Fear of a dark snack

In general, reporters try to leave their readers or viewers with an interesting or funny tidbit at the end of their articles or reports, known as a 'kicker'. (Bloggers generally don't do this, since our entire post is often a kicker).

The Associated Press moved this story yesterday:

Catholic group: Chocolate Christ no Easter treat: The Easter season unveiling of a milk chocolate sculpture of Jesus Christ, dubbed "My Sweet Lord" by its creator, left a sour taste Thursday in the mouths of a Catholic group infuriated by the anatomically correct confection.

"This is one of the worst assaults on Christian sensibilities ever," said Bill Donohue, head of the watchdog Catholic League. "It's not just the ugliness of the portrayal, but the timing _ to choose Holy Week is astounding."

The 6-foot sculpture by artist Cosimo Cavallaro 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 at the Lab Gallery inside midtown Manhattan's Roger Smith Hotel was planned for Easter Sunday.

"The fact that they chose Holy Week shows this is calculated, and the timing is deliberate," said Donohue, whose group represents 350,000 Catholics nationwide.

He called for an economic boycott of the hotel, which he described as "already morally bankrupt."

The gallery's creative director, Matt Semler, said the Lab and the hotel were overrun with angry telephone calls and e-mails about the exhibit. Although he described Donohue's response as "a Catholic fatwa," Semler said the gallery was considering its options amid the criticism. ...

It's one those stories where the good work done on quotes and wording by the usually little-noticed AP reporter, Larry McShane in this case, has much to do with why it resonates so and is in the process of snowballing into one of those stories.

Here in New York, Archbishop John Joseph Cardinal O'Connor issued this ominous statement:

"The media have reported that a so-called "work of art," manifestly intended to offend the Christians of our community, will be displayed during Holy Week in the Roger Smith Hotel in Manhattan. It is a scandalous carving of Jesus Christ allegedly made out of chocolate. What the Roger Smith Hotel would hope to achieve by this sickening display, no one seems to know. The Catholic community is alerted to this offense of our faith and sensitivities. This is something we will not forget."

O'Connor must be more of a modern art connoisseur then I know, since his statement that the work was intended to offend belies a familiarity with the artist.

NY1News just gave an update, feeding in more reaction; at the end of his story, the reporter said not only is Cavallaro inviting the public to see his statue, he's also inviting the public to taste it--the chocolate will be made available to eat when the exhibit ends.

That literally made me laugh out loud. I mean, what better way to make evident the artist's perhaps-trite but interestingly embodied (and anatomically correct!) meditation, that chocolate is to Easter what Santa is to Christmas. Especially, of course, since Catholics believe it's the body of Christ they're ingesting each time they take a communion wafer.

Christians really should be applauding his work, in my opinion; Cavallaro is illuminating commercialization and its attendant dogma of ignorant consumption. But then again, the long tradition of religious outrage at artistic expression is often ironic, sometimes opportunistic and many times borne of ignorance, willful or otherwise.

I have no issue, obviously, with sincere people of faith not liking the sculpture--I would urge them to take a closer look (if not bite), but when initially hearing of this or seeing the photo some will genuinely cross themselves and gasp.

But with the usual suspects out there already loudly professing their offended nature, I wonder whether this case isn't being fed by more than just the usual talk radio nonsense or fat idleness.

Whether there's a feeling among some Christians as they almost gleefully forward this around that they can turn 'My Sweet Lord' into a flexing-of-the-muscles fight that 'proves' their festering contention that their faith is under siege in America.

Yeah, under attack right here in the good ole USA, home--to paraphrase Jon Stewart--to 42 straight Christian presidents.

I wonder if another factor flowing into what soon will be a tempest is a sense--overtly stated in the NY1 report by the Catholic League spokeswoman--that those Muslims would be upset by a chocolate Mohammed, so watch us let loose our righteous anger, too; this is our country.

As if Muslims in America share the luxury of a statue being their worst fear. Indeed, were some sculptor out there to seize on this to 'test' Muslims with a chocolate Mohammed, the reaction may well be more intense. In Islam there's a strong prohibition on depictions of likenesses of the prophet that Christianity doesn't share. Also, unlike Christians, Muslims never portray Mohammed in anything near a nude state.

Theology aside, there is also a difference, I'd submit, between Christians in a country like America responding to what they see as an affront--particularly one from an artist from that same culture--and Muslims in a country like America responding to what may seem a similar affront.

It's like the distinction between when the poor take to the streets, and when the elites stage their own march. One is understandable, often the straw-too-far result of years of previous outrages and systematic injustice.

The other is notable; either as offensive play-acting (the elites don't need to march to get things done) or the sign of a society on the verge of revolution, where the usual levers of power suddenly prove unresponsive or even absent. (Recent examples of the elites truly marching, even if incongruously, with the poor: Iran in 1979; the Phillipines' People Power revolution in 1986; Czechoslovakia and Eastern Europe's Velvet Revolution in 1989).

The fact that I don't see the Shah, Marcos or Stalin's heirs around anywhere makes me wonder about motivations, at least in the case of the largest squawkers so far.

None of whom have used this as a chance to say you know what, this offends me as a Christian--and now I understand a little bit better how my Muslim brothers felt about the Danish cartoons. Now I know what my Jewish brethren mean when they talk about Shylock.

And next time, now that I find myself in the same parade--albeit carried in a sedan chair with a retinue of bodyguards--I won't be so quick to paint my fellow Abrahamic faiths as hotheads or complainers.

But really, who can know the heart of their fellow man. Maybe it's all not a misguided siege mentality or any of the above that's driving the controversy. Not even nostalgia for another Easter week cause celebre, two years after the Terri Schiavo offering.

Some Christians may just be mad because it wasn't white chocolate.

Image of 'My Sweet Lord' via Cavallaro's website.