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Officials say hat of Longmont artist's clergyman looks like penis

Statue stirs controversy at Kansas university

By Aimee Heckel, Camera Staff Writer
October 11, 2003

A Longmont artist's religious statue that some say has sex on the brain -
literally - is creating an uproar at a Kansas university where it's on

display.

Jerry Boyle, 53, said he wasn't trying to be "mean-spirited" when he made

the

statue of a clergyman wearing what some say looks like a penis on his

head. But

members of the Catholic church are livid, calling it "Catholic bashing at

its

worst." They want the statue removed from Washburn University's Topeka,

Kan.,

campus.


Boyle, a Colorado State University graduate and Catholic himself, created

the

statue, "Holier Than Thou," 12 years ago. It shows the upper body of a

heavyset

man wearing a miter, a tall ecclesiastical cap sometimes worn by bishops,
cardinals and the Pope.

It doesn't look like a miter, said Andrew Strobl, president of Washburn's
Catholic Campus Center.
Someone else interpreted it that way, too. A few days after a Washburn

campus

beautification committee displayed the statue as part of a yearlong

sculpture

exhibit, photos began circulating over the Internet and on campus.

"They used a flash and a certain perspective to enhance what certain

people

interpret," said David Monical, Washburn's executive director of

governmental

and university relations. "The rest, you could say, is history."

Complaints flooded campus.

"The Leaven" religious news Web site called the piece an "insult to all
Catholics and others who value decency and respect for all people and

their

religious values and beliefs." The Catholic League for Religious and Civic
Rights in New York criticized an inscription on the statue they say mocks

the

confessional.

The inscription reads: "I remember being 7 and going into the dark

confessional

booth for the first time. I knelt down, and my face was only inches from

the

thin screen that separated me and the one who had the power to condemn me

for my

evil ways. I was scared to death, for on the other side of the screen was

the

persona you see before you."

The Washburn Review campus paper said alumni are threatening to withdraw
financial support if the statue is not removed. Still, campus leaders

refuse to

take down the statue, which was financed by private donations. Monical

said one

of the purposes of art is to engage people intellectually and emotionally.
"This work apparently has fulfilled that function," he said.

Boyle would not say whether he intended the piece to look phallic, but he

said

it was on display two years ago in downtown Colorado Springs with no
controversy. In fact, he said some people have seen two Christian fish

symbols

on the cap.

"I make the piece. People make their own interpretations," he said.

"Through

their own history and experience, they see what they see. And it's not
necessarily what they want to see."

If it qwas a penis, is that wrong?

so......

was there a picture?