Why I am glad Friends don't do icons...

I was looking through some posts on the Young Turks and the Huffington Post the other day and came across this very strange story. It seems the St. Charles Borromeo Catholic Church in Warr Acres Oklahoma has been experiencing some controversy over a crucifix that was placed over the altar recently. A local artist was said to have created the iconic crucifix copied from the historic original San Damiano cross. This was the cross St Francis of Assisi was said to have been praying in front of when he received a message from God to rebuild the church. The original is now in the Basilica of St Clare in Assisi. The controversy surrounds the abdomen of Christ, the question being whether there is a large male genitalia there or just a distension, somewhat like the "6 pack" abdomen of muscle bound weight lifters. You can see the crucifix in question below:

Well I don't know about the average Internet user or the average Quaker but I am a physician and I have to tell you - that is not a "distended abdomen" and certainly not a "six-pack" but rather a male penis and testicles!! I had to research this some more so here are some examples of six packs:

I wondered if the original San Damiano cross was as obvious and after spending some time on the Internet searching for an image of the original I found it and here it is with a close up of the abdomen to the right:

Definitely more subtle but still very suggestive, no? A friend and I talked about this and wondered whether the modern artist was trying to make a statement, given the ongoing sexual abuse scandal rocking the Catholic church around the world.

Here are two other icons that are copies of the San Damiano but as you can see the one on the right shows what looks somewhat more like a 6 pack, and the one on the left is somewhat in between penis and 6 pack:

So other artists since the original have been a bit more discrete in their interpretation. This gets us back to the modern artist. In her interpretation was she deliberately making a point? It turns out that this icon has provoked commentary in the past, see here. In 2006 a documentary, Rape of the Soul, was released. In this film, the Catholic church's sex abuse crisis is blamed on satanic and occult imagery embedded in its artwork. In a comment on the film another iconic crucifix with suggestive imagery is presented. This is the Bigalia Crucifix in Italy and dating from the 13th century. It looks pretty similar and maybe even more suggestive with the "testes" arising from under the loin cloth.:

So the question still remains did the artist embelish her rendition to make a point or was she just following iconic tradition? In the first article on the Warr Acres controversy:

Janet Jaime, a local iconography artist who designed the crucifix, had no comment.

"I think it was painted according to the certain specific rules of iconography and church art,” Seeton said of the crucifix.

The crucifix is about 10 feet tall. It has been hanging above the altar since Feb. 21.

Seeton said the crucifix doesn’t concern him, and there are no plans to remove it.

Monsignor Edward Weisenburger of theOklahoma City Archdiocese also said he has no problems with the crucifix

But thankfully, for the church and all those who understand human anatomy, the story today from Oklahoma is that the crucifix has been taken down and will be altered by the artist, who is said to be distraught over the controversy. A fellow artist who knows her said today that she put too much contrast in the abdomen and was working too close to realize how it looked from farther away. He added, "She is very serious about her religion and wouldn’t in the slightest possibility ever imagine wanting to sneak a pee-pee on to Jesus.” You can draw your own conclusions here...thankfully this is not something we would ever have to deal with in our meeting houses!