It appears the chocolate Jesus is making a reappearance.
The life-sized sculpture will be included as part of the "Chocolate Saints…Sweet Jesus" show at the Proposition Gallery in Chelsea timed to coincide with All Saints Day on Nov. 1. The show also will feature eight chocolate sculptures of Catholic saints.
The art space is expected to mail invitations next week featuring a "scratch n' sniff" on the breasts of a likeness of the Virgin Mary.
Hmmm. Yeah, that sounds very reverential, right? I mean, if you are sending out invitations with scratch & sniff breasts on the Virgin Mary, it couldn't possibly be considered sacrilegious, right?
I wrote about the chocolate cross phenomenon--something that seemed very strange to me--here. Just after being told that someone could understand why a chocolate Jesus might be offensive, I wrote about this chocolate Jesus display and how the exhibit, coinciding with Holy Week, had been cancelled.
Over at Common Sense Political Thought, I wound up writing a series of posts on the chocolate Jesus controversy (see here, here, here and here), basically pointing out that free speech allows for disagreement and protest, even of art exhibits. Jesurgislac, in its typically disingenuous way, latched on to the fact that some people issued death threats and that, therefore, if you supported the right of some people to protest an art exhibit, you must be supporting death threats (you just can't make up the lunacy).
This time around, the chocolate Jesus is going into an exhibit at an art gallery and isn't expected to draw protests like putting it in a more public forum did. I'm not sure that I personally see the difference between a hotel lobby (the original setting) and an art gallery, but a spokesman from the Catholic League obviously does.
IMO, if the art offends you and you wish to protest, then protest. If you think it's a waste of taxpayer money, then protest. After all, that's what free speech is about, right?
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