Comments on: Religion News http://www.mahablog.com/2007/03/31/religion-news/ Making the World Safe for Liberalism Sun, 21 Mar 2010 00:32:02 -0700 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: The Mahablog » Tribal Loyalty and Free Expression http://www.mahablog.com/2007/03/31/religion-news/comment-page-1/#comment-281118 The Mahablog » Tribal Loyalty and Free Expression Sun, 16 Sep 2007 17:00:40 +0000 http://www.mahablog.com/?p=1590#comment-281118 [...] About a year ago Little Lulu was up in arms because the Berlin Opera had canceled a production of Mozart’s Idomeneo that was disrespectful of Mohammad and might have given offense to Muslims. “Jihadists hate Western art and music,” she said. But last March she crusaded against a sculpture that she decided — purely a matter of opinion — was disrespectful of Jesus. Lulu doesn’t think much of Western art either, I guess. [...] [...] About a year ago Little Lulu was up in arms because the Berlin Opera had canceled a production of Mozart’s Idomeneo that was disrespectful of Mohammad and might have given offense to Muslims. “Jihadists hate Western art and music,” she said. But last March she crusaded against a sculpture that she decided — purely a matter of opinion — was disrespectful of Jesus. Lulu doesn’t think much of Western art either, I guess. [...]

]]> By: Ashley http://www.mahablog.com/2007/03/31/religion-news/comment-page-1/#comment-231552 Ashley Sat, 16 Jun 2007 06:58:12 +0000 http://www.mahablog.com/?p=1590#comment-231552 for Cosmo My prayers are with you.... I am offended people who call them self Christians have decided to cast stones at you.... I am always saddened by people who do not understand the message of Christ. I hope that people will grasp the beauty of your art and I commend you for your Christian faith!!! Remember Christ is with you and he is the church through you!!!! It is not our morals that open the gates of heaven but his sacrifice! And you have glorified this sacrifice with the sweetest thing on earth, Chocolate. God bless and live for Christ....... naked (honest, real) chocolate (perfect) and resurrected (alive!) now that’s a sweet Jesus!!! HAPPY EASTER. I see the beautiful representation. The sweat taste of chocolate being a symbol of the memory of Jesus! And that was what he asked us to do with his body at his last super. As for his nakedness I imagine that is more realistic then Iconic! However there is only one truth Jesus had no sin therefore his nakedness is not shameful!! So if you meant it as an icon good for you because I believe Jesus Christ was blameless! To understand the meaning of such a beautiful thing is a great gift from God. Good thing Christ decides if heavens gates open or close! Your loving sister, Ashley for Cosmo
My prayers are with you…. I am offended people who call them self Christians have decided to cast stones at you…. I am always saddened by people who do not understand the message of Christ. I hope that people will grasp the beauty of your art and I commend you for your Christian faith!!! Remember Christ is with you and he is the church through you!!!! It is not our morals that open the gates of heaven but his sacrifice! And you have glorified this sacrifice with the sweetest thing on earth, Chocolate. God bless and live for Christ……. naked (honest, real) chocolate (perfect) and resurrected (alive!) now that’s a sweet Jesus!!! HAPPY EASTER. I see the beautiful representation. The sweat taste of chocolate being a symbol of the memory of Jesus! And that was what he asked us to do with his body at his last super. As for his nakedness I imagine that is more realistic then Iconic! However there is only one truth Jesus had no sin therefore his nakedness is not shameful!! So if you meant it as an icon good for you because I believe Jesus Christ was blameless! To understand the meaning of such a beautiful thing is a great gift from God. Good thing Christ decides if heavens gates open or close!
Your loving sister,
Ashley

