Sweet Jesus!

[{DSG}DarkRaven]

So, I came across this news item while at work today, and I really hoped that nobody would beat me to posting it. Clearly, my hopes have not been in vain.



NEW YORK - A planned Holy Week exhibition of a nude, anatomically correct chocolate sculpture of Jesus Christ was canceled Friday after Cardinal Edward Egan and other outraged Catholics complained.

The "My Sweet Lord" display was shut down by the hotel that houses the Lab Gallery in midtown Manhattan. Roger Smith Hotel president James Knowles cited the public outcry for his decision.

The reaction "is crystal clear and has brought to our attention the unintended reaction of you and other conscientious friends of ours to the exhibition," Knowles wrote in the two-paragraph cancellation notice.

Matt Semler, the gallery's creative director, resigned in protest.

The six-foot sculpture was the victim of "a strong-arming from people who haven't seen the show, seen what we're doing," Semler said. "They jumped to conclusions completely contrary to our intentions."

But word of the confectionary Christ infuriated Catholics, including Egan, who described it as "a sickening display." Bill Donohue, head of the watchdog Catholic League, said it was "one of the worst assaults on Christian sensibilities ever."

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 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.

The sculpture was to debut Monday evening, the day after Palm Sunday and just four days before Christians mark the crucifixion of Jesus Christ on Good Friday. The final day of the exhibit was planned for Easter Sunday.

The artwork was created from more than 200 pounds of milk chocolate, and features Christ with his arms outstretched as if on an invisible cross. Unlike the typical religious portrayal of Christ, the Cavallaro creation does not include a loincloth.

Cavallaro hoped the sculpture could go on display elsewhere, according to Semler.

Cavallaro is best known for his quirky work with food as art: Past efforts include repainting a Manhattan hotel room in melted mozzarella, spraying five tons of pepper jack cheese on a Wyoming home, and festooning a four-poster bed with 312 pounds of processed ham.

http://www.yahoo.com/s/545459

[Darth Marsden]

...? WTF? A chocolate Jesus? Why? Just... why?

[Majora]

I don't care if it's a Hard-Candy Jesus. I don't see how the hell that would've offended catholics.... maybe the "no Loin-cloth" part, but thats a stretch. Those bunch of stupid pricks......

[Pineconn]

I said it before, and I'll say it once more: Religion messes everything up (http://www.armageddongames.net/forums/showthread.php?p=1116507#post1116507).

I'll tell you now, I'm not offended in any way. Actually, I lied; I'm offended by the people who were offensed by the statue.

[Kairyu]

I find this offensive. Not because it's of Jesus, I just think it's a horrible horrible waste of chocolate.

[Masamune]

I knew Jesus was black.

[Yoshiman]

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 artist Cosimo Cavallaro, who was described as disappointed by the decision to cancel the display.
How Christian-like. :rolleyes:

[Beldaran]

Brain-Herpes is flaring up again.

[Starkist]

The Christian era of civilization featured such artistic masterpieces as the Sistine Chapel, the works of Michaelangelo, and the symphonies of Bach and Beethoven.

The post-Christian era of civilization features naked chocolate Jesus and the Virgin Mary smeared with dung.

What an age.

[Melonhead]

The Immaculate Confection?

[Daarkseid]

The Christian era of civilization featured such artistic masterpieces as the Sistine Chapel, the works of Michaelangelo, and the symphonies of Bach and Beethoven.

The post-Christian era of civilization features naked chocolate Jesus and the Virgin Mary smeared with dung.

What an age.

Taken from Michelangelo's article on wikipedia:

"Once completed, the depictions of nakedness in the papal chapel was considered obscene and sacrilegious, and Cardinal Carafa and Monsignor Sernini (Mantua's ambassador) campaigned to have the fresco removed or censored,"

Yes, what an age indeed. Christians showing disdain for contemporary art.

[redmage777]

While the statue does not fall in line with my "tastes" As a Christian I do not really care that much about it. If God wants it gone bad enough he'll send a heat wave to melt it into a puddle of chocolate pudding. I see it this way, I'd be causing too much trouble over something that is really not much of my concern.

On the other hand, there are some things that are worth fighting for, and refusing to do so because Beldaran, Daarkseid and like-minded will call me stupid would be even more stupid... This just is not one of those things.

[Beldaran]

The Christian era of civilization featured such artistic masterpieces as the Sistine Chapel, the works of Michaelangelo, and the symphonies of Bach and Beethoven.

The post-Christian era of civilization features naked chocolate Jesus and the Virgin Mary smeared with dung.

