“Beatified” statue “funding issue” “solved”
The BBC, not to be outdone, jumps eagerly into the god-hugging pool, reporting joyfully that Birmingham city council has fixed a “funding shortfall” by spending public money on a hideous tin-foil statue of a local-boy-makes-good “saint.”
A funding shortfall to pay for a work of art to celebrate the visit of Pope Benedict XVI to Birmingham has been met by the city council.
The sculpture of the Blessed John Henry Newman was commissioned by the
authority, to mark the visit last year.It was hoped public donations would pay for the statue of the Victorian
clergyman who was beatified by the Pope in a special Mass.
But they didn’t, which is not surprising if you look at it, so the council spent public money on it instead, to the tune of £25,000.
Why the fuck can’t the Vatican pay for its own goddamned statues? This is making my brain bleed.
The public were not willing to pay for this statue, so we are assigning public funds to pay for it in gratitude for the economic benefits Ratzinger brought by coming to visit at (vast) public expense.
A friend of mine (who bailed out on the nun business in Tijuana) told me about a visit to their convent from Mo Teresa, who offered the poor nuns a grove of orange trees which would eventually bear fruit to feed the poor, the nuns’ main job. But, to qualify for the trees the poor nuns first had to build a big fancy convent/theme-park/church complex that advertised the donor of the orange trees.
I think that church has a long tradition of getting people to pay for stuff so the church can display itself all over the place.
Extraordinary. So the taxpayers decided they wouldn’t fork out £30,000 for a pointless statue of some useless theologian and the council decided they should anyway. Because it’s for the Pope, of course, and he’s coming here, and one can’t seem rude, can one? Haven’t the worthy councillors been reading the news?
Here’s some theology (courtesy of Wikipedia):
And this is what the Muslim/Sikh/Jewish/Hindu/Rastfarian/Mormon/Atheist/lip-service-Christian taxpayers are supposed to honour? Do they even know? They’ve already voted. Where is democracy when you need it?
Claire: I suppose that’s one way of “bearing witness”. So it’s all in a good cause. The Church is the ultimate master of PR and thought reform. They’ve had centuries of practice.
Newman was a fairly bright lad and a committed social reformer. (He was also gay, but don’t tell the Church.) I have no objection to a statue as such, provided the people who want it pay for it.
But from the picture the statue looks more like C3-PO. Perhaps it was good taste rather than a lack of reverence that kept the Brummie hands in their pockets.
The Pope raised Birmingham’s profile? To the tune of 25 grand? I had heard of of Birmingham before now, passed through it once. It’s the second largest city in Engand, how does it need it’s profile raised?
I’m certainly no more inclined to visit it unless I have a compelling reason.
LOL
Why now you mention it I too had heard of Birmingham before now and before the pope’s expensive visit.
There are some questions that need asking. Because of the visit of the Pope is it now the blessed blessed Newman? How long does the blessing last? Is there some effect of the blessing that we can monitor? If there is a new coat of paint put on will that disrupt the presumed energy field from the holy water that is usually sprinkled during blessings? Considering the carbon footprint of the Pope’s travelling, could some new system of remote blessing be arranged, or does proximity matter? Could a blessing be done over the Internet, or perhaps via video link?
Ghastly statue. Looks like something from early Dr. Who.
Metal — even lightweight metal — statues don’t have to be ghastly; there’s a very large, perforated aluminum statue of Mary at a major freeway intersection in Santa Clara, California, USA. I can’t remember her right name, but around here she’s generally referred to as “Our Lady of the Freeway”. If the Christians want to do nice, non-demanding pseudo-art*, that’s a prime example.
But a statue that looks like it’s wearing alien makeup? And public money paid how much for that???
*An art teacher once told me, only half in jest, that real art never goes with one’s sofa. And this statue of Mary, appropriately scaled down, would go with anyone’s sofa.
Maybe they coughed for a glittery statue to divert attention from the M42 (the Birmingham orbital), which rivals London’s M25 for the title of ‘England’s biggest carpark’ and is quite possibly the ugliest stretch of motorway in Britain.
And the statue’s made by JRR Tolkien’s great-nephew. We’ll need a story…A company of choirboys have to trek across Europe in order to throw the metal statue into Mount Vatican. Along the way, the small heros have to be careful to keep leering villains from getting their hands on…Okay, that was getting vulgar.At any rate, I wonder what the melting temperature of that statue is anyway. Being Birmingham, they probably have the means of melting it down and re-casting it in the image of Ozzy Osborne.
OT, and sorry to bring up ElevatorGate, but I wanted to let you know that the Point of Inquiry interview with Rebecca Watson is up. I’m only halfway through, but so far Mooney has behaved himself: no mention of angry militant atheists, Dawkins mentioned only in passing. I was amused to hear Mooney talk about how he has been studying Phylliss Schlafly recently and noted that “by directly attacking and mocking feminism” she was able to rally people to her cause, and feminists underestimated her. ZOMG! Mooney admits that attacks and mockery can be effective politically? (Of course, Mooney then implies that this only works on the religious right.)
Karen, you just made my day:
In the video the pope is greeted by some gentleman with a pony tail. Perhaps it’s the artist.
I couldn’t avoid being repelled by the fact that the pope just wouldn’t release the poor man’s hand.
What’s the protocol here? Can you use force and just yank it back?
Give it back, for fuck’s sake, your holiness.
The joys of a theocracy. We have no church-state separation so there is nothing to block public funds being used on religious iconography. And councils regularly spend public funds on butt-ugly crap like this.
Of course it’s a big sign of the times that a country which had draconian anti-catholic laws 200 years ago now builds statues to impress the pope. But still, state-church and all that.
Well I’ve never heard of alabama, let alone Birmingham, and I wouldn’t accept its existence if I had. Not mississippi neither!
Thanks screechy, and no problem about bringing up elevatorgate; Abbie brought it up yesterday anyway, with startling and unpleasant results. That elevator just keeps descending.
I saw that the interview was posted but couldn’t find the patience to listen to it. Maybe eventually…
Public money is spent on all sorts of statues. This one’s top-heavy with bronze.
http://www.visitwiltshire.co.uk/swindon/what-to-do/places-to-visit-that-are-free/public-art-diana-dors-statue