Some nutcase took a crowbar to Blowjob Jesus, breaking the picture frame and tearing the print. The woman was from Kalispell, Montana, 950 miles from Loveland:
“It was very loud,” said Kathy Leonard of Loveland, who was touring the exhibit with her husband. “She was lifting the crowbar over her head, and smashing it down, yelling ‘Filth! Filth! Filth!’”
Leonard said she picked up the crowbar after Folden dropped it.
“I didn’t want her to come back for it, and perhaps hurt someone,” she said.
[…]Folden was wearing a T-shirt printed with the Christian slogan, “My Savior Is Tougher Than Nails.”Loveland resident Larry Jones, who was in the gallery during the attack, said someone shouted “call the police” as Folden was completing her act.
“Then the woman said, ‘Yes, call the police. I’m ready,’” he said.
Leonard said that as the police arrived, Folden “lay down on the floor next to the exhibit and spread her arms outward, like she had been crucified.”
Folden was a long-haul truck driver. Wonder who she listens to on the radio?
(via cleek in the comments)
WereBear
You know, if it depicted Jesus mowing down the Pharisees with an AK47, would they get this upset?
I think not. And that’s what is so massively strange about it.
jacy
I’m thinking if her savior’s so tough, he wouldn’t hide behind some nutjob with a crowbar.
comrade scott's agenda of rage
JeeezusHkeeeristonabike.
middlewest
It starts with art; it ends with people. History is very clear on this.
Carnacki
My 12 year old daughter said the other day that censorship is a sign of insecurity about the society. Apparently this woman was insecure about the strength of her God after all.
cleek
“My Savior Is Tougher Than Nails.”
but unable to defend himself against ink on paper?
Mnemosyne
For some reason, this put me in mind of Carry Nation, the temperance crusader.
Citizen Alan
@Carnacki:
I was about to say the exact same thing — what a weak, cowardly faith this woman has in her God and her religion that it cannot bear the existence of someone nearly a thousand miles away not show sufficient deference to it.
I’ve always thought that the reason conservative Christians are so judgmental and hateful is that in their hearts they don’t really believe that God is going to punish all the sinners they way they hope He will, so they try to do on God’s behalf what they secretly think their God is too weak to do for Himself. In other words, blasphemy masquerading as piety.
artem1s
@cleek:
paper covers rock, rock smashes crowbar?
scissors cut paper, nails pierce paper?
tbogg
Wait until she meets Krystal Ball. She profaned a birthday party for Jeebus.
DonkeyKong
Cue Piper Laurie “There all gonna laugh at You!” echoing through the gallery halls.
MoeLarryAndJesus
Jesus wants her for a wingnut.
Kryptik
I dunno, isn’t trying to mimic the image of Christ crucified sacrilege on a similar scale? Sounds a little like hypocrisy to me.
licensed to kill time
This has been an edition of “Paper, Rock, Crowbar”. Who won?
I cannot imagine the mindset of someone who would drive almost a thousand miles to do such a thing, probably muttering “Filth! Filth!” to herself the whole way.
eta: Dangit, artem1s!
buskertype
How much does Michelle Bachmann have to pay you each time I click on that ad?
Chyron HR
But they haven’t killed anybody. Yet. That makes them better than “the muzzzz”.
PhoenixRising
Dammit, I was looking forward to visiting Kalispell again soon but if they’re letting nuts with crowbars run loose in the street, I can re-route.
A faith so strong, it overcame state and local ordinances.
Martin
Thank god that there are no radical Christians that would undertake violence against images of their savior, unlike those crazy fucking Muslims.
You’d think they’d try at least a little harder to not rise to the American Taliban label.
freelancer
One can only hope that this incident sparks some kind of ironic, hipster, atheist activism in the form of an “Everybody draw Blowjob Jesus” day.
JohnR
@Citizen Alan:
“..blasphemy masquerading as piety.”
Interesting that you should pick up on that – for many years I’ve felt that this was the underlying message of the New Testament writings dealing with the hyper-pious individuals. Sort of an updated (for that time, anyway) Golden Calf thing. I came to the conclusion some years ago that the Christianist Right is most disturbing because there’s actually something Satanic about its perversion of the Christian teachings into a horrible, hateful mirror-image of the teachings we associate with Christ.
scav
Another voice heard from blowhards against blowjobs.
NB1: May contain nuts. Hell, may be composed entirely of nuts.
NB2: May be closely allied with nutjobs against blowjobs but are entirely entirely unaffiliated with, better than and spiritually superior to those crazies that get offended by Danish cartoons.
