piece is about. I find nothing objectionable about it. It’s a little jarring for a moment, but it’s meaning is clear almost instantly.
Donahue should be glad that the commercialization and typical treatment of the crucifixion and resurrection are being mocked, but he’s too busy making sure his own loud-mouth defense of an institution is paramount instead.
How about someone making a big fat, dark bitter chocolate Donahue?
“I would be more impressed if some of those now cackling over the choco-Jesus hadn’t been so gushingly sensitive and respectful when it came to relatively mild caricatures of Mohammed. ”
Cackling? I’m mystified as to how it’s supposed to be disrespectful.
Re being deeply offended:
http://www.jesusandmo.net/2007/02/08/race/
There’s an unintentionally hilarious example of this in LaHaye and Jenkins’ Kingdom Come, the sequel to the Left Behind books, which takes place in a literal heavenly kingdom on Earth. One of the very first things the authors take pains to emphasize is how Jesus has gotten rid of all that yucky sex stuff, so that everyone who remains only loves each other in a neutral, platonic, non-physical sort of way.
Let’s see.
Tasteless and tasty — all at once.
Brilliant.
The chocolate is all wrong. The crucified Christ needs to be made from bread dough so that He can rise again on the third day.
Colugo:
but ask Southern Sudanese and Southern Thai Buddhists for a different opinion
Or the atheistic Tamil Tigers.
Oops, I forgot. I’m American and I’m supposed to be FOR torture now.
Just not death by chocolate.
Peter wins. Next Sunday a risen dough Jesus will be all I’ll be able to think about.
You know, whats odd is that this sculpture didn’t make me belittle Christ or hate Catholics. It made me think about things – about the meaning of communion (I mean in a way, if the public ate it it would be a kind of weird communion), about the commercial aspects of Easter, etc. It made me think, in short, about interesting symbolism, culture, etc.
Donohue however sees attacks everywhere – because he wants to – and assumes what he sees is somehow literal fact. While me, a person he’d probably call an atheist, had a momentary pause to think about symbolism in people’s lives.
This is a man berefet of both imagination, humor, and humanity.
For laughs, check out the Catholic League’s Annual Reports on Anti-Catholicism, which apparently involves any statement obliquely critical of the Church. The cartoons and anything involving Christopher Hitchens can be especially funny.
Tha’t nothing compared to some of the depictions of Christ crucified in our churches. Me thinks he protest to much. I see the symbolism, though Ours are made out of wood, his is made out of chocolate, and really symbolizes the current cultures self absorbed fascination with a bunny and easter egg hunts rather than the risen Lord.
If he want’s to be offended by something he should be offended by the culture within the Catholic church as well as the country which idolizes materialism.
Tamil Tigers are mostly Hindu and fighting a Buddhist-dominated state. In Burma, Muslims and Christians are persecuted by the nominally Buddhist regime. Buddhists are currently oppressed in Communist atheist Vietnam. Bosnian Muslims were slaughtered by Orthodox Christian Serb forces in the 90s. And so on.
My point is, some fire-breathing atheists tend to become meek lambs when the faith in question is not Judeo-Christian – perhaps influenced, for all I know, by Liberation Theology.
Abu Ghraib was a celebration of Christian sensibilities:
This faithful soldier was just following Paul’s directive from 2 Thessalonians 1:8-9:
He was also following the practices established by evangelical Christian General Boykin at Abu Ghraib. Abu Ghraib is in every way the face of contemporary American Christianity.
Colugo:
Ah, no on the former, yes on the latter.
I did a post on this recently.
I torch them all w/my heated halitosis.
Well, wouldn’t you know . . . the Chocolate Jesus show has been closed.
“What makes it so offensive to Donohue is that it depicts a black Jesus.”
So what’s the problem? The only physical description of Jesus, from Josephus, says that he was a negro.
