Chocolate Jesus Frosts Fundies

Manhattan's Lab Gallery is planning on displaying a chocolate sculpture of Jesus starting this Monday. Sculptor Cosimo Cavallaro, created the six foot tall sculpture using 200lbs of chocolate (nice stats BTW). The Catholic League isn't happy:

The six-foot (1.8m) sculpture, entitled "My Sweet Lord", depicts Jesus Christ naked on the cross.

Catholic League head Bill Donohue called it "one of the worst assaults on Christian sensibilities ever".
...
"The fact that they chose Holy Week shows this is calculated, and the timing is deliberate," Mr Donohue said.

Hopefully, the directors of the gallery won't be scared out of displaying the artwork:

The gallery's creative director, Matt Semler, said the gallery was considering its options in the wake of angry e-mails and telephone calls. "We're obviously surprised by the overwhelming response and offence people have taken," he said. "We are certainly in the process of trying to figure out what we're going to do next."

Although the article doesn't quote League head Donohue explaining why the statue is so offensive to him, I'm sure it's the nudity. It's always the naughty parts that get these folks in a tizzy:

He used 200 pounds (90 kg) of chocolate to make the sculpture which, unusually, depicts Jesus without a loincloth.

I swear, the only way they don't like it covered up is with a condom.

Most of the articles I found on this are showing Jesus from the rear. The Guardian, bless their hearts, have a small picture of the statue, taken head on, accompanying their article.

On the other hand, a chocolate Jesus is not unprecedented. I found examples here, here, and I'm sure there are more here. Maybe Donohue is upset that the Jesus sculpture wasn't done in white chocolate.

PostBlog: There will be no naked chocolate Jesus exhibit. The fundies won out on this one. It's too bad, I walk by the gallery and its host hotel nearly every Wednesday during my comic run. They always have something interesting - in a typical "just a tad too highbrow Manhattan" way - out. This would have been interesting to see. The gallery was flooded with calls that included death threats:

The hotel and the gallery were overrun Thursday with angry phone calls and e-mails about the exhibit. Semler said the calls included death threats over the work of artist Cosimo Cavallaro, who was described as disappointed by the decision to cancel the display.

"In this situation, the hotel couldn't continue to be supportive because of a fear for their own safety," Semler said.

How Christian.