NB3: NB2 is part of the most highly successful job-creation program funded by the Kochs.
freelancer
“I love
having sexgettin’ nailed, but I’d rather get some head.”Roger Moore
I’m from Loveland, and this is obviously not the way you want your home town to show up in the national news. I’m only glad it was an outsider who did the damage, although it sounds as though there have been plenty of locals who would have done it if they just had the gumption.
catclub
@WereBear:
The evidence is already in:
Jesus’s General gets no objections.
kdaug
@Chyron HR: Don’t tell that to the Iraqis, Afghans, or Pakistanis.
Trinity
And she’ll be on the Fox “News” channel in 3…2…
cleek
@freelancer:
win.
themann1086
@tbogg: That is awesome. If you live in VA’s 1st district, vote for her! :D
uloborus
@JohnR:
I thought the Gospels were rather clear about that. And then Paul turned around and wrote the rest of the New Testament exactly contradictory to Jesus’s words. Basically, this problem’s been baked in from the beginning.
@Carnacki:
The whole conservative movement is fantastically insecure. It seems to be BASED on insecurity. They pee their pants at the slightest threat, and expect us to be ‘afraid’ of their leaders. They traffic in bullying rhetoric constantly and stretch their opponents’ words and interpretations wildly to find threats that weren’t intended. And Christianity is somehow under attack by something other than people losing interest.
JGabriel
Are we even sure it’s Jesus in that picture, and not just some random hippie dude?
I mean Jesus is supposed to be dead by now, isn’t he? I’m pretty sure he died at least twice.
.
Cat Lady
Touchdown Jesus gets hit with lightning, Blowjob Jesus gets hit with a crowbar. Why does God hate
touchdowns and blowjobsJesus?Poopyman
Now before you all get to tut-tutting what a whackjob she is, you might consider that she really might not be all that right in the haid. Sounds like she’s gone a bit around the bend there.
Better a crowbar than a 9mm, I suppose.
Kryptik
@JohnR:
These people are not Christians. They are modern day Pharisees. All letter, no spirit.
Poopyman
@Poopyman:
Of course, I guess that does make her a literal whackjob.
So carry on then.
JGabriel
freelancer:
The Fonzi of Freedom and Blowjob Jesus sounds like the title of some lost Tom Waits & Rickie Lee Jones duet circa 1978.
Just sayin’.
And yeah, I wanna know when the Fonzi of Freedom holds his Draw Blowjob Jesus Contest and publishes an essay showing how the Christian Fundies are just as violent and America-hating as the Muslim Fundies.
.
Dennis SGMM
@uloborus:
I would add that it also has a strong steak of victimhood. The MSM has been undermining them for decades, secular humanists and intellectuals are undermining their belief system and gay marriage will cause them all to get divorced.
evinfuilt
She obviously had no faith in jesus being able to protect himself. Couldn’t she just send one of those oh so nice and condescending “I’m praying for you” letters to the artist. Then say God will smite thee. Nope, she wanted to be Gods instrument and “Jesus Smash art that’s not really a blow job, but I’m an illiterate moron so what do I know.”
maus
I don’t know, but the answer probably involves meth.
JGabriel
Reposted due to moderation of the sociaIist word. FYWP.
Fergus Wooster
@Kryptik:
But hardly new. William Jennings Bryan and Pope Pius XII got there first, although no less revoltingly.
brendancalling
i love how the woman was wearing a tee-shirt that said “my savior is tougher than nails”.
that may be true of ol’ Jeezo, but his follower’s faith apparently is weak enough that it can’t stand up to a painting.
JGabriel
Cat Lady:
God doesn’t hate Jesus, he just has to be cruel to be kind, to toughen up Jesus for the real world and the battle with Satan and liberals and sociaIists.
God is just the typical loving father of the conservative world; i.e., the typical psychotic sadistic mad dad.
.
brendancalling
@Dennis SGMM:
and to have gay sex. That’s the worst part. First the homos get married, the very next day everyone in massachusetts is gay.
Kryptik
@Fergus Wooster:
Hardly new, but it still always struck me as just as insulting as some of the stuff people like this get their shit boiling over. Oh, but I guess it’s alright, since it’s all about proving just how pious you are publicly and on the street. You know, just like Jesus wanted.
Fergus Wooster
@Kryptik: Yup. Jesus always loved narcissistic public shows of piety.
I just couldn’t resist a dig at soon-to-be Saint Pius XII.
Mnemosyne
@Citizen Alan:
That’s pretty much it. I would even go so far as to say that most of them secretly suspect that they’ve chosen the wrong team (“what if the Hindus really are right and I’m totally wrong?”) or that there is no God at all, and then they feel guilty, so they double down on the crazy.
I will use one of my favorite Anne Lamott quotes here: “You can safely assume that you’ve made God in your own image when it turns out God hates all of the same people you do.”
