Christians up in arms over ‘McJesus’ sculpture

A fast-food clown nailed to a cross has united its Finnish creator with Christians demanding the artwork’s removal from an exhibition at an Israeli museum.

The controversy involves “McJesus”, a statue of a crucified Ronald McDonald by Jani Leinonen on display at the Haifa Museum of Art. It, along with a figurine representing Jesus as a smiling crucified Ken doll, has raised the ire of members of the local Christian community.

The works are part of “Sacred Goods”, an exhibition about consumerism running in the northern coastal city’s museum since August.

Images of the exhibits began circulating on social media last week, and in a Friday demonstration outside the museum, protesters wounded three police officers with stones.

Two Molotov cocktails also hit the museum in recent days, police said.

After a series of meetings with Christian leaders, the museum resolved to install signs warning of “offensive content” at the exhibition’s entrance, a spokesperson for the institution said Monday.

The proposed solution, however, did not satisfy Christian leaders, who petitioned the Haifa district court to order the museum and municipality to remove “McJesus” and “Ken Jesus Christ” from public display.

The works are part of an exhibition dealing with religion and faith in the culture of consumerism, the spokesperson said.

“McJesus”, created by Christian artist Jani Leinonen, has been displayed “in many European museums” and “is about the cynical use of religious symbols by giant corporations,” she added.

It shows how Ronald McDonald “has become a symbol of popular culture, reaching the level of religious worship”.

But while “McJesus” might be taken primarily as a critique of capitalism in other parts of the world, in the Middle East such visual imagery was blasphemous, said Wadie Abunassar, advisor to church leaders in the Holy Land.

“We’re not in Europe, we’re in Israel,” said Abunassar.

“To us, as Arabs and Christians, this is an affront to our symbols, and we demand their removal.”

Another person demanding the removal of “McJesus” was the artist who created it.

The attention the Christian campaign drew to the exhibition surprised Leinonen, who said he had in September demanded the museum remove it “as a protest against Israel’s human rights violations”.

“Israel overtly uses art exhibitions like this and culture in general as a form of propaganda to whitewash or justify its regime of occupation, settler-colonialism and apartheid over the Palestinian people,” he said in a statement to AFP.

Following last week’s protests, Leinonen contacted the curator again to have “McJesus” removed.

“I insist the museum takes my artwork out of the exhibition immediately,” he said.

The museum spokesperson said “McJesus” was on loan from a Finnish gallery on terms that allowed its display in Haifa.

“The museum was never requested by the gallery to remove the exhibit,” she said.

Close to home

McDonald’s South Africa has responded to the controversial artwork. Daniel Padiachy, McDonald’s South Africa chief marketing and communications officer told Centurion Rekord the company was not in any way affiliated with the artwork or the Haifa Museum of Art in Israel, where it was being displayed.

“McDonald’s South Africa is aware of the controversial artwork and notes that while it did not originate in South Africa, we officially distance ourselves from this artwork. McDonald’s in no way endorses the use or representation of our brand in this manner,” he said in a statement to Centurion Rekord.

“We are a restaurant company and we do not engage in politics or religion. Our commitment is to serve great-tasting food in a feel-good environment.”

Social media posts in South Africa have run wild with criticism after a few images of the artwork circulated on WhatsApp, with residents in Pretoria complaining about receiving the image.

One of the posts circulating on social media calling on Christians to boycott McDonald’s. Image: Centurion Rekord

“This is extremely offensive to my Christian faith, and I hope it is removed from all social media platforms soon,” said one of the message recipients, Michael Hoffman.

“The confusion comes in with nobody really knowing who is behind this. This is extremely offensive to my Christian faith and I can’t understand how it is allowed to share images like this. Loads of people are thinking that McDonald’s is using this as an advertising campaign, which would be completely unacceptable,” Hoffman said.

– AFP 

– Additional reporting by Caxton News Service publication Centurion Rekord

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