{"id":124127,"date":"2021-11-26T17:56:39","date_gmt":"2021-11-26T15:56:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thefreethinker\/?p=124127"},"modified":"2021-11-26T17:56:39","modified_gmt":"2021-11-26T15:56:39","slug":"oh-mama-george-floyd-as-jesus-sparks-fury-at-a-catholic-university","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thefreethinker\/2021\/11\/oh-mama-george-floyd-as-jesus-sparks-fury-at-a-catholic-university\/","title":{"rendered":"Oh Mama! George Floyd as Jesus sparks fury at a Catholic University"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"
Image via Facebook\/Kelly Latimore Icons<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

A CHAPTER of Young Americans for Freedom<\/a> (YAF) at the Catholic University of America (CUA) this week launched a petition<\/a> to have two \u201cblasphemous\u201d paintings depicting murder victim George Floyd in the arms of the the Virgin Mary.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The identical paintings, simply titled \u201cMama\u201d, are currently hanging in the Washington university\u2019s campus ministry office and its law school. They were created by Missouri artist Kelly Latimore, whose works take the form of religious icons.<\/a><\/p>\n

According to The Daily Signal<\/em><\/a> a junior at CUA said in an email to the news outlet:<\/p>\n

The icon has no place at The Catholic University of America; it is blasphemous and an offense to the Catholic faith, but it is not surprising at all that it was put there. It is just another symptom of the liberalization and secularization of our campus.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The student, who asked to remain anonymous out of fear of reprisal from the university administration, added:<\/p>\n

There are many students, faculty, and staff who are concerned about this, but there is nothing we can do. And if we sound the alarm, we will be labeled racists.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The petition, which garnered more than 3,500 signatures in three days says:<\/p>\n

As students at The Catholic University of America, we believe that it is extremely grave that our university, the official university of the Catholic Church in North America, would cast another in the image of our Lord in this way, particularly for political purposes.<\/em><\/p>\n

No political or social cause ever justifies depicting another in the place of Jesus Christ.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Latimore, who lives and works in St Louis, Missouri, said in an April interview that his painting was commissioned by his partner \u201cas a way to mourn George Floyd.\u201d<\/p>\n

Floyd, a black man arrested for attempting to use a counterfeit bill to buy cigarettes, died on May 25, 2020, after a white Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for 9 minutes and 29 seconds. A viral video of Floyd\u2019s death, in which Floyd lay handcuffed and pinned to the pavement on his stomach, sparked protests and riots that summer across the nation.<\/p>\n

Latimore said he receives death threats and \u201cspiritual denunciations\u201d over the painting about once or twice a week. Many of these threats come from Eastern Orthodox individuals in Russia or Ukraine.<\/p>\n

Junior politics major and former Catholic University College Republicans President Blayne Clegg<\/a> told The Daily Signal<\/em> in an email:<\/p>\n

I think it goes without saying that George Floyd didn\u2019t deserve to die, and I sincerely appreciate the efforts of millions of Catholic Americans, who engaged in good-faith advocacy to advance policies that will prevent the use of excessive force by law enforcement. But George Floyd is not Jesus Christ.<\/em><\/p>\n

He is not a saint, nor a martyr, and to, in any way, compare him to the sinless son of Almighty God is to do a damning disservice to the vast majority of Catholics and Catholic theology. It is damning anywhere, but especially at *THE* Catholic University of America, where this painting was purchased, unveiled, and hung up without input from student leaders,<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Jared Jagiello, a student senator representing the university\u2019s School of Architecture and Planning, added that \u201cnobody should be portrayed as Jesus except\u201d Jesus himself.<\/p>\n

It highly disappoints me that someone else is being depicted as Jesus Christ in the Piet\u00e0 to begin with, [and] being right at the doors of a chapel makes matters worse. Replace it with a photo of Floyd, I can care less, but to put up something clearly blasphemous defeats the mission of the university,\u201d he said in the email.<\/em>
\nUnveiling of \u2018Mama\u2019.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Catholic University unveiled the painting at the conclusion of Columbus Law School\u2019s Black History Month programme. During the ceremony Law School Dean Stephen Payne recited the poem \u201cSolidarity\u201d by Maya Angelou and reminded those gathered that:<\/p>\n

Diversity is a divine gift we should cherish.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Assistant Dean Shani Butts read \u201cI Dream a World\u201d by black poet Langston Hughes<\/a>, who is believed to have been gay.<\/p>\n

Father Jude DeAngelo, university chaplain and director of Campus Ministry, blessed Latimore\u2019s painting with holy water, saying:<\/p>\n

Almighty Father, we now ask you to sanctify and bless this icon which we will use in the adoration of the Blessed Mother. May all who look upon this sacred image come to know her protection and maternal care, tracing in their hearts the pattern of holiness.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