Zandar
Crowbar?
Must have been a hidden headcrab in the picture.
Ramiah Ariya
Time to have a “Draw a Jesus” contest…
D-Chance.
At least she only attacked the work of art… and not the artist, unlike those who post critical pieces against Islam (y’know, the religion of peace).
evinfuilt
@Mnemosyne:
That’s a very appropriate quote.
I can’t recall where I read it, but one person wrote that all these Christians are so lucky that they were born into the one perfect faith and never had to be challenged, gosh, unlike the billions of other people on Earth, God choose them to be Christian from the get go and not convert.
Convenience, that sums it up so well, they use their Christianity as a convenient excuse to be dicks.
Fergus Wooster
@evinfuilt: It’s good to be
KingElect.Ash Can
@Citizen Alan: Bullseye.
Malaclypse
Why have no moderate Christians refudiated the violent extremists?
workingmomOH
http://crooksandliars.com/susie-madrak/week-should-americans-fear-muslims
Someone needs to update Ms. Amanpour.
One of her recent guests claimed that this type of thing just doesn’t happen…
“BAUER: Ten years ago — 20 years ago, an artist here in New York took a crucifix and submerged it in a vat of urine and called it “Piss Christ.” Christians did not riot. There were not terror cells formed of Christians wanting to blow up artists in New York. If the foolish pastor — foolish pastor in Florida had burned the Koran, that would not have been the cause of the violence. That would have been the excuse for the violence. Whether it’s cartoons, an infidel touching A Koran, the fact of the matter is, that the radical mosques keep many Muslims on the edge of mayhem and violence.”
Kristine
@tbogg
just want to say that between your tags and your descriptions of Christine O’Donnell, you’ve been winning the week.
In keeping with our Christine O’Donnell coverage because, like masturbation, she truly is the gift that keeps on giving, we present the Very Important First Ad of her campaign to be voted Princess Senator Most Adorable of Delaware Sparkle Pony.
freelancer
@Malaclypse:
Dude, you have no moderate Christian!
JGabriel
Chyron HR:
I can think of a number of doctors who would disagree, if they hadn’t already been shot and killed by Christian fundamentalists.
.
ppcli
Just think – this destruction could have been warded off if only someone had said to her: “That ain’t no picture of Jesus. That guy on his knees is some scrawny long-haired hippie weirdo pansy. Ever’body knows Jesus had short hair and big muscles. So that’s some different guy.”
DanF
On the bright side, she just helped make the artist, Enrique Chagoya, a lot more famous and marketable than he was last month.
freelancer
@DanF:
Maybe, but even as art, it’s still kind of shit. Poor illustration and the “Howdy Doody” color palette is just mundane. That said, “Enrique Chagoya” is a badass name.
” ‘Allo, Mah name is Enrique Chagoya. You crowbarred mah paintin’. Prepare to die!”
Matt
@Citizen Alan:
I think actually it’s just the opposite. Evangelical Christianity teaches that if you are “born again,” Jesus will forgive all your sins and you will go to heaven. You have to continually repent, since you continue to sin, but the one thing necessary for salvation is “accepting Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior.”
I think the hatefulness comes from biblical hyper-literalism (“IT’S THE ONE TRUE BOOK OF GOD EVERY WORD IS TRUE AND WAS WRITTEN IN ENGLISH BY JESUS WHO WAS WHITE”), and hyper-literalism comes from the secret, hidden belief that maybe, just maybe, Jesus won’t forgive their sins. That even though they’ve said the right things, they still will burn in hell because they did it wrong—so they cling to the fact that the promise must be true because every word in the Bible is true, and therefore they have to hate the gays and punish the non-Israelites (the modern Christians) and so on.
This obviously isn’t true of the grifters at the top of the political side of it, who probably don’t think much about Jesus at all. But for the people at the ground level, who show a little bit of discomfort with the idea of discrimination but think it’s what the Bible “requires,” I’ve long thought it was because they’re afraid that if they start questioning Bible passages, they’ll have to question their own salvation.
priscianus jr
I am a lifelong Democrat, Obama supporter, I LIKE Nancy Pelosi, never voted for a Republican in my life and today’s GOP I regard as utter scum. However, since everybody on this thread seems to be in perfect harmony on this Blowjob Jesus thing, I’m going to say something a bit different. The fact that liberals think they need to defend things like Blowjob Jesus is exactly what’s wrong with liberalism today. (You mean there’s anything to be criticized about liberalism? You must be a wingnut!) Keep up the good work folks, and I guarantee you there will always be a Tea Party. It’s kind of like when you bomb Pakistani villages you can guarantee there will always be an Al Qaida.
gbear
@freelancer: Don’t crowbar my art, bro!!
scav
@priscianus jr: In an ideal world, there wouldn’t be hypocrites to mock. Until then . . .