“The hotel and the gallery were overrun Thursday with angry phone calls and e-mails about the exhibit. Semler said the calls included death threats over the work of Cavallaro, who was described as disappointed by the cancellation.”
Hypocritical fools!
I can think of a particularly offensive place to start eating that… Because I’m pretty sure that the Christians would find it offensive if I, a male, went straight for his Peter, Paul and John. You know, with the homosexual overtones, and such. And the interracial thing, too.
Everyone else should find my pun offensive to the senses, and for that I apologize.
ill trade you a bite of my virgin mary grilled cheese sandwich for a bite of your chocolate jesus.
oompa loompa
Having read this blog yesterday, I looked for further news about this in today’s (Fridays) paper. The only item I could find that was vaguely related concerned the Archdiocese of San Diego agreeing in their chapter 11 bankrupcy petition to a $94 Million pay-out to 118 victims of sexual abuse by priests. I notice that the Catholic League masthead contains their policy: “The Catholic League is the nation’s largest Catholic civil rights organization. It defends individual Catholics and the institutional Church from defamation and discrimination.” I wonder if they came to the defense of the abused children in San Diego (or elsewhere). Their Catholic sensibilities must have been absolutely shattered by those sexual assaults.
Mmmm…Jesus
I really have to wonder…if instead he had depicted Jesus with a loin cloth, would we have this much outrage?
I wonder how much of the outrage is really about Jesus’s “naughty bits”. (I call dibs!)
As others have alluded to, it’s especially amusing to see Catholics up in arms about it given the belief in transubstantiation. Catholics believe that the eucharist in the mass (the bread wafer used) isn’t *symbolic* of the body of Christ, but through…well essentially magic, though I guess when you’re claiming it’s divine magic you don’t like using the term ‘magic’…it *literally* becomes the body of Christ. Now they don’t believe the bread is now human flesh (I was raised Catholic you can’t even sell that one to 8 year olds) but that it is spiritually literally the body of Christ.
Given that belief, I don’t see how ANY Catholic can argue that eating a statue of Jesus (made of something edible) is even remotely blasphemous.
Then again, like all religions they’re hardly immune from hypocrisy either I suppose.
I admire your gift for understatement.
* idly wonders if the statue was made from Godiva chocolate *
For a religion that has featured the torture and immolation of heretics and the raping of choirboys, I’m not sure that an immodest idol that promotes cavities is all that objectionable.
All of this various food incarnations have left out the poor old Holy Spirit. He never gets any good press. I mean, when was the last time we had a good Holy Ghost sighting in a tortilla? Perhaps we can poor some custard over the chocolate Jesus and depict Jesus’s Baptism of the Holy Spirit?
Honestly, shouldn’t the Holy Spirit get something fluffier, and airier — a souffle?
Peter McGrath: That was FUNNY. I’m sharing THAT one with my pastor.
Rey Fox, stogoe: I’m abashed. All I can say is….Doh!
Rey: You know, one of the really nice things about being an atheist is not being slavishly beholden to symbols. Have to wonder how Bill would react if someone told him that.
You got it backwards: slavish responses to symbols is one of the benefits of religion. I’ve had this discussion with low-level religious folks: what they don’t trust about atheists is that we don’t slavishly respond like Pavlovian dogs to arbitrary symbols. They don’t know how we can be controlled.
Bwaahhhaahhaahhha!
Allah ice cream.
http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2005430136,,00.html
I thought this was a joke at first.
http://www.chocolatedeities.com/deities.php
Dang it! I was just about to buy tickets and fly up to New York. They went and canceled the exhibit. What ever happened to those peace lovin god fearing christians? Don’t they know that threatening to kill people is a no no?
http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/03/30/chocolate.jesus.ap/index.html
“The hotel and the gallery were overrun Thursday with angry phone calls and e-mails. Semler said the calls included death threats over the work of artist Cosimo Cavallaro, who was described as disappointed by the decision to cancel the display.
“In this situation, the hotel couldn’t continue to be supportive because of a fear for their own safety,” Semler said.”