What an age.

It's not that there is no good art these days, there is just no good religious art. Artists are no longer required by a religo-facist theocracy to create only art featuring Jesus, God and or virgin Mary. It's not hard to find some really mind-blowingly awesome art on the internet. It's just that it doesn't feature religious themes.

For example, google "Keith Parkinson", who is one of my all time favorite artists.

And the term "christian era" best applies to the dark ages, when religion was in control of everything, resulting in iliteracy, plague, suffering, warfare, and intellectual darkness. I guess you could apply the term "christian era" to the renaissance period, like when the christians went to the New World and slaughtered, enslaved, and destroyed the cultures of the Incans, Aztecs, and Native Americans in the name of "saving them" from lack of Jesus. Or how Galileo was threatened with death for learning about the solor system. Come to think of it, there was indeed a lot of christianity in that time period. Maybe it really was the "christian era".

[MottZilla]

I knew Jesus was black.

That's probably the real reason they are so pissed. They made people think Jesus was black. That'll teach them not to make it out of white choclate!

[bigjoe]

There was like a news debate between the artist and Bill Donahue. You should have seen how childish Donahue was acting, spouting such nonsense as "you're lucky I'm not as mean as the Taliban because you might lose more than your head." I don't particularly care for the sculpture, but I don't think the artist should be censored.

[AtmaWeapon]

Art is not really definable but this is the kind of censorship you can't really put a control on. It's not like police showed up at his house and told him he couldn't display his work. To me, it sounds more like the Catholic group in question got enraged by the work and started an irrational campaign to scare the gallery into disallowing the work.

Strong people fight such scare tactics by making their display of the controversial item more visible and notifying the police of any threats that have been made. Stronger people laugh as the tough guys show up to protest and instead of violent death they offer whimpers of "But... but... we WARNED YOU not to show it!".

However, the entities under threat are businesses, and it is just as likely they took the group's threats as indicators of whether future business could be carried out with this group of customers.

Whether the basis was fear or money, the decision was made and I think it was the wrong decision. I honestly don't see the offensive/blasphemous nature of suggesting that the Son of God, who the Bible goes to great length to stress was identical to other men, had a penis. I'm pretty sure I remember reading that people were crucified nude and any clothing featured on the imagery of the crucification is done out of concerns for decency, not historical accuracy.

Theologically, it was important that Jesus died a humiliating death, and any art that serves to increase this imagery is actually closer to the message than not.


And the term "christian era" best applies to the dark ages, when religion was in control of everything, resulting in iliteracy, plague, suffering, warfare, and intellectual darkness. I guess you could apply the term "christian era" to the renaissance period, like when the christians went to the New World and slaughtered, enslaved, and destroyed the cultures of the Incans, Aztecs, and Native Americans in the name of "saving them" from lack of Jesus. Or how Galileo was threatened with death for learning about the solor system. Come to think of it, there was indeed a lot of christianity in that time period. Maybe it really was the "christian era".There's a reason the period is called "The Renaissance" though; despite the atrocities committed by man it still remains one of the most dramatic periods of cultural change in history.

I counter your tightly-focused I-hope-they-don't-know-much-about-the-Renaissance argument by spotlighting the past 200 years, a time in which scientific thought has advanced faster than during any other known historical period and a period in which an increasing number of people feel that science should be religion as it can address all of the issues religion traditionally addresses.

This is a time when we have harnessed the power of the atom and, in addition to using it for the generation of cheap energy, have used it to destroy cities and threaten the destruction of the very world. A relatively short while ago we discovered the nature of bacteria and viruses and work on developing new cures for diseases advanced in parallel with the creation of biological warfare agents. The yearning for true equality between races has led to an affirmative action system that enforces the idea that it is more desirable to keep the ratio of races within your organization to a certain relationship than it is to hire the best individuals for the job. In many emerging fields such as computer science, progress has outpaced ethical debate and millions of people are defrauded every day by a communication system that did not have security or accountability as design parameters.

No period in history is without atrocities. You cannot claim that due to our advanced science mankind's nature is any better off today than he was in the dark ages. We live longer and for the most part our quality of living exceeds that of the wealthiest individuals in previous eras, but we are still very effective at and very eager to engage in widespread violence for the sake of any reason we can come up with. The Crusades were a religiously motivated war that killed millions of people. World War II was a politically motivated war that, thanks to the marvels of modern science, caused many times more fatalities.

Whichever belief system, be it science or be it some form of supernatural worship, can change man's nature rather than his quality of life will be the true religion.