Church controversy over "genitalia" crucifix

[Fausto]

http://newsok.com/warr-acres-catholic-church-has-crucifix-some-say-shows-exposed-genitals-of-jesus/article/3453833?custom_click=rss


An unfortunate stylistic choice on the part of the artist. What gets me is how quick these morally offended people are to assume thats what its supposed to be. It says an awful lot about where their own head is at.

[Rev. Powell]

I'm not morally offended, but it sure looks like a penis to me.  Then again, everybody already knows where my head is....

[Joe the Destroyer]

It does look like a wang, but it could just be tough abs.  Either it was a joke, or the artist was out to lunch on what he was creating. 

Remind you of anything?

[Psycho Circus]

Funny, because the first thing I thought was "abs". 'Ol JC's got himself a 4-pack, but the church-goers obviously have rock hard love pumps on the brain. You can always find something troublesome or offensive if you look "hard" enough. 

Plus, they should be proud if it is supposed to be a wang, 'cause 'ol JC seems to be lumbered with quite a hefty piece. I mean, he did have one right?

[3mnkids]

It looks like his twigs and berries to me, impressive ones at that.  Im not offended at all,I think its hilarious but im not a religious person. I can just imagine some of those ladies having all those "unclean" thoughts. 

[indianasmith]

The artwork is pretty ambiguous.  But you can harldy blame Christians for being a bit paranoid - we belong to the only religion that is 100% fair game for comedians, satirists, and the entire entertainment industry to mock, ridicule, and insult at will.  No one in Hollywood trashes Buddhism, or Hinduism, and certainly not Islam (Muslims WILL kill you for mocking their prophet!) - but every sitcom and most comedies manage to hit our faith a lick or two, and some make a full time occupation of it.  We just get a bit tired of it sometimes.

[Allhallowsday]

I'm not morally offended, but it sure looks like a penis to me.  Then again, everybody already knows where my head is....

Hopefully in yer pants. 

Funny, because the first thing I thought was "abs". 'Ol JC's got himself a 4-pack, but the church-goers obviously have rock hard love pumps on the brain. You can always find something troublesome or offensive if you look "hard" enough. 
Plus, they should be proud if it is supposed to be a wang, 'cause 'ol JC seems to be lumbered with quite a hefty piece. I mean, he did have one right?

More of your beautiful cut-to-the-quick commentary. 

[Allhallowsday]

It's bizarre anatomy - Christ has abs in his bladder, but is otherwise shrunken and starved.  I don't care how traditional or old the design is... it's dumb and ugly.  This is why we have words like "jettison" and "bad art".  



Apparently bizarre anatomy is many an artist's inspiration: 
 


     

[Jim H]

The artwork is pretty ambiguous.  But you can harldy blame Christians for being a bit paranoid - we belong to the only religion that is 100% fair game for comedians, satirists, and the entire entertainment industry to mock, ridicule, and insult at will.  No one in Hollywood trashes Buddhism, or Hinduism, and certainly not Islam (Muslims WILL kill you for mocking their prophet!) - but every sitcom and most comedies manage to hit our faith a lick or two, and some make a full time occupation of it.  We just get a bit tired of it sometimes.

Yep.  Just like it's fair game to make fun of whiteys like us.  When you're in power, you get crappy treatment.  :)

Oh well, at least you can get elected into positions of political power.  Unlike, say, the non-religious, who have to fake a religion to have any chance in politics or other elected offices.  About 1 in 7 people in the US is non-religious, and we don't have a single rep or senator representing our non-interests.  :-P

Also, the art looks like this because of the crappy art style in almost all the artwork of Europe in the dark ages.  It's as if in that period they forgot how to use proper perspective and anatomy, particularly in religious artworks.  I don't get it, personally.  But I've always thought it looked terrible.

[indianasmith]

That was certainly a truism for most of this nation's history, but I think it is becoming less so as time goes on.  Being the dominant faith in America for so long - not to mention the woeful antics of some who claim to represent Christ and His church - has painted a target on Christians to some other degree.

Nonetheless, we do sometimes grow weary of being Hollywood's constant punching bag!

