New York’s Roger Smith Hotel, home to the Lab Gallery, yesterday unveiled a 200 pound, nude, anatomically correct Jesus, made out of 200 pounds of chocolate. While this would offend many at any time, it was done Easter week.

The hotel was inundated with angry calls and Matt Semler, the gallery’s creative director, almost perfectly combined ignorance with insensitivity in saying, “We’re obviously surprised by the overwhelming response and offense people have taken.”
He added that the timing was a coincidence.

I do not know Mr. Semler, but it strikes me that he would not have approved a nude, chocolate sculpture of the Prophet Mohammed and unveiled it at the beginning of Ramadan. And, if by some chance he did, you could imagine the outrage from around the country and the world at his insensitivity to Islam and Muslims. Jesus and Christianity, back pages of the newspaper and not a big deal, Mohammed and Islam, front page, top of the hour and people protesting in the streets. It’s a sad commentary on almost every level.