Saturday-morning contributor Morbo tried to appropriate This Week in God for his own purposes about an hour ago, but I’ve reclaimed control of the God Machine in a bloodless coup. First up is a flap over a life-sized Chocolate Jesus in New York City.
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 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.
And guess who was behind all of this? The Catholic League’s Bill Donohue, who called the chocolate display “one of the worst assaults on Christian sensibilities ever.” (Really, Bill? Ever? In two millennia, this is among the very worst?)
David Kuo, formerly of Bush’s faith-based office, had a different, and less unhinged, perspective, concluding that the six-foot, milk-chocolate sculpture might be “the perfect piece of art for holy week.”
Jesus’ story isn’t nice, it isn’t neat, it isn’t comfortable. It is the opposite of all of those things. In so many ways those of us who say we follow Jesus actually want a sort of “chocolate Jesus” of our own – one that is sweet, one that demands little from us, one that we can mold into our forms – perhaps politically conservative, perhaps liberal, maybe happy with just a few of our dollars given to the poor every now and again, perhaps content with those who simply say they love him and then lead lives little different from anyone else.
It is easy for some religious leaders to decry a piece of art and say – as some have (apparently with a straight face) – it is “one of the worst assaults on Christian sensibilities ever.” (I suppose that genocide in Darfur is merely an “affront” to Christian sensibilities?) But instead of getting all amped up over this “art,” Christians should be spending time facing the real and very challenging Jesus found in the Gospels and encouraging others to do the same. I know that is what I need to do.
Bill Donohue, I think he’s talking to you.
Next up is a story from Capitol Hill, where, apparently, there’s a “Congressional Prayer Caucus” that held a disconcerting event in DC this week.
A bipartisan group of U.S. House members offered a simple message to the American people [Wednesday]: “Pray, or God will lift his caring hand from the great nation.”
Over three dozen representatives joined U.S. Rep. J. Randy Forbes (R-Va.) on the west lawn of the U.S. Capitol today to urge Americans to pray for the U.S. and its leaders for at least five minutes each week. Forbes, who is also the leader of the Congressional Prayer Caucus, said he hopes “God will hear our prayers and heal our land.”
Each member spoke for 30 seconds, and many gave personal testimony about the power of prayer in their personal and professional lives. Several members put a sectarian spin on their messages, suggesting that surrendering to Jesus Christ is the only thing that could save our nation. U.S.Rep. Bill Sali (R-Idaho) beseeched the nation to “glorify the name of Jesus Christ,” because as his colleague Todd Akin (R-Mo.) said, “Jesus is always the answer.”
U.S. Rep. John Carter (R-Texas) said “prayer is the solution” to America’s many problems. Remarks were greeted with “Amen!” “Yes!” and “Thank You, Jesus!” from the small crowd of mostly Hill staffers and tourists.
Forbes mentioned that his colleagues were calling people of all faiths to pray, but that they would “let God sort out” which were the “right” prayers, done in the “right” way. Interestingly, Christianity was the only faith represented at today’s gathering.
Yes, “interesting.”
And finally this week, the latest scientific study of healing prayers produced results that the faithful might find discouraging.
In the largest study of its kind, researchers found that having people pray for heart bypass surgery patients had no effect on their recovery. In fact, patients who knew they were being prayed for had a slightly higher rate of complications. […]
Dr. Herbert Benson of Harvard Medical School and other scientists tested the effect of having three Christian groups pray for particular patients, starting the night before surgery and continuing for two weeks. The volunteers prayed for “a successful surgery with a quick, healthy recovery and no complications” for specific patients, for whom they were given the first name and first initial of the last name.
The patients, meanwhile, were split into three groups of about 600 apiece: those who knew they were being prayed for, those who were prayed for but only knew it was a possibility, and those who weren’t prayed for but were told it was a possibility.
The researchers didn’t ask patients or their families and friends to alter any plans they had for prayer, saying such a step would have been unethical and impractical.
The study looked for any complications within 30 days of the surgery. Results showed no effect of prayer on complication-free recovery. But 59 percent of the patients who knew they were being prayed for developed a complication, versus 52 percent of those who were told it was just a possibility.
Dr. Harold G. Koenig, director of the Center for Spirituality, Theology and Health at the Duke University Medical Center, concluded that science “is not designed to study the supernatural.” That’s one of many possible responses to the results, isn’t it?