[Jim H]

That was certainly a truism for most of this nation's history, but I think it is becoming less so as time goes on.  Being the dominant faith in America for so long - not to mention the woeful antics of some who claim to represent Christ and His church - has painted a target on Christians to some other degree.

Nonetheless, we do sometimes grow weary of being Hollywood's constant punching bag!

Yeah, it's certainly understandable to find it getting tiresome.  Historically, Muslims (mostly Arabic muslims, of course) are portrayed extremely poorly as well - probably the group portrayed the worst of any in the overall history of Hollywood.  I mean, how many positive Islamic characters exist in mainstream Hollywood films made between 1940 and 2000 can you name?  Only one I can readily name is Azeem in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves.   There are thousands of stock villainous muslims through all of the modern era of Hollywood.  They may not directly trash the religion itself on screen, but the overall picture Hollywood paints is extremely negative.

I'd also agree that on the whole the influence reached a peak (modern context, I mean) in the 90s or possibly early 2000s, and I think the modern Evangelical influence is actually driving a lot of people from religion in general in the US. 

Back to art for a moment.  For a bit of contrast and to show why I don't like most western art from the middle (AKA "Dark") ages..



Here's a 14th century piece of art.

Contrasted with something from a few hundred years later, religiously oriented like the pictures of Jesus above.

[retrorussell]

The genitalia one is kinda funny, but this one is my favorite religion-related fail..

[claws]

 

[indianasmith]

That was certainly a truism for most of this nation's history, but I think it is becoming less so as time goes on.  Being the dominant faith in America for so long - not to mention the woeful antics of some who claim to represent Christ and His church - has painted a target on Christians to some other degree.

Nonetheless, we do sometimes grow weary of being Hollywood's constant punching bag!

Yeah, it's certainly understandable to find it getting tiresome.  Historically, Muslims (mostly Arabic muslims, of course) are portrayed extremely poorly as well - probably the group portrayed the worst of any in the overall history of Hollywood.  I mean, how many positive Islamic characters exist in mainstream Hollywood films made between 1940 and 2000 can you name?  Only one I can readily name is Azeem in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves.   There are thousands of stock villainous muslims through all of the modern era of Hollywood.  They may not directly trash the religion itself on screen, but the overall picture Hollywood paints is extremely negative.

I'd also agree that on the whole the influence reached a peak (modern context, I mean) in the 90s or possibly early 2000s, and I think the modern Evangelical influence is actually driving a lot of people from religion in general in the US. 

Back to art for a moment.  For a bit of contrast and to show why I don't like most western art from the middle (AKA "Dark") ages..



Here's a 14th century piece of art.

Contrasted with something from a few hundred years later, religiously oriented like the pictures of Jesus above.

For me, art of all sorts - not just religious art - peaked in the Renaissance.  Those old fellows knew how to breathe life into the canvas!

I agree there aren't a whole ton of positive Muslims portrayed in the movies in the last 40 years or so - but I will say that since the fall of the Ottoman Empire, there haven't been a lot of positive Islamic role models.  Since the 70's, Muslims have primarily made the news for:

1.  Killing non-Muslims
2.  Killing fellow Muslims.
3.  Protesting against those who say that Islam is violent (and sometimes killing people in the process!)

Do Muslims do lots of good and positive things in the world?  Probably.  But those don't seem to make the news nearly as often!!

[Jim H]

For me, art of all sorts - not just religious art - peaked in the Renaissance.  Those old fellows knew how to breathe life into the canvas!

Along with Hellenic sculpture, I think Renaissance painting is my favorite artistic period.  It's certainly one of the top periods, that's for sure.  And in large part, that rebirth of the arts and sciences in the west is thanks in large part to Islamic countries.  Makes you wonder what happened in the intervening period to all those countries...

Do Muslims do lots of good and positive things in the world?  Probably.  But those don't seem to make the news nearly as often!!

Yeah, but you can say the same general thing about Christianity in the news (think of the coverage of Fred Phelps, whose church has a total of less than 200 members).  I think the basic truth is negative stories about scandal and violence sell better than anything positive.  If they wanted positive stories, they could very easily find them in, say, Jordan, which is a very nice country.  Or amongst the US's 1.5 million muslims.