Chocolate Christ Show Cancelled

Couple set up phone number for modern church sculpture

(NEWSER) - A Dutch town has a guardian angel—and her cell phone gets 30 calls a day. The Little Angel, a sculpture outside the ancient St. John the Evangelist Cathedral in 'S Hertogenbosch, was born out of a 1997 design contest to replace the church's worn-down figures. In addition to the phone, she has a laptop bag and wears jeans. After she was unveiled last year, an anonymous couple set up a phone number for her, advertised on business cards throughout the town, the New York Times reports. More»

Catholic League: Academy would never allow similar insult to Judaism, Islam

(NEWSER) - Madonna might've been down on her creaky old knees at the Super Bowl , but hell hath no fury like the Catholic League today over Nicki Minaj's religious-themed, stunt-laden appearance at last night's Grammy Awards. The League today issued a press release titled, "Is Nicki Minaj Possessed?" Concluding that the answer to that question is "open," the League blasted the Recording Academy for allowing the performance, saying, "Never would they allow an artist to insult Judaism or Islam." More»

(NEWSER) - Did Michelangelo actually create a small (16-inch) wooden carving of a crucified Jesus or did the Italian government get taken for a $4 million ride? Some experts believe passionately that the piece, now on exhibit in Naples, is the work of the master. But as the BBC reports, others blast the label as a deliberate ploy by the government to use the religious carving to curry favor with the Catholic church and religious conservatives. More»

Thousands protest pontiff's claim that contraceptives don't halt HIV

(NEWSER) - The pope’s recent remark that condoms not only don’t prevent the spread of HIV but make it worse hasn’t earned him many friends on Facebook, CNN reports. Almost a dozen groups have sprung up in protest of the pontiff’s scientifically inaccurate statement, with thousands of Facebookers—many of them in Europe—pledging to send millions of condoms to the Vatican. More»

Christ sculpture draws protest, but Barack turns the other cheek

(NEWSER) - Another sculpture of Jesus is stirring protest this Holy Week—this time a work portraying Barack Obama as the savior. The Art Institute of Chicago has gotten a flood of angry calls over the piece in an exhibition of student work, close on the heels of the chocolate Christ brouhaha in Manhattan. More»