]]> By: Susi Franco http://www.mahablog.com/2007/03/31/religion-news/comment-page-1/#comment-212408 Susi Franco Sun, 29 Apr 2007 16:51:19 +0000 http://www.mahablog.com/?p=1590#comment-212408 As a professional artist (defined as one whose entire living is derived from the making of art) I am outright horrified by the hue and cry over Cosmos' Chocolate Jesus. The artist more than did his job by provoking dialogue, or in Bill Donohue's case, a diatribe, with this sculpture. I applauded the hotels' decision to display it. Where did we take this perjorative left turn ? Censorship has long been the magic wand of the Bushies; we see it daily in our conservative-leaning media, in the under-reporting of Iraq atrocities, in the Machiavellian manipulations of the entire Bush Admin to divide and conquer this nation to satisfy their own lusts for filthy lucre. And I DO mean filthy, considering it is earned primarily through the blood, pain, suffering and death of those we send to serve this nation in an obscene and illegal war. It has evolved in this country since Dubbya first cast his all-hat-no-cattle shadow over the land, that when he/they cannot otherwise control the unwashed masses, they can be effectively disarmed by calling them unpatriotic or sacrilegious, or worse, enemies of America. The key tool to undermining the media, the political opponents, the writers, film-makers and artists is to censor them. They routinely find ways to villify their opponents of whatever genre by whipping public sentiment into an emotional frenzy and then harnessing the resulting rage into rationale for removing the offending works from the beleaguered public eye. This tactic has become the battle cry & S.O.P. for conservatives everywhere; the Bush Admin and Cronies have made it an acceptable solution to those pesky dissenters. Here in Rhode Island, just this week a students' painting was removed from an administrative building at University of RI because "people" complained it was too reminiscent of the VTech massacre. I have seen this work, by a talented young girl named Isis, and other than the use of the color red, I SWEAR I don't get what these people are raving at. The work in question is a portrait, for pitys' sake; she did a series of portraits of her friends for a class project, and this particular work was completed months ago, long prior to the VTech horror. It is a young man in a hoodie, done in high contrast color, much like an illustration or poster art. Some of the shadows on his face are in red as are his hands. Some local hysterics decided that can ONLY be blood, and poor Isis's painting was taken down by the righteous who guard our sensibilities for us. I shouldn't wonder that this incident will forever affect her career in art. We seem to have a whole lotta folks who are anxious to guard our sensibilities for us in this country. It is a tremendous irony that we call ourselves the Land of The Free while so many personal freedoms and Constitutionally-guaranteed rights are being usurped by folks like K Rove, Dubbya et al and Bill fat-ass Donahue. I was aghast that he called Cosmo Cavallaro "a loser", and further, put a slew of other artists into that category with him. I am further intrigued by a self-proclaimed "leader of the Catholic Church" saying what he has to/about Cosmo when the Catholic Church ( I am Catholic so I get to say this; further, I get to say it even if I'm NOT Catholic) historically protected pedophilic priests ( say it with me now, people), ignored for decades the cries of the traumatized, only recently began to do anything substantial at all about the predators of our children hiding behind those voluminous robes. Looking through history, serious crimes against humanity have been perpetrated by ( SURPRISE !!) the Catholic Church. But we have to listen to this crap over a Chocolate Jesus ?? It is once again that ole' neo-con tactic of distract 'em with emotion while we yank their rights out from under them. Cosmo, I don't know if you read this, love, but I adore the fact that you made Jesus edible. What better way to assimilate the loving qualities Christ tried to give us ? And can someone rationally explain to me why thin bready-cracker-y wafers are okay to eat as the body of Christ but chocolate is not ?? Whether the work was meant to point up the crass commercialization of Easter or to offer Jesus to us in a sweet medium to make more corporeal His love for us, I regard Cosmos' work as magnificent and courageous. You know a work is successful when peoples' reactions to it tell you more about the viewer and less about the work itself. Very revealing, and what I'm seeing lately isn't anywhere near as pretty as a Chocolate Jesus. PS--Bill Donahue can kiss my entire ass. As a professional artist (defined as one whose entire living is derived from the making of art) I am outright horrified by the hue and cry over Cosmos’ Chocolate Jesus. The artist more than did his job by provoking dialogue, or in Bill Donohue’s case, a diatribe, with this sculpture. I applauded the hotels’ decision to display it.
