SACRILEGE: It is finished means it is finished!

Italian museum defies pope anger over crucified frog | Yahoo! News

What do you get when you combine a German art museum, a German artist, and a green German frog? No, not a Kermitmeister!

Just as in the case with the Danish Muhammad cartoons debacle, this is a cause for the Christians of the world to unite and burn buildings ... heck, whole cities ... well at least a few old cars.

An art museum in northern Italy said Thursday it will continue displaying a sculpture portraying a green frog nailed to a cross that has angered Pope Benedict XVI and local officials. [...]

I could find no record of Pope Bennie actually described as angry ... apparently the author (Ariel David) of this piece needed an adjective real bad.

Earlier in August the pope had written a letter to Franz Pahl, the president of the Trentino-Alto Adige region that includes Bolzano, denouncing the sculpture.

It "has offended the religious feelings of many people who consider the cross a symbol of God's love and of our redemption," Pahl quoted the pope as writing in the letter.

Pahl himself has long opposed the display of "Zuerst die Fuesse" ("First the Feet" in German), even staging a hunger strike this summer and saying he would not seek re-election unless it was removed.

And it is this that CW wants to highlight; ridicule of key or fundamental aspects of a person's orthodox faith is an extreme form of disrespect for that person and their faith.

To this end I understand Islam's negative reaction to the Danish cartoons. However, I vehemently disagree with their expression of upset.

Pahl said he was outraged by the museum's decision to keep the work, which he claims "pokes fun at the Catholic population and offends religion and the pope."

The 1990 wooden sculpture shows the crucified frog nailed through the feet and hands like Jesus Christ.

Just guessing, but I could be easily convinced that the artist had some personal issues he was dealing with.

The museum said the 3-foot (1-meter) -tall sculpture has nothing to do with religion, but is an ironic self-portrait of the artist and an expression of his angst.

"With humor and a tragicomic sense, which belongs to art since the times of Greek tragedy, Kippenberger ... faces his condition of suffering, which he expresses in many works, also, for example, in a video in which he crucifies himself," the museum said in a statement.

Nuff said!

Blasphemy, Christianity, Cristophobia,
Ridicule, Religion, Sacrilege