An activist art group has hung a pro-abortion sign from the Christ of the Ozarks statue.
On Friday, local authorities in Arkansas discovered that the progressive activist art collective InDecline had hung a banner reading "God Bless Abortions" from the religious statue.
In an Instagram post announcing the act, InDecline stated that they put up the sign for two reasons. The first was an analogy between how there is only "one 65-foot statue of Jesus" and "one abortion clinic" in Arkansas.
The second is an expression of how they think Christ would approach abortion. "We think Jesus would understand the concept of a difficult decision." The Instagram post reads. "He supposedly had to make a few of them and understood sacrifice very intimately. The Christ of the Ozarks is visible from miles away, so we just treated it like a billboard. We aren't necessarily 'pro-choice' or 'anti-life,' those terms are double-speak. We think abortion is a goddamn miracle worth celebrating. It saves lives, but those lives are usually female."
Local organizers did not discover the sign until news outlets reported on the Instagram post. Soon after, local tree removal service providers stepped in to remove the banner.
Director of operations at the Great Passion Play, who manage the statue, Kent Butler told the Christian Post that the incident would instead drive people to consider Jesus. He believes that this act was merely a "Vehicle for political speech" and a "publicity stunt."
InDecline is a self-described "Activist Art Collective" that focuses on "social, ecological and economical injustices carried out by American and International governments, corporations and law enforcement agencies." The collective has received previous attention for several other incidents, including creating nude Trump statues in several cities.
