Posted on 03/30/2007 11:38:24 AM PDT by John Jorsett
NEW YORK (AP) - A planned Holy Week exhibition of a nude, anatomically correct chocolate sculpture of Jesus Christ was canceled Friday amid a choir of complaining Catholics that included Cardinal Edward Egan.
The "My Sweet Lord" display was shut down by the hotel that houses the Lab Gallery in midtown Manhattan, said Matt Semler, the gallery's creative director. Semler said he submitted his resignation after officials at the Roger Smith Hotel shut down the show.
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 Roman Catholics 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.
(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...
"Bad Liver, Broken Heart" bump
Semler should link-up with those two cretins who shut-down Boston by stringing battery-powered cartoon characters on bridges. The three of them could create anatomically correct battery-operated chocolate Easter bunnies that have sex in candy shop windows.
"The piano has been drinking, not me" bump!
"I dunno, the cross in the jar of pee was a little over the top..."
Wasn't that in NYC also?
Betcha Nagin would welcome this exhibit in his "Chocolate City!"
How about using 150 pounds of Spam, instead of wasting food, like a some Liberal "Artist"?
You mean, a NAKED Chocolate Mohammed. Fair's fair.
Photoshop Mohammed's name over the chocolate figure in Cyrillic lettering and send it off to an Iranian terrorist site.
While this isn't close in spelling, this might do the trick against Iran's getting any more Russian help. Try this:
Снокодати Монаммею
Pingout tomorrow.
I'll have to agree to a certain extent - I've seen far more insulting things than this. It is a bit demeaning to make it out of chocolate and give it the trivial name "My Sweet Lord", though.
It's not, but since Catholics have to do the heavy lifting in the religious world, it's not unfair to identify it with the Catholic faith. If it isn't toilet artists attacking the Catholic Church, it's fundamentalist Protestants telling us we're all going to hell. Little do they realize that attacks on Catholics will eventually be focused on them as well.
Er, this is gibberish... What do you want to say, in Russian?
Iranians won't know what Mohammed looked like, so this chocolate "art" could turn into something useful. Some Iranian will associate the characters as Russian (as you did), and pit outraged Iranian Muslims against the Russians—the ones enabling Iran's nukes. If I had the photo (and any Photoshop capability), I'd do it myself.
Just a disinformation "seed" for Iranian bloggers.
What does blasphemy have to do with patriotism? Christian and American are overlapping, but not mutually inclusive sets.
Yeah, as if Westerners know what Jesus looked like. The image of a blond-haired, blue-eyed young Ted Nugent as the son of God is mediaeval fiction -- any kid born in Bethlehem in 0 CE was overwhelmingly likely to be dark-haired and olive-skinned.
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