Where did we take this perjorative left turn ?
Censorship has long been the magic wand of the Bushies; we see it daily in our conservative-leaning media, in the under-reporting of Iraq atrocities, in the Machiavellian manipulations of the entire Bush Admin to divide and conquer this nation to satisfy their own lusts for filthy lucre. And I DO mean filthy, considering it is earned primarily through the blood, pain, suffering and death of those we send to serve this nation in an obscene and illegal war.
It has evolved in this country since Dubbya first cast his all-hat-no-cattle shadow over the land, that when he/they cannot otherwise control the unwashed masses, they can be effectively disarmed by calling them unpatriotic or sacrilegious, or worse, enemies of America. The key tool to undermining the media, the political opponents, the writers, film-makers and artists is to censor them. They routinely find ways to villify their opponents of whatever genre by whipping public sentiment into an emotional frenzy and then harnessing the resulting rage into rationale for removing the offending works from the beleaguered public eye.
This tactic has become the battle cry & S.O.P. for conservatives everywhere; the Bush Admin and Cronies have made it an acceptable solution to those pesky dissenters.
Here in Rhode Island, just this week a students’ painting was removed from an administrative building at University of RI because “people” complained it was too reminiscent of the VTech massacre. I have seen this work, by a talented young girl named Isis, and other than the use of the color red, I SWEAR I don’t get what these people are raving at. The work in question is a portrait, for pitys’ sake; she did a series of portraits of her friends for a class project, and this particular work was completed months ago, long prior to the VTech horror.
It is a young man in a hoodie, done in high contrast color, much like an illustration or poster art. Some of the shadows on his face are in red as are his hands. Some local hysterics decided that can ONLY be blood, and poor Isis’s painting was taken down by the righteous who guard our sensibilities for us. I shouldn’t wonder that this incident will forever affect her career in art.
We seem to have a whole lotta folks who are anxious to guard our sensibilities for us in this country. It is a tremendous irony that we call ourselves the Land of The Free while so many personal freedoms and Constitutionally-guaranteed rights are being usurped by folks like K Rove, Dubbya et al and Bill fat-ass Donahue. I was aghast that he called Cosmo Cavallaro “a loser”, and further, put a slew of other artists into that category with him.
I am further intrigued by a self-proclaimed “leader of the Catholic Church” saying what he has to/about Cosmo when the Catholic Church ( I am Catholic so I get to say this; further, I get to say it even if I’m NOT Catholic) historically protected pedophilic priests ( say it with me now, people), ignored for decades the cries of the traumatized, only recently began to do anything substantial at all about the predators of our children hiding behind those voluminous robes. Looking through history, serious crimes against humanity have been perpetrated by ( SURPRISE !!) the Catholic Church. But we have to listen to this crap over a Chocolate Jesus ?? It is once again that ole’ neo-con tactic of distract ‘em with emotion while we yank their rights out from under them.
Cosmo, I don’t know if you read this, love, but I adore the fact that you made Jesus edible. What better way to assimilate the loving qualities Christ tried to give us ? And can someone rationally explain to me why thin bready-cracker-y wafers are okay to eat as the body of Christ but chocolate is not ?? Whether the work was meant to point up the crass commercialization of Easter or to offer Jesus to us in a sweet medium to make more corporeal His love for us, I regard Cosmos’ work as magnificent and courageous. You know a work is successful when peoples’ reactions to it tell you more about the viewer and less about the work itself. Very revealing, and what I’m seeing lately isn’t anywhere near as pretty as a Chocolate Jesus.
PS–Bill Donahue can kiss my entire ass.