Hey PZ, don’t you know the holy spirit is frequently portrayed as a dove?
I wonder if they can find a new location where it can be exhibited. I would think people would be willing to pay to see it.
Are the Catholics more offended because the medium made JC look like a person of color or because the Holy Genitals were exposed?
Duh! It’s the lack of loincloth, no brainer!
Seeing their lord in the altogether destroys the Christian (and particularly Catholic) collective unconscious fable that Jesus’ pesky parts fell off shortly after the incident in the temple (and most certainly before he had any sinful, um, emissions!)
The only reason the baby Jesus (as depicted in Gothic and Renaissance art) has a willy is to establish that he is the SON of God and morally superior in his maleness.
I don’t see what the problem is. It’s made from God food (Theobroma cacao isn’t it? [innocent look]
Ack. Close that paren after cacao. That’ll teach me not to read carefully when previewing a post.
Mutter.
A christian on TV said her problem with it was that a young child could walk past the window of the hotel and see Jesus’ doodle.
A Jeez Doodle?
Ah so it’s the Wonka willy that’s troubling everyone. Why not just make like a U.S. Attorney General, and slip a Big Dog over the Holy Ding-Dong?
Hey people, just in case, William Donahue is another person. The article refers to William Donohue. Since Bill Donahue is not a very well-known person, you might be confusing his name with this guy.
oops sorry, the Donohue link will take you to the same Donahue page. It’s a different person
The people who burn people at the stakc have won “won”: Chocolate Christ exhibition cancelled. I’ve no idea when the artist will be barbecued.
The people who burn people at the stakc have won “won”
Christo-fascism is alive and well in America.
When protecting the “civil rights” of Catholics precludes the rest of us having the right to free speech, where are we?
Fuck the Catholic League.
My father once remarked that he didn’t celebrate Easter, he just enjoyed giving and receiving chocolate …
As for this statue or whatever, I’m worried about it going to waste …
And I’m pretty sure that it would initially taste better than communion wafers … maybe that’s it … promotes gluttony or something.
Blake Stacey: The chocolate thing is especially weird, since chocolate ultimately comes from the Americas … hm, maybe this is where mormonism comes in …
Sonja: Indeed. I sometimes wonder if people would wear guillotines, electric chairs or syringes …
Thony C: Uh, what physical description?
PZ Myers: Or something wind promoting. Maybe a good pot of chili … well maybe not, too tasty
I suspect that the opinion of someone who is actually Catholic might be useful here. I get the sense from the past 115 comments that this blog is the secret meeting place for the “lets-create-an-alternate-universe-where-religious-people-er-Christians-are-dumbasses” club. If this blog is simply meant to be a place for people to come and sharpen their sarcastic wit (I admit that a lot of the posts/comments are pretty clever and that if I weren’t Catholic, I might find them funny), then please just delete this comment…because I hate to be a party pooper. If not, then read on…
1) My Catholic sensibilities aren’t wounded by the fact that a chocolate Jesus would depict a black Jesus. Sorry, but Catholics aren’t that racist, though it’s not as much fun if you can’t depict the big bad Catholic church as the embodiment of bigotry. Catholics are, well…catholic…probably the most cosmopolitan body of people in the world.
2) My Catholic sensibilities aren’t wounded by the part of the sculpture that screams out SEX. Now, get ready for this shocker: Catholics like sex and the body. Really. And I mean a lot. (Just look at the size of many Catholic families, heh.) Maybe the reason some Catholics are offended by the exposed genitals is that we value sex (not just for procreative purposes, duh) more highly than the average person.
3) I’m trying to figure out why the idea of a chocolate Jesus didn’t jive with me when I first heard about it. I mean, one of the central tenets of Catholicism is that we relive the crucifixion and everything that it accomplished/stood for every time we take communion – that is, every time we consume the actual body (doctrine of transubstantiation) of Christ. Now, I like what DragonScholar said about symbolism (if I understood it correctly), and I think that an edible representation of the crucifixion could potentially be a really beautiful symbol of one Catholicism’s most precious beliefs. But something still bothers me about it (is it indoctrination, perhaps?), and I’m having trouble putting my finger on it.
