Mar 30 2007
Chocolate Jesus
No, it’s not a blaxploitation flick, although I could just hear the promotion for it…‘He’s back, he’s black, and he’s gonna put some Holy Spirit in whitey’s ass!’
Actually, from the best I could gather, it’s about two chocolate Jesuses (or is it ‘Jesi’?). There are two art exhibits opening up, one in the UK and one in NYC, during Holy Week (when the alleged resurrection of ‘zombie Jesus’ is celebrated). Both of them exhibits feature life-size sculptures of Jesus, made out of chocolate.
Of course, there’s the obligatory Catholic outrage from none other than blowhard Bill Donohue, of the uber-conservative Catholic League. You may remember him as the one that started attacking John Edwards a few months back for hiring some bloggers who said some nasty things about Catholicism on their blogs. Of the chocolate Jesus, he whined,”This is one of the worst assaults on Christian sensibilities ever.” Now putting aside for a minute the silliness of the words ’sensible’, ‘Christian’, and ‘Bill Donohue’ all appearing in the same sentence, has he forgotten, is this really more of an assault than the Romans feeding Christians to the lions? And also, Catholics eat Jesus every Sunday at Holy Communion. What’s the difference if they were eating Chocolate Jesus instead of that little piece of cardboard ‘bread’? Heck, maybe if they were serving Chocolate Jesus, I would have gone to church more as a kid.
Seriously, I’m amazed at how quickly the Catholics love to whine even more than the fundies do with these things (perhaps it’s because there’s no sex involved). For a religion that used to pretty much literally rule the world, they really seem to be awfully insecure, whining with sanctimonious outrage every time something comes out which puts Jesus in a non-traditional perspective.
any more offensive than this inflatable Jesus?
Nobody has complained about this chocolate Jesus. Are those little flecks of crisped rice? Blasphemy!:
Or what about Catholic Supply’s hoops and football playing (and super Causcasian/Irish hippie) Jesuses? Isn’t using God-magic cheating? C’mon, Jeez, they’re only kids, fer Crissake.
Now here’s a great idea for Easter: ‘White Chocolate Jesus with Liquid Cherry Center.’ Kids can prick the hands and feet to make their very own stigmata!
Oh, I get it… putting Jesus in ridiculous situations to make money from religious people… good, putting Jesus in a non-traditional context to make an artistic statement that may not be so nice… bad. Hypocrisy and lack of consistency seems to be the norm with a lot of these folks. I think that the artist of the UK Jesus, George Heslop, puts it best:
“Surely all the real human suffering in the world should be far more important than some argument about a chocolate effigy. But somehow these abstract symbols are treated with more respect than real world events.”
Indeed.
Posts
. . . And also, Catholics eat Jesus every Sunday at Holy Communion. What’s the difference if they were eating Chocolate Jesus instead of that little piece of cardboard ‘bread’? Heck, maybe if they were serving Chocolate Jesus, I would have gone to church more as a kid. . .
What’s the difference?
Try having a “betcha’ I can make it stick to the roof of my mouth until we get home” contest with a piece of chocolate insurgent red-bag waste instead of the dry-flat-wafer insurgent piece of red-bag waste.
slainte,
cl
There were times where I swear I woke up Monday AM and still had some stuck to the roof of my mouth… shudder….
“Jesus is my coach.”
But even Jesus wouldn’t agree to coach the Raiders.
“Seriously, I’m amazed at how quickly the Catholics love to whine even more than the fundies do with these things (perhaps it’s because there’s no sex involved).”
Okay, technically, I am not a fundie, but I have to point out that sexual immorality is certainly more damaging to the soul than chocolate covered crispies shaped like Jesus, or any other tasteless sacrilege (or tasty one, for that matter).
Is it? How so?
Are you kidding? You do not see any way that sex is emotionally damaging to people?
Ok, then let’s step back a minute here. Define ’sexual immorality’ for me. Because premarital sex or homosexuality (for example) are not in and of themselves any more ‘emotionally damaging’ than plain old married hetero sex. I can think of plenty of people who are married and their sex life still screws em up.
I would argue that the scoeital pressures and intolerance(from people such as Dobson, etc.) are where much of the emotional damage comes from.
Now, don’t take this out of context… technically, on a biological level, humans are ready to have sex as soon as they are biologically capable, just like any animal. It’s the social constructs that we put on them that cause the damage (and no, I’m not saying I personally think it’s ok have sex with a 12 year old - its just that a on a biological level, that’s how humans were set up).
I guess what I’m saying is much of what people think is sexually immoral behavior is not based in any kind of logic. Watching horror movies or soap operas can be ‘emotionally damaging’ as well.
“The bible thumpers have religious hypocrisy down to an art.”
So sayeth a good friend from Texas, anyway.