March 30, 2007 | 12:06 pm

Sweet Jesus

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

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A New York artist has sculpted a life-size Jesus with his arms spread wide and his feet together, in the position of one being crucified. It’s made of chocolate and Christ is NAKED—endowment and all. (Click here to see.)

The artist’s creation, which will be on display in New York for the week beginning Palm Sunday, is the latest culture-war issue to draw the ire of Catholic firebrand Bill Donohue. The website for his Catholic League has two rants against the artist’s intentions. Here’s part of the first:

As I’ve said many times before, Lent is the season for non-believers to sow seeds of doubt about Jesus. What’s scheduled to go on at the Roger Smith Hotel, however, is of a different genre: this is hate speech. And choosing Holy Week—the display opens on Palm Sunday and ends on Holy Saturday—makes it a direct in-your-face assault on Christians.

All those involved are lucky that angry Christians don’t react the way extremist Muslims do when they’re offended—otherwise they may have more than their heads cut off. James Knowles, President and CEO of the Roger Smith Hotel (interestingly, he also calls himself Artist-in-Residence), should be especially grateful. And if he tries to spin this as reverential, then he should substitute Muhammad for Jesus and display him during Ramadan.

Thanks to the Dallas Morning News religion blog for pointing this out.

* Updated: The nude chocolate Jesus exhibition has been cancelled. Here was David Kuo’s take on the art show planned for Holy Week.