I think part of it might be that chocolate, as a medium, doesn’t seem very reverent. With my woefully limited understanding of art, I get the sense that the medium dictates (to an extent) the way a viewer perceives and comprehends the subject matter of the art. I don’t think those with “Catholic sensibilities” would be alone in reacting differently to a marble bust of Bush and one made out of junk from a recycling bin (though admittedly, the reactions to both would tend to be negative). So maybe chocolate doesn’t convey the respect (in the way that wood and stone do) that serious Christians feel this all-important symbol deserves. (?) I dunno…just some thoughts. And of course, it would be useful to know a bit more about the artist himself.
“CalGeorge” is stupid. Freedom of speech does not mean freedom from criticism. The Catholic League has criticized the statue, not called for its censorship.
How about the injustice of our war in the Iraq?
A loaded question. This presupposes that killing Saddam and his sons was “unjust”.
What about the ongoing denial of civil rights to homosexuals?
Nobody is denying homosexuals their rights. Well, except for the “right” to have a state-sanctioned marriage, which should be de-legalized in all cases, and the “right” to abrogate freedom of speech and association.
“The people who burn people at the stakc have won “won”: Chocolate Christ exhibition cancelled.”
Economic boycott = burning people at the stake? Or stoning ‘adulterous’ women, hanging homosexuals, or burning down houses of worship of rival sects…
“Christo-fascism is alive and well in America.”
Do some of the same people who object to the term “Islamo-fascism” have no problem with the term “Christo-fascism”?
Even many atheists approve of and cite what Jesus said about motes and beams. Jesus cautioned against pointing out the motes in one’s own eye while ignoring the beams in one’s own. Atheistic progressives agree with the sentiment that we shouldn’t pretend that we are perfect as we criticize others. But J.C. didn’t say that we ought to ignore the beams in everyone else’s eyes and only talk about our own.
There really are actual Gileads, and incredibly brave Muslims like Asra Nomani (friend of Daniel Pearl), Irshad Manji, and jailed Egyptian blogger Kareem Amer are confronting the problem.
The Catholic League has criticized the statue, not called for its censorship.
Yes, they could not have prevented the exhibit from going forward, but their intent was to boycott the hotel, intimidate the owner with emails and phone calls, and shut the exhibit down. They have put out a press release saying they are glad it won’t be shown.
They are acting as moral censors.
If they were decent, they would have made a statement objecting to the work but also that people have a right to see it and can make up their own minds.
Censorship
official prohibition or restriction of any type of expression believed to threaten the political, social, or moral order. It may be imposed by governmental authority, local or national, by a religious body, or occasionally by a powerful private group. It may be applied to the mails, speech, the press, the theater, dance, art, literature, photography, the cinema, radio, television, or computer networks. Censorship may be either preventive or punitive, according to whether it is exercised before or after the expression has been made public. In use since antiquity, the practice has been particularly thoroughgoing under autocratic and heavily centralized governments, from the Roman Empire to the totalitarian states of the 20th cent.
http://www.answers.com/topic/censorship
With death threats over the exhibition of a chocolate naked Jesus, I wonder if this issue will just die. Do you think someone will be brave enough to try it again or sell miniature naked Jesus chocolates?
