Aug 28 2009
Religion with a Side of Fries
I recall a cartoon by B. Kliban from decades ago that bore the caption: John the Baptist with a Side of Fries. I couldn’t help but think of it upon viewing this religious artifact in a small church in the hillsides of rural Sicily (summer 2008).
In case you are unfamiliar with the story, it can be found in Mark 6 — these verses from the New International Version:
Finally the opportune time came. On his birthday Herod gave a banquet for his high officials and military commanders and the leading men of Galilee. When the daughter of Herodias came in and danced, she pleased Herod and his dinner guests.
The king said to the girl, “Ask me for anything you want, and I’ll give it to you.” And he promised her with an oath, “Whatever you ask I will give you, up to half my kingdom.”
She went out and said to her mother, “What shall I ask for?”
“The head of John the Baptist,” she answered.At once the girl hurried in to the king with the request: “I want you to give me right now the head of John the Baptist on a platter.”
The king was greatly distressed, but because of his oaths and his dinner guests, he did not want to refuse her. So he immediately sent an executioner with orders to bring John’s head. The man went, beheaded John in the prison, and brought back his head on a platter. He presented it to the girl, and she gave it to her mother.
A head on a platter . . . kindof’ an odd thing to hang on the wall of a “holy place,” wouldn’t you say?