]]> By: Erik http://www.mahablog.com/2007/03/31/religion-news/comment-page-1/#comment-193400 Erik Mon, 02 Apr 2007 00:29:36 +0000 http://www.mahablog.com/?p=1590#comment-193400 Let's get this thing some more exposure and digg it: http://digg.com/political_opinion/Chocolate_Jesus_Sacreligious_or_Absolutely_Delicious Let’s get this thing some more exposure and digg it:
http://digg.com/political_opinion/Chocolate_Jesus_Sacreligious_or_Absolutely_Delicious

]]> By: maha http://www.mahablog.com/2007/03/31/religion-news/comment-page-1/#comment-192515 maha Sun, 01 Apr 2007 13:31:31 +0000 http://www.mahablog.com/?p=1590#comment-192515 Folks: Be sure to check out the "Common Sense Political Thought" pingbacked link in #14. It's a textbook case of pathological denial. Folks: Be sure to check out the “Common Sense Political Thought” pingbacked link in #14. It’s a textbook case of pathological denial.

]]> By: Common Sense Political Thought » Archives » Why the Left Doesn’t Get the Chocolate Jesus Controversy http://www.mahablog.com/2007/03/31/religion-news/comment-page-1/#comment-192506 Common Sense Political Thought » Archives » Why the Left Doesn’t Get the Chocolate Jesus Controversy Sun, 01 Apr 2007 13:22:01 +0000 http://www.mahablog.com/?p=1590#comment-192506 [...] Peruse a few lefty websites (try here, here, and here for starters), and you can see what they think of the Chocolate Jesus controversy: What’s the big deal? [...] [...] Peruse a few lefty websites (try here, here, and here for starters), and you can see what they think of the Chocolate Jesus controversy: What’s the big deal? [...]

]]> By: Buck Batard http://www.mahablog.com/2007/03/31/religion-news/comment-page-1/#comment-192460 Buck Batard Sun, 01 Apr 2007 12:47:28 +0000 http://www.mahablog.com/?p=1590#comment-192460 Here's a link to some samples: http://www.bridgemanartondemand.com/index.cfm?event=catalogue.qsearch&searchString=infant%20Jesus%20Christ What are they going to do next? Burn all the baby Jesus artwork from the 1400-1500 period because it shows his penis? Here’s a link to some samples:
http://www.bridgemanartondemand.com/index.cfm?event=catalogue.qsearch&searchString=infant%20Jesus%20Christ

What are they going to do next? Burn all the baby Jesus artwork from the 1400-1500 period because it shows his penis?

]]> By: Buck Batard http://www.mahablog.com/2007/03/31/religion-news/comment-page-1/#comment-192456 Buck Batard Sun, 01 Apr 2007 12:41:51 +0000 http://www.mahablog.com/?p=1590#comment-192456 My wife says most paintings of the baby Jesus in the early Catholic church showed the baby Jesus---- with a penis--- to prove that he was human. Remove his penis and he's no longer a man. Imagine that! My wife says most paintings of the baby Jesus in the early Catholic church showed the baby Jesus—- with a penis— to prove that he was human.

Remove his penis and he’s no longer a man.
Imagine that!

]]> By: Is a Naked Chocolate Jesus Offensive ? » Right Pundits http://www.mahablog.com/2007/03/31/religion-news/comment-page-1/#comment-192222 Is a Naked Chocolate Jesus Offensive ? » Right Pundits Sun, 01 Apr 2007 08:28:11 +0000 http://www.mahablog.com/?p=1590#comment-192222 [...] See other perspectives at Outside the Beltway, Maha Blog, Think Christian, Michelle Malkin. [...] [...] See other perspectives at Outside the Beltway, Maha Blog, Think Christian, Michelle Malkin. [...]

]]> By: Daniel DiRito http://www.mahablog.com/2007/03/31/religion-news/comment-page-1/#comment-192179 Daniel DiRito Sun, 01 Apr 2007 06:56:37 +0000 http://www.mahablog.com/?p=1590#comment-192179 A number of years back Tom Waits did a song called "Chocolate Jesus". See a video clip of that song and a satirical attempt to answer the pressing question, "Does Jesus melt in your mouth, not in your hand?...here: http://www.thoughttheater.com/2007/03/should_jesus_melt_in_your_mouth_not_in_your_hand.php A number of years back Tom Waits did a song called “Chocolate Jesus”. See a video clip of that song and a satirical attempt to answer the pressing question, “Does Jesus melt in your mouth, not in your hand?…here:

http://www.thoughttheater.com/2007/03/should_jesus_melt_in_your_mouth_not_in_your_hand.php

]]>