If\u00a0 \u201cMama\u201d is giving young conservative Catholic snowflakes fits of the vapours, imagine what effect this icon by Latimore<\/a> would have on them:<\/p>\n

\"\"
Image via Facebook\/Kelly Latimore Icons<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u2022 Please report any typos\/errors to barry@freethinker.co.uk<\/span><\/strong><\/h3>\n

If you\u2019d like to buy me a cup of coffee \u2013 and boy, do I get through a LOT<\/em> of coffee keeping this site active \u2013 please click the link below.<\/h3>\n

\"I'dI\u2019d love a cup of coffee<\/a><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A CHAPTER of Young Americans for Freedom (YAF) at the Catholic University of America (CUA) this week launched a petition to have two \u201cblasphemous\u201d paintings depicting murder victim George Floyd in the arms of the the Virgin Mary. The identical paintings, simply titled \u201cMama\u201d, are currently hanging in the Washington university\u2019s campus ministry office and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3705,"featured_media":124141,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[63,9934,5662,9928,9931],"class_list":["post-124127","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-blasphemy","tag-catholic-university-of-america","tag-george-floyd","tag-kelly-latimore","tag-young-americans-for-freedom"],"yoast_head":"\nOh Mama! George Floyd as Jesus sparks fury at a Catholic University<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A CHAPTER of Young Americans for Freedom (YAF) at the Catholic University of America (CUA) this week launched a petition to have two "blasphemous"\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thefreethinker\/2021\/11\/oh-mama-george-floyd-as-jesus-sparks-fury-at-a-catholic-university\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Oh Mama! George Floyd as Jesus sparks fury at a Catholic University\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A CHAPTER of Young Americans for Freedom (YAF) at the Catholic University of America (CUA) this week launched a petition to have two "blasphemous"\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thefreethinker\/2021\/11\/oh-mama-george-floyd-as-jesus-sparks-fury-at-a-catholic-university\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Freethinker\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-11-26T15:56:39+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/1122\/2021\/11\/header-12.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"649\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"549\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Barry Duke\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Barry Duke\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thefreethinker\/2021\/11\/oh-mama-george-floyd-as-jesus-sparks-fury-at-a-catholic-university\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thefreethinker\/2021\/11\/oh-mama-george-floyd-as-jesus-sparks-fury-at-a-catholic-university\/\",\"name\":\"Oh Mama! George Floyd as Jesus sparks fury at a Catholic University\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thefreethinker\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2021-11-26T15:56:39+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-11-26T15:56:39+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thefreethinker\/#\/schema\/person\/cd033742bce3811ee2ad4547fe4aa8a7\"},\"description\":\"A CHAPTER of Young Americans for Freedom (YAF) at the Catholic University of America (CUA) this week launched a petition to have two \\\"blasphemous\\\"\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thefreethinker\/2021\/11\/oh-mama-george-floyd-as-jesus-sparks-fury-at-a-catholic-university\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thefreethinker\/2021\/11\/oh-mama-george-floyd-as-jesus-sparks-fury-at-a-catholic-university\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thefreethinker\/2021\/11\/oh-mama-george-floyd-as-jesus-sparks-fury-at-a-catholic-university\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thefreethinker\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Oh Mama! George Floyd as Jesus sparks fury at a Catholic University\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thefreethinker\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thefreethinker\/\",\"name\":\"The Freethinker\",\"description\":\"The voice of atheism since 1881\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thefreethinker\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thefreethinker\/#\/schema\/person\/cd033742bce3811ee2ad4547fe4aa8a7\",\"name\":\"Barry Duke\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thefreethinker\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/3bd9356d7b912a4c736c341b4b5ca0fe?s=96&d=identicon&r=pg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/3bd9356d7b912a4c736c341b4b5ca0fe?s=96&d=identicon&r=pg\",\"caption\":\"Barry Duke\"},\"description\":\"Barry Duke began to comprehend the despicable nature of Christianity when he was in his pre-teens. He could not fathom why races in South Africa, where he born in 1947, were prevented by draconian laws from interacting. These laws blighted the lives of millions of \u201cnon-whites\u201d over many years. It was explained to him that racial separation was mandated by the Bible and that apartheid was necessary to maintain \u201cracial purity\u201d. The architects of apartheid were white Christian fanatics who, in the main, admired the Nazis and were viciously anti-Semitic. As he grew older he began actively opposing the racist policies of the apartheid regime and there was a very real danger that his activities would lead to detention or imprisonment. In 1973 he fled the country, and applied for, and was granted, asylum in the UK as a fully-fledged atheist and a proponent of racial equality \u2013 as well as a proud openly gay man. He then became deeply involved with the National Secular Society (NSS) and various LGBT+ organisations, and in 2017 he was handed a Lifetime Achievement award by the NSS for his \u201cspirited opposition to religious intolerance and irrationality\u201d in his roles as a champion of free speech and his work as editor of the Freethinker and The Pink Humanist magazine. In 2017 he was married to his partner of 20 years, Marcus Robinson, in Gibraltar.