Green Palm Sunday and Chocolate Jesus

In some U.S. churches, Palm Sunday is going the way of this year's Academy Awards by going green.

From The New York Times:

Clutching a tiny knife in his big calloused hands, Laizon Corzo wound his way through the thick foliage in one of southern Mexico’s forested areas in search of living treasures.

...Mr. Corzo is one of the indigenous farmers who puts palms in the hands of North American churchgoers on Palm Sunday, the Sunday before Easter. He is also on the cutting edge of a new movement to harvest what are being called “eco-palms.”

Slightly more expensive than the average palm, eco-palms are the rage in churches across the United States because of the social and environmental benefits they represent. They are collected in a way that helps preserve the forest, and more of the sale price ends up in the pockets of the people who cut them.

“We want to be a green congregation,” said the Rev. David C. Parsons, pastor of St. John-St. Matthew-Emanuel Lutheran Church in Brooklyn, which purchased eco-palms for the second straight year. “We are conscious of our footprint on the earth. There is a biblical mandate to do that.”

Now operating in a handful of palm-producing areas in southern Mexico and northern Guatemala, the eco-palm project is similar to programs for certified coffee, chocolate or diamonds. But the consumers in this case are churches, and many say that the religious significance of the plant compels them to buy the most wholesome palm possible.

“Jesus’ entrance into Jerusalem was accented by the jubilant waving of palm branches,” Lutheran World Relief, one of the groups endorsing the project, says on its Web site. “Unfortunately, for the communities where these palms are harvested, palm fronds do not always represent the same jubilation they do for us.”

"Eco-palms"?

"The most wholesome palm possible"?

They've got to be kidding.

Palms are a renewable resource. It doesn't take years to grow palm branches.

If palm producers are receiving better wages, that's great.

But that's a business matter.

In that case, the "eco" should refer to economy, not ecology.

...Dean A. Current, a professor of natural resources management at the University of Minnesota, was called in to study the economics of the palm industry. He discovered that about 10 percent of the palms sent to the United States were bought by churches. The rest go to florists, who often use them in arrangements for weddings and funerals.

In surveying churches, Mr. Current found that most were willing to pay up to double the going price to be sure their palms were responsibly harvested. A big church might spend as much as $1,500 on palms for Palm Sunday.

Sometimes, they are burned for the next year’s Ash Wednesday, although that practice is being cast aside by some congregations because of concerns that it pollutes the air.

I'm guessing here but I doubt that burning the blessed palms is a major source of air pollution.

Certainly, heating and cooling a church for a year produces far greater pollutants than burning palms ever could.

The practice upholds the Church's tradition, at least in my church.

I find the following part of The Times article particularly bizarre.

...[E]xactly what [the palms] are used for up north is not always clear.

“I know it’s used for decoration,” said Moses Macal Maroukin, 69, a veteran palm chopper, who seemed somewhat mystified. He said he had no palm fronds in his home.

But then he revealed what the people here had long believed to be the real use of the exported palms. The juices in the stems and leaves are extracted, he explained in a conspiratorial whisper, and then turned into a special mixture that is used to stain greenbacks green.

“This is how you color your dollars,” he said, waving a palm.

Where did they find this clueless "veteran palm chopper"?

Mexico is an overwhelmingly Catholic country.

I find it extremely hard to believe that the people don't understand the significance of Palm Sunday or the use of palms.

Read about the observation of Holy Week in Mexico. This paragraph is especially relevant.

Palm Sunday, Domingo de Ramos in Spanish, starts off Semana Santa on Sunday April 1st this year and the week builds toward Maudy Thursday, Good Friday and of course, Easter Sunday, known as Dia de Gloria - Day of glory. On Palm Sunday everyone goes to Mass in the morning for the blessing of the Palm leaves; when dry, the leaves are made into crosses that people use as amulets, adorning their cars and homes.

The Times wants its readers to believe that the palm harvesters in Mexico are "mystified." The article takes a mocking tone toward the use of palms in the observance of Passion Sunday and the beginning of Holy Week.

I guess it's to be expected from a liberal propaganda outlet like The Times.

That reminds me. I still haven't commented on the Chocolate Jesus controversy.

A planned Holy Week exhibition of a nude, anatomically correct chocolate sculpture of Jesus Christ was canceled Friday after Cardinal Edward Egan and other outraged Catholics complained.

The "My Sweet Lord" display was shut down by the hotel that houses the Lab Gallery in midtown Manhattan. Roger Smith Hotel president James Knowles cited the public outcry for his decision.

The reaction "is crystal clear and has brought to our attention the unintended reaction of you and other conscientious friends of ours to the exhibition," Knowles wrote in the two-paragraph cancellation notice.

Matt Semler, the gallery's creative director, resigned in protest.

The six-foot sculpture was the victim of "a strong-arming from people who haven't seen the show, seen what we're doing," Semler said. "They jumped to conclusions completely contrary to our intentions."

But word of the confectionary Christ infuriated Catholics, including Egan, who described it as "a sickening display." Bill Donohue, head of the watchdog Catholic League, said it was "one of the worst assaults on Christian sensibilities ever."

It's disgusting that a chocolate, anatomically correct figure of Jesus would be displayed during the holiest week of the year for Christians or at any time.

The "artist" Cosimo Cavallaro certainly meant to cause an uproar. He had to know that he would offend Christians. The gallery director certainly knew what the reaction would be.

Cavallaro didn't submerge the sculpture in his urine, did he?
I suppose he wouldn't want to be accused of ripping off Andres Serrano's Piss Christ, and I doubt the chocolate would hold up under those conditions anyway.

I wonder. Has Cavallaro created a chocolate nude Mohammed? How about a chocolate nude Moses or a chocolate nude Buddha?

I don't think he has. A "My Sweet Mohammed" display probably wouldn't go over too well in midtown Tehran, or midtown Manhattan for that matter.

I do know that Christians the world over won't riot in the streets because they were offended by Cavallaro's tasteless creation.

I think that Cavallaro suffers from a decency deficiency. Perhaps that happens when you eat too much chocolate.
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UPDATE: Apparently, there are thousands suffering from the same decency deficiency.

NEW YORK -- An anatomically correct chocolate sculpture of Jesus Christ infuriated Catholics and even led to threats, but the artist says offers to buy or exhibit the piece have been pouring in.

Artist Cosimo Cavallaro said Saturday that because of "some people who are fanatics" and the threats he received, he had stored the sculpture in a refrigerated truck in an undisclosed location.

...Cavallaro said the controversy spurred "thousands" of e-mail messages from people offering help, donations and exhibition space.

"It's quite amazing," he said.