Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Waiting for Christian riots in 5...4...3...2...

NOT.

From Sweden's The Local:

Well-endowed Jesus dog unveiled 'to support free speech

A Swedish artist unveiled Tuesday a sculpture depicting Christ as a well-endowed dog, saying he wanted to stimulate debate about religion and freedom of expression in the wake of a row over cartoons of the prophet Muhammad, Swedish media reported.

The artwork showed Jesus as a dog with a bloodstained head under a crown of thorns and an "enormous sexual organ", according to Swedish press agency TT.

However, within hours of the sculpture being installed on a roundabout in Skånes Fagerhult, a town in the south of Sweden, it disappeared.

"I want religion to stop taking society and the vulnerable for idiots," the 59-year-old artist, Stig Ramsing, told the online version of Helsingborgs Dagblad newspaper.

In Nordic countries the display of outlandish sculptures of dogs on roundabouts is a familiar art form which has become common in the past decade.

"It is my turn to follow [artist] Lars Vilks and provoke a sensible discussion about religion," Ramsing added.

Jesus wept.