\",\"sameAs\":[\"brandygrenier\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thefreethinker\/author\/bduke\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Oh Mama! George Floyd as Jesus sparks fury at a Catholic University","description":"A CHAPTER of Young Americans for Freedom (YAF) at the Catholic University of America (CUA) this week launched a petition to have two \"blasphemous\"","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thefreethinker\/2021\/11\/oh-mama-george-floyd-as-jesus-sparks-fury-at-a-catholic-university\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Oh Mama! George Floyd as Jesus sparks fury at a Catholic University","og_description":"A CHAPTER of Young Americans for Freedom (YAF) at the Catholic University of America (CUA) this week launched a petition to have two \"blasphemous\"","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thefreethinker\/2021\/11\/oh-mama-george-floyd-as-jesus-sparks-fury-at-a-catholic-university\/","og_site_name":"The Freethinker","article_published_time":"2021-11-26T15:56:39+00:00","og_image":[{"width":649,"height":549,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/1122\/2021\/11\/header-12.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Barry Duke","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Barry Duke","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thefreethinker\/2021\/11\/oh-mama-george-floyd-as-jesus-sparks-fury-at-a-catholic-university\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thefreethinker\/2021\/11\/oh-mama-george-floyd-as-jesus-sparks-fury-at-a-catholic-university\/","name":"Oh Mama! George Floyd as Jesus sparks fury at a Catholic University","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thefreethinker\/#website"},"datePublished":"2021-11-26T15:56:39+00:00","dateModified":"2021-11-26T15:56:39+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thefreethinker\/#\/schema\/person\/cd033742bce3811ee2ad4547fe4aa8a7"},"description":"A CHAPTER of Young Americans for Freedom (YAF) at the Catholic University of America (CUA) this week launched a petition to have two \"blasphemous\"","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thefreethinker\/2021\/11\/oh-mama-george-floyd-as-jesus-sparks-fury-at-a-catholic-university\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thefreethinker\/2021\/11\/oh-mama-george-floyd-as-jesus-sparks-fury-at-a-catholic-university\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thefreethinker\/2021\/11\/oh-mama-george-floyd-as-jesus-sparks-fury-at-a-catholic-university\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thefreethinker\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Oh Mama! George Floyd as Jesus sparks fury at a Catholic University"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thefreethinker\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thefreethinker\/","name":"The Freethinker","description":"The voice of atheism since 1881","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thefreethinker\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thefreethinker\/#\/schema\/person\/cd033742bce3811ee2ad4547fe4aa8a7","name":"Barry Duke","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thefreethinker\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/3bd9356d7b912a4c736c341b4b5ca0fe?s=96&d=identicon&r=pg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/3bd9356d7b912a4c736c341b4b5ca0fe?s=96&d=identicon&r=pg","caption":"Barry Duke"},"description":"Barry Duke began to comprehend the despicable nature of Christianity when he was in his pre-teens. He could not fathom why races in South Africa, where he born in 1947, were prevented by draconian laws from interacting. These laws blighted the lives of millions of \u201cnon-whites\u201d over many years. It was explained to him that racial separation was mandated by the Bible and that apartheid was necessary to maintain \u201cracial purity\u201d. The architects of apartheid were white Christian fanatics who, in the main, admired the Nazis and were viciously anti-Semitic. As he grew older he began actively opposing the racist policies of the apartheid regime and there was a very real danger that his activities would lead to detention or imprisonment. In 1973 he fled the country, and applied for, and was granted, asylum in the UK as a fully-fledged atheist and a proponent of racial equality \u2013 as well as a proud openly gay man. He then became deeply involved with the National Secular Society (NSS) and various LGBT+ organisations, and in 2017 he was handed a Lifetime Achievement award by the NSS for his \u201cspirited opposition to religious intolerance and irrationality\u201d in his roles as a champion of free speech and his work as editor of the Freethinker and The Pink Humanist magazine. In 2017 he was married to his partner of 20 years, Marcus Robinson, in Gibraltar.","sameAs":["brandygrenier"],"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thefreethinker\/author\/bduke\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thefreethinker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124127","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thefreethinker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thefreethinker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thefreethinker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3705"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thefreethinker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=124127"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thefreethinker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124127\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thefreethinker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/124141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thefreethinker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=124127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thefreethinker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=124127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thefreethinker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=124127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}