A thought on the controversy. As near as I can tell, what has the Catholic League up in arms is not that this statue of Jesus was crafted from chocolate. (After all, who doesn't like chocolate?) The issue, apparently, is that this statue of Jesus is naked and anatomically correct. The Catholic League sees this as "demeaning our holiest time."
Holy Week is, indeed, our holiest time--it is when we confront and celibrate the events which are the very core of who we are as Christians. Holy Week is a solemn time of celebration. It is a time to consider the horrifying degredation, beating, whipping, stabbing, and final suffocating torturous death of the Messiah... and somehow find there our own hope and salvation. It is a time to be loved and to be disturbed. Holy Week is a poetic paradox indicating the divine. As Christians, we believe that Jesus was both human and divine, nothing less than the Incarnation of God. To believe that is to know in your heart that God, in the flesh, was stripped (see John 19:23-25) and died an agonizing death. I believe that a chocolate statue of the crucified Jesus is a beautiful and brutal way to enact this holy paradox. And I believe that if we can consider the utter humiliation and ruthless execuation of any man, let alone the Son of God, as "our holiest time," then we have no business becoming offended by the idea that Jesus had a penis.
To get hung up on his genitals seems to miss the point entirely, doesn't it?
Be good to each other,
Rev. Josh
040607
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