Chocolate Profanity

Why do some artists feel compelled to insult people? An art gallery in New York has acquired a six-foot sculpture of Christ, made entirely of milk chocolate. It is called "My Sweet Lord." That sounds cute until you see He is nude and anatomically complete. By pure coincidence, they claim, the gallery intended to unveil this so-called "art" next week - Holy Week, the days leading up to Easter, the most important holiday for Christians. Faced with a public outcry, the exhibit has now been canceled.

Here is a picture of the sculpture. Personally, I think the idea of portraying Christ in chocolate is pretty strange but you could certainly do much worse. Showing the Lord as, ahem, fully male is historically and theologically accurate. I think we all know this and don't need to see it in 3-D, however.

David Kuo makes a good point. As outrageous as the statue is, it makes a point we often forget. Christ was Himself mocked, ridiculed, scorned, beaten and ultimately killed. Why? Because He loved us. He gave Himself up for us - all of us, including the one who made this statue. It's a thought worth reflecting on at this time of year.

Crunchy Con reminds us that we rarely see artists doing things to insult Mohamed. Why not? Because they know what would happen to them. They know that it's perfectly safe in our society to heap indignities on Christians. The artists who do so are, in a word, cowards. They only insult the people that they know will not strike back.

Just to be clear, I don't think artists who do these things should face any sort of legal restrictions. Everyone in America is free to express their ideas, however repulsive they may be. The rest of us of free to ignore those ideas and to avoid doing business with those who promote them. We can also create our own art and let the public decide what it likes. Somehow, I doubt the chocolate version will stand the test of time.