“Christo-fascist” is a widely-used term. For example, here’s Mark Crispin Miller, NYU professor:
Critics on the left, I think, are often prone to minimize the former, to read the entire crisis simply in economistic terms, and write the Christo-fascists off as mere fringe-dwellers whom the corporate powers are carefully manipulating. That critique is itself a rationalist projection, as such critics can’t imagine, or won’t accept, that irrational actors can wield power successfully, and for irrational reasons. In any case, those on the left who argue thus are not sufficiently informed. The Christo-fascist movement has its own agenda, and in realizing it has made tremendous progress (as it were) in Washington. Esther Kaplan’s book, With God on Their Side, makes this quite clear, as does Stephenie Hendricks’ important monograph, Divine Destruction, which explores the theocratic basis of Bush/Cheney’s anti-environmentalism. Michelle Goldberg’s also working on a book that I, for one, can’t wait to read.
http://www.buzzflash.com/interviews/06/01/int06002.html
True, Christopher, they don’t — but death threats imply similar actions. Isn’t that obvious?
It is (presumably) true that nobody associated with the Catholic League made those threats, and (presumably) true that the League does not condone the threats, but there is no question that the death threats were taken into consideration when the decision was made to discontinue the exhibit.
You may call CalGeorge “stupid” for blaming the Catholic League for that decision, but it’s legitimately not-stupid to complain that the League’s objections plus the more potentially dangerous objections of others who agree with the League “won” the day for those people who would love to see the exhibit shut down. And if you don’t think the League and its members are among them, then I suggest you re-think your position on just who is and is not “stupid.”
Your point presupposes that the only injustices precipitated by the war were the deaths of Saddam and his sons. Need I elaborate?
Kseniya: I am not the same person as Christopher. Of course death threats have no place in civil society, whether they are made by Christians or anyone else, in order to ban art that they find religiously offensive (the British Sikh play controversy, Danish cartoons, etc).
Personally, whether the Choco-Christ goes on tour, replaces Count Chocula as the official mascot of the breakfast cereal, or transubstantiates into nougat is fine with me.
CalGeorge: “”Christo-fascist” is a widely-used term.”
I don’t dispute that. My point is that some of those who recoil at the term or very concept of “Islamo-fascism” (I myself prefer “Islamic totalitarianism” to refer to Islamic extremist movements) eagerly use the term “Christo-fascism” (or “Christopath” etc.). Similarly, some of those – I don’t mean you specifically – who accept the journalism on the aspirations of the American Dominionist movement deny the threat posed by Islamist jihad war ideology (of which liberal Muslims are on the front lines of opposition).
i must say the quip about the bunny ears already being eaten was hilarious.
I’m trying to figure out why the idea of a chocolate Jesus didn’t jive with me when I first heard about it. (…) I think part of it might be that chocolate, as a medium, doesn’t seem very reverent.
Then why isn’t there a similar outrage every time someone claims that Jesus appeared on their piece of toast? Is that medium more reverent? And there wasn’t any outrage at a ‘miraculous’ chocolate Mary, so what’s wrong with a non-miraculous choc Jesus?
Swattie – honest question, not snarky, but if this is really true: “Maybe the reason some Catholics are offended by the exposed genitals is that we value sex (not just for procreative purposes, duh) more highly than the average person.”, and that Catholics value sex so highly, then why is so much of it off-limits? From what I understand anything that is remotely not exactly concerned with the possible uniting of sperm and egg is anathema, no matter how much fun it is for the two partners involved.
So now, when will there be a butter Jesus making the rounds of the state fairs?
Dumb things humans do:
1) Get worked up about a life-sized chocolate Jesus, or a crucifix submerged in urine, or a burning flag.
2) Believe Jesus became invisible and went up into the sky after he died, where he is to be worshipped as a god.
3) Become offended by exposed genitals in works of art.
Sigh.
As pointed out previously in many comments in this thread, it is people
like Bill Donohue (and, for non-Catholic Christians, Pat Robertson,
Ted Haggerd, Ken Ham, and so forth) who create that ‘alternative
universe’ . They speak for a group that is quite real, quite vocal,
has placed a few key people in powerful media and government
positions, but is nonetheless a minority of modern Christians. Unfortunately,
the remainder, either sit silently doing nothing (it is natural for
most people to avoid conflict …) while this minority reverts their
religion to a twisted parody of what it was in medieval Europe. A few,
like you, attempt to take aim at the problem, but, unfortunately,
shoot at the messenger.
