If you haven't heard the latest in what some within the religious right call the war on Christianity...well it's all about "My Sweet Lord", or what the press is calling chocolate Jesus. The chocolate sculpture was set to be displayed at a gallery in Manhattan. As publicity grew for the exhibit, the Catholic Church...particularly Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, expressed outrage until the show was cancelled by the Hotel that houses the gallery.

From The Associated Press:

NEW YORK — A planned Holy Week exhibition of a nude, anatomically correct chocolate sculpture of Jesus Christ was canceled Friday after Cardinal Edward Egan and other outraged Roman Catholics complained.

The "My Sweet Lord" display was shut down by the hotel that houses the Lab Gallery in midtown Manhattan. Roger Smith Hotel President James Knowles cited the public outcry for his decision.

Matt Semler, the gallery's creative director, resigned in protest.

The six-foot sculpture by artist Cosimo Cavallaro was the victim of "a strong-arming from people who haven't seen the show, seen what we're doing," Semler said.

But word of the confectionary Christ infuriated Catholics, including Egan, who described it as "a sickening display."

Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, fumed, "It's an all-out war on Christianity. They wouldn't show a depiction of Martin Luther King Jr. with genitals exposed on Martin Luther King Day, and they wouldn't show Muhammad depicted this way during Ramadan. It's always Christians, and the timing is deliberate."

Cavallaro insisted the timing was purely coincidental.

The artwork was created from more than 200 pounds of milk chocolate and features Christ with his arms outstretched as if on an invisible cross. Unlike the typical religious portrayal of Christ, the Cavallaro creation does not include a loincloth.

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I just don't get it...it's as if Donohue's issue is that Jesus had genitals. If God's intention, as deciphered by Donohue, was to give us genitals in order for us to demonize them, then just what kind of a prankster is God?

I for one am sick of those religious zealots who continue to fear sexuality and view everything through their tawdry template...making it necessary for them to condemn anything remotely related to sex as sinful or sacrilegious.

Genitals are no more inherently bad than the hands that grip a gun and pull a trigger in order to kill another...and yet Donohue isn't outraged that our hands are exposed. If God had the ability to bring Jesus into the world via a virgin birth, then why didn't God go ahead and remove his genitals. If their existence is as offensive and demeaning as Donohue believes, wouldn’t that make more sense?

Instead, if I understand what we are told is that God sent us a man just like all other men to show us that goodness is a choice available to all of us...even if we have genitals and hands.

Donohue's outrage exemplifies the real problem....bad thoughts and ideas are invented in the mind and those who hold such thoughts and ideas are the least capable of explaining God's intentions and carrying out his wishes. They suffer the worst of ailments...they believe that they know what God wants and that they are justified in serving as his foot soldiers...raising their voices and flaunting their influence to play God. That is evil...Chocolate Jesus is not evil...it's simply chocolate.

The controversy has created quite a stir on the internet. Take a look at what others are saying...here:

John Amato at Crooks & Liars has video of Donohue ranting.

Digby wants to know if the Catholic Church is going to disavow Donohue and "his band of freaks".

Zuzu at Feministe wonders what could be making Donohue's "little vein in the forehead throb".

I thought it would be appropriate to post the following music video of Tom Waits singing a song he calls Chocolate Jesus and to offer my own bit of sarcasm in the graphic that follows the video clip. Perhaps I'm wrong, but if we're gonna stir the pot, let's stir it good, stir it real good...because anyone who has ever made chocolate knows you must do so or it will stick and burn.

Oh, one last thing, the answer to the question raised in the title of this posting is that after the Priest places the host (the body of Christ) in your hand, you put it in your mouth. So there you have it.

The Feeling is another in a long string of bands from the UK gaining popularity in the US. This is the music video for the song Sewn from their CD titled Twelve Stops And Home. Their website describes the band as follows:

The Feeling are five twentysomethings from Sussex and London who love pop music.  Great big no-nonsense, hook-filled, giant-chorused pop music – music for the masses, only intelligent, with sunshine hooks and killer choruses that everyone can hum, from plumbers to professors.

Rob Riggle explains the inner working of becoming a good Bushie or a bad Bushie to Jon Stewart. Don't miss the picture and description of a Bushie within the first twenty seconds...funny stuff. As usual, The Daily Show has a knack for stringing together real news into hilarious fake news...all delivered with a heaping helping of satirical acumen.

Little Britain is a sit-com that appeared in the UK a few years back. Daffyd is one of the characters on the show. He lives in a small Welsh city and fashions himself as the only homosexual in the city. The following video clip is from an episode in which Daffyd is in the mood to call everyone a homophobe...whether or not it is actually true. If you like British humor, this is funny stuff.

I love Bill Maher. He has an unmatched ability to use comedy to cut to the chase. In this latest version of New Rules he skewers the Bush administration's habit of raising doubts about the patriotism of those who oppose their agenda.

Maher uses Plamegate and Valerie Plame's years of service in the CIA to make the argument that if anyone is lacking in patriotism, it is those within the Bush administration that sought to expose her covert identity in order to discredit her husbands accusations that the Bush administration cherry picked intelligence in order to make the case for the invasion of Iraq.

Make sure to watch the whole clip because he harkens back to W's 2000 presidential campaign slogan to finish his smackdown of the President.

On the March 2nd show Bill Maher tackles the controversy surrounding the new HPV vaccine (human papilloma virus) which prevents the virus that is responsible for most cervical cancers. The consideration by some states to require that teenage girls receive the vaccine has led many religious conservatives to object to the vaccine. They believe that the vaccine will promote premarital sex.

On the March 9th show, Maher deciphers the many false assertions and beliefs behind our continued efforts in Iraq. Maher points out that our desire to stay the course in Iraq is having little impact on the long standing issues that underlie the Iraqi society and their sectarian differences.