Ash Can
@priscianus jr: If you look at this thread a little more closely and/or are honest about what you’re reading, you’ll see very little discussion about the painting itself one way or the other, and a great deal of discussion about what this woman did and why she did it.
The “Democrat” doth protest too much, methinks.
ppcli
Can’t speak for anyone else on the thread, but I’m certainly not defending the painting “Blowjob Jesus” (or whatever it is actually called, and assuming it really does purport to have a representation of what people are claiming it does). I think such displays aimed at cheap shocks to the churchgoers are almost not only tasteless and adolescent, but trite, unimaginative and not at all artistically interesting. That’s what I thought about Piss Christ, and I’m pretty sure that if I saw this I would come to the same conclusion.
We’re making fun of the “it offends me – so destroy it” reaction.
ppcli
Can’t speak for anyone else on the thread, but I’m certainly not defending the painting “Blowjob Jesus” (or whatever it is actually called, and assuming it really does purport to have a representation of what people are claiming it does). I think such displays aimed at cheap shocks to the churchgoers are almost always not only tasteless and adolescent, but trite, unimaginative and not at all artistically interesting. That’s what I thought about Piss Christ, and I’m pretty sure that if I saw this I would come to the same conclusion.
We’re making fun of the “it offends me – so destroy it” reaction.
Rick Massimo
@WereBear: They’d need to find out who the Pharisees were first. For all their quoting of Scripture, it’s mind-boggling to me that they really don’t seem to know.
Jason In the Peg
“If you people would just shut up other people wouldn’t feel the need to threaten your first amendment rights.”
How’s that? Shorter? More succinct?
John Bird
Sounds like she performed a piece of outsider art right there.
Mnemosyne
@Matt:
So it has always been. I have an interesting book of trivia about kings, queens and popes that has a quote from Pope Alexander VI (better known as Rodrigo Borgia) pointing at his dinner and saying, “A man has about as much chance of resurrection as that chicken does.”
Even if you’re raised Catholic, if you read enough about the medieval popes, you can see where Luther was coming from.
The Confidence Man
I’m wearing a t-shirt that says “My Savior Is Tougher Than Lenny Dykstra.”
Muller
Jesus knows people hate him per his quote ” If the world hate you, you know that it hated me before it hated you” John 15:18
King James Ver.
There is no need to defend GOD ALMIGHTY. He can do it himself — or else he wouldn’t be GOD ALMIGHTY. That “wack job” with the crowbar demonstrated that her idea of God is too weak to defend himself and needs her intervention.
This is also a lesson that Muslims need to learn about Allah.
I say if they are Gods, let them defend themselves. Else everyone knows how weak they are and in need of protection.
les
@priscianus jr:
Well, D’Souza would agree with you.
priscianus jr
@ppcli:
I see your point, but I don’t agree. In a case where something is extremely offensive (and would be generally acknowledged as such), I don’t see much of a distinction. I mean why not burn a stack of Korans while you’re at it, or publish nasty cartoons of the Muslim prophet? The way I see it, it takes two to tango. Can you seriously tell me that such acts are done without the express purpose of being offensive? So what you are saying is that it’s wrong for Muslims in Afghanistan to riot when they find out that somebody is planning a public burning of the Koran? Maybe it’s wrong, but you know perfectly well it’s going to happen. And the real point is this: you expect every Muslim to be understanding enough of other people’s beliefs to tolerate the burning of the Koran, but you don’t expect the guy who’s burning the Koran to be tolerant of the Muslims’ beliefs and not burn it. Because he has a right. As the president said, the fact that somebody has the right to do something does not make it a wise choice.
priscianus jr
@les:
Dinesh D’Souza is a colonialist asshole.
creature
The artist’s stated intention for this particuar piece of art was to address the catholic chuches’ recent and ongoing sex-abuse scandals. Although the myth-believers out there are quick to swallow anything that sounds plausible to allay their fears of uncertainty in life (and death), none of them seem ready to see justice done regarding the papoists’ problems. The crow-bar wielder has bonded out, let’s see who rises to her defense in court. The catholic churches’ voca defenders tend to minimize, divert and excuse the whole affair- even the local church guy who roused the rabble didn’t want to address that. He just wanted to fill up the city hall with wild-eyed acolytes to counter the other citizens that really didn’t think the artwork was going to caus,e the unleashing of the reign of the antichrist, or odin’s wrathful hammer or zeus’ lightning bolts (pick a mythology- they all work well). Besides, it was a print.