I was sure someone else would say this, but no-one did, so I will:
Holy Chocolate Jesus Penis, Batman!
This is absurd. The entire history of marriage is that of a legal contract. Religion is a late addition to this party.
You are not catholic, your a person who subscribes to the catholic faith. So essentially even though you find items funny your dogma is such that you must find them not funny?
Your correct, lets be specific then. Catholic dogma is bigoted and often stupid. Why one would want to willfully belong to such an organization is rather odd. If you are in it you can’t no claim it.
oxymoron
What an insulting degrading statement. Oh and it’s bullshit. What makes you think catholics(who you previously stated are cosmopolitan) do as you say? What makes you think others value it less? Prove your case because right now you sound pretty ignorant.
This is simply bizarre. The ritual of consuming another is considered beautiful by the deluded. At least you admitted to indoctrination. It’s a start.
But bread does. Again odd.
why? Your entire post is filled with babble.
OHHH I see, serious Christians as opposed to those that are just joking Christians. Of course you realizethat by practicing the catholic faith you are perceived as a far cry from a serious Christian by the majority of Christian denominations.
But hey be offended by chocolate if it’s your desire.
Yes, they could not have prevented the exhibit from going forward, but their intent was to boycott the hotel, intimidate the owner with emails and phone calls, and shut the exhibit down. They have put out a press release saying they are glad it won’t be shown.
If the statue was censored, the maker would not be able to find another venue. Such action requires a State to enforce. The Catholic League is not a State.
An organization exercised their rights to criticize and call for a boycott, and a hotel owner, fearing lost business, exercised his right to cancel the display.
“Christo-fascist” is a widely-used term. For example, here’s Mark Crispin Miller, NYU professor:
“Christo-fascist” is only a widely-used term amongst the mentally deranged; case in point: Mark Crispin Miller.
Your point presupposes that the only injustices precipitated by the war were the deaths of Saddam and his sons. Need I elaborate?
If you think the killing of Saddam and his sons was “unjust”, your thinking is mighty flawed, and is dangerous to your continued survival. Many Darwin award winners were those who had difficulty recognizing evil and how to deal with it.
“But God demonstrates his own love for us in this.
While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Rom 5:8
M.C. 200 lb Chocolate Jesus will punish you for this.
How odd…that’s what I call Dominion theonimists, who want the US to explicitly implement OT punishments for the ‘unholy’, such as stoning homosexuals & adulterers to death.
If calling them what they truly are is deranged, then so be it.
Christopher, do you have a brain in your head? If so, why are you unable to understand simple questions and statements? Are you blinded by the brilliance of your own point of view?
Oh, my gosh! I thought I was a committed believer in reality, but alan’s Bible quotation has made me seen the error of my ways. Sure, I memorized that verse when I was around 8, and could recite the entire ‘Romans Road’ when I was 14, and was a rabid evangelical for decades, so I thought I knew what I was doing when I concluded from all the evidence that it was so much bogusness, but now, having had the words themselves put before me again, I realize how wrong I was to trust in empiricism and truth.
Oh, wait. That quote was an April fool’s, wasn’t it?
Jesus said “I am the Way the Truth and the Life”.
Jesus is who he claimed to be (with profound ramifications)
or he is not and should simply be ignored.
…God is love. I John 4:8
But can I melt him down in hot milk and drink him is the question.
Mmmmm… Hot Jesus with Marshmallows.
msnbc is reporting that the sculptor is getting support. Maybe we’ll get to see the exhibit after all.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17908205/
I wish in my country here in Indonesia someday 2 have exhibition about Christianity’s statues which are very seldom because Indonesia majority is Moslem.
As a catholic I just delight 2 see such beautiful work of art espesially statues from the past/antiquity.
Jesus from chocolate what a dream !