Jumping the shark? Frog on a cross is one animal the Pope doesn't care for...
Thursday September 4, 2008
Pope Benedict XVI is quite an animal lover (as we noted here). But he is also quite the esthete, and this sculpture, in a museum in Bolzano, the northern Italian town near where the pontiff vacations, apparently went too far...
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This blog is no longer updated and is closed for comments. We welcome your comments about Catholicism in our Catholic forums.
David Gibson is an award-winning religion writer who specializes in writing about the Catholic Church, which he joined as a convert at the age of 30. He is the author The Rule of Benedict: Pope Benedict XVI and His Battle with the Modern World. He also wrote The Coming Catholic Church: How the Faithful are Shaping a New American Catholicism. He has written about Catholicism for leading newspapers and magazines, including the New York Times, Newsweek, The Wall Street Journal, New York magazine, Boston magazine, Fortune, Commonweal, and America. Gibson worked in Rome for Vatican Radio for several years and traveled frequently with Pope John Paul II. He later covered religion for The Star-Ledger of New Jersey. He has co-written several recent documentaries on Christianity for CNN. For further information check out his website at dgibson.com.Search This Blog
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Guess Benny 16 hasn't got anything else to do but worry about a sculpture, albeit one with a drunk frog on a cross? Lot of fuss and bother over nothing, IMO.
What if, next week, someone discovered that this artist also created a sculpture of a frog depicting some event in the life of Muhammad? Or maybe a frog at Auschwitz? Would museum officials defend that work and proudly display it?
An Imitation of Christ? To Christians, the Cross is not only a tangible expression of Christian faith, but the living tree on which their God suffered and died. A frog with an egg and beer is an imitation of Christ only in the same way "Strange Brew" is an imitation of Hamlet. And to think, once upon a time art used to inspire faith.
Good point by Father Jay in a post above.. If this was Mohammad being depicted, Islamic terrorists would have killed someone by now and people on the Left would be falling all over themselves looking to apologize for their "offense".
Anti-Catholicism is the one last acceptable prejudice in this country.
Bob, you are in error.
There are a LOT of acceptable prejudices in this country.
The prejudices of the magisterial authority towards women
The prejudices of republicans against democrats and vice versa
The prejudices of fundamentalists against more liberal beliefs
The prejudices of the rich against the not so rich and vice versa
The prejudices of the muslims against christians and vice versa
The prejudices of the palestinians against the jews and vise versa
The prejudices of fans of proteam 1 against fans of proteam 2
The prejudices of the oil companies against all of us
Your statement is a prejudice as well
Muslim terrorists killed thousands of Americans 7 years ago
We have been killing muslims in Iraq for almost as long
There are NO acceptable prejudices
Instead of being offended, we could remember, that Christ died for ALL of us, even the artist who made the sculpture and the museum curators who display it.
When you look at it from a different perspective, it ceases to become offensive, and simply a different way of expressing how much Christ loves all of us. The frog isnt Christ ... it is us, you and me, nailed to our own personal crosses before Christ rescued us.
Artists are fully aware of the symbolism their works play on. This bozo was no different. He knew his work - placing a frog in the position traditionally held by millions of Christians' savior holds, on the cross - would offend. Didn't care anyway. And the museum administrators are disingenuous to act as though "it's just art" and that Christians -- the Pope or any others -- shouldn't be bothered by it. It's revolting to anyone who takes seriously the truth of Jesus Christ as savior of humankind, plain and simple. If you call yourself a Christian and aren't bothered by it, you should re-examine how much you really care about adoring and respecting Jesus as lord and savior.
The other side of the issue MarkAA:
If you call yourself a christian and are standing in condemnation of a brother, perhaps you should reexamine how much you really care about adoring and respecting Jesus as lord and savior.
The story of the woman at the well, or the stoning of mary magdalene would be a good place to start. Or perhaps to remember that prior to and after the crucifiction, many criminals were executed on crosses. Christianity does not own the patent to a man on a cross.
The fact is, it is only revolting to you because you choose to see it that way.
Good point brought out in the post above, by DG. Hanging criminals on crosses was the punishment of the time. JC wasn't the only man hung out to die.
But Jesus was THE only God/Man who transformed death by crucifixion
from a shameful crimimal punishment into a salvific act of love.
NO frog can compare...and neither can any man.
There is no proof of God/Man. The story book is really unreliable.
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