Last October I posted on the Obama votive candle with his face on the body of St. Martin de Porres which Mark Steyn labeled “Votive early, Votive often.” A reader sent me in an update.
He may be the Second Coming to many San Franciscans – but one local Catholic priest wants a popular prayer candle with President Obama’s picture on it pulled from a local gift shop, saying it “mocks Jesus” and “depicts our beloved saints in a not so saintly way.”
The Rev. Tony La Torre of St. Philip the Apostle Church, in ever-hip Noe Valley, is so riled up that he’s calling for a boycott of the neighborhood’s Just For Fun card and novelty shop, which has been selling the $15 candles at a fast clip.
The candles feature the president’s halo-adorned head plastered onto the crucifix-clutching body of St. Martin de Porres, the Peruvian-born friar regarded as one of the first black saints in the Americas.
“I am appalled that in such a family-oriented neighborhood, any retailer would be so bigoted and so hateful (as) to carry such merchandise just to ‘make a buck,’ ” La Torre declared recently in the parish newsletter.
Store owners Robert Ramsey and David Eiland say they’ve sold more than 700 candles since putting them on display over the Christmas holiday.
And while the candles are a big hit, Ramsey says they’re not much different from the line of gag gifts they’ve been selling without complaint at the store on upper 24th Street for the past 22 years.
Yeah they put them right next to the prayer rugs picturing Obama as Mohammed – oh wait they don’t have that.
But to La Torre, the candles featured in a big window display were “the final straw” for a store “that feels the need to mock and ridicule the Catholic/Christian faith.”
It’s not first time “anti-Catholic, anti-Christian” attitudes, as La Torre calls them, have been decried in the city.
A couple of years back, Archbishop George Niederauer said he had been duped into giving communion to a couple of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence – cross-dressing, prankster “nuns” – prompting outrage from religious conservatives across the country.
The candle commotion might have passed quickly, except that La Torre also described the store’s owners as Jewish (they’re not) and urged parishioners not only to boycott the store but to “be sure to poke your head in … and tell them why.”
The San Francisco Archdiocese weighed in, contacting the priest to express its concern over his “Jewish” reference. La Torre has since retracted the reference, saying he only meant that the owners – if Jewish, as he says he was led to believe – “should know what it feels like to be mocked and ridiculed.”
That certainly didn’t help matters and wasn’t germane to the matter at hand even if true.
The owners ignored La Torre’s offer to meet with them to discuss his concerns, but did post a copy of the priest’s newsletter in their store window – right next to the king-size, 2-foot-tall version of the Obama candle that had set him off.
So far, the only effect of the controversy seems to be free advertising and a demand for even more candles.
“Tomorrow, I got 72 more coming,” Ramsey said.
That is always part of the prudential decision to boycott since it can give free advertising and in this case drive sales. Too bad it was mostly the local pastor seemed to be upset by these candles. This is really and act desecration by sacrilege whenever something sacred including sacramental is used for an unworthy purpose. This is more than just a political novelty, but a mocking of the Catholic faith – something that seems to be a constant theme in San Francisco.
15 comments
“wick-ed” huh? Nice pun!!
It will never cease to amaze me that the Catholic Church is always open to attacks by outsiders, but it is not okay to attack any other group, religion, etc. Seems to me that political correctness does not apply when discussing the Catholic Church!!
It is a shame that Rev. La Torre had to say anything about the store owners being Jewish…intended or not, it does not sound good and hurts his case against the store owners.
I think it’s funny. So sue me. I don’t think it is an insult to the Catholic faith, it’s a joke about all the people who think Obama is the new Messiah. I wouldn’t buy one, but I don’t find it insulting. In a world where people make chocolate crucifixes and call them art, and where Madonna comes on stage on a giant mirrored cross and makes millions, I think these candles are just a silly joke.
This is far from a joke. It’s not funny. It’s meant to attack our Catholic Faith.
Interesting that the Bishop was more concerned over the “jewish comment” than insult to the Catholic faith. Go figure!
Forgive all injuries.
I am not amused, tho.
Once Obama’s ecological and economic policies have succeeded in replicating FDR’s Great Depression, precious few will be able to afford candles.
I loved this comment:
VanSmack
2/15/2009 10:43:45 AM
Put Obama’s face on a saint’s body, and people love it. But if you made a lawn jockey with his face, I wonder what the reaction would be?
“anti-Catholic, anti-Christian”
Is the good Padre putting heretic protestants on the same level as Catholics?
I suspect that part of the story is that De La Torre already has to deal with “botanicos” (sp?) selling Catholic votive candles like this for use in Santeria rituals, or selling votive candles of “folk saints” who don’t exist or to whom devotion is disapproved because the bishops judge them harmful. (Drug dealer “saints”, for instance.)
So yeah, it’s super-creepy to sell Obama votive candles, even when intended as a joke — because Fr. De La Torre probably knows that some poor people won’t take it as a joke, but rather will use these candles for serious spells and worship. (Or will buy these candles to use to defraud poor people of their money with fake occult stuff, or hurt the souls of the impressionable with real occult stuff, or….)
Sigh. Nothing like funnymen messing with stuff they don’t understand. Maybe if they make it funny enough, it will make it hard for the occult people to take the candles seriously.
You have a good point about boycotts offering free publicity. However, i do think it would be helpful for people to drop in on there own and say something is tasteless or inconsiderate and that they won’t shop there until it is taken down.
Did you not know Obaminism is the new mandatory US religion?
http://www.texasrainmaker.com/2009/02/13/borders-bookstore-in-dallas-praises-saint-obama/
Jeannine: Well, there’s no disputing about taste. I think it’s funny, you don’t. But in what way do you see this as an attack on the Catholic faith? It isn’t saying that Obama is actually a saint. It isn’t saying that Catholics should worship Obama, or do worship Obama. It isn’t saying that real candles with saints on them are stupid. It isn’t a combination of any old celebrity with an image of a saint (those are offensive — they aren’t making a point they’re just being offensive). This candle says that people treat Obama AS IF he were a religious figure who is practically holy. I don’t see the insult to Catholicism here but I do see the insult to Obama and Obama supporters.
I think it’s tasteless and unfunny.
Well, this is a little more dignified than the previous pop culture depiction of St. Martin de Porres when Madona french kissed him in her “Like a Prayer” video.
As a certifiable liberal and embittered recovering Catholic, I can tell you what the candle means to me. It reminds me that the qualities which Obama supposedly projects, dignity, forbearance, and patience, were certainly lived in St Martin’s life.
Art can be very subjective.
Well, this is a little more dignified than the previous pop culture depiction of St. Martin de Porres when Madona french kissed him in her “Like a Prayer” video.
As a certifiable liberal and embittered recovering Catholic, I can tell you what the candle means to me. It reminds me that the qualities which Obama supposedly projects, dignity, forbearance, and patience, were certainly lived in St Martin’s life.
Art can be very subjective.
Well, this is a little more dignified than the previous pop culture depiction of St. Martin de Porres when Madona french kissed him in her “Like a Prayer” video.
As a certifiable liberal and embittered recovering Catholic, I can tell you what the candle means to me. It reminds me that the qualities which Obama supposedly projects, dignity, forbearance, and patience, were certainly lived in St Martin’s life.
Art can be very subjective.