The AP story began, “The Gods must be angry — or just laughing.”
Mexican authorities have ordered removal of a 10-foot statue of Poseidon, Greek God of the Sea, installed near a Yucatan beach.
Prompted by a complaint from the “Indigenous Strategic Litigation group,” its spokesman Carlos Morales saying the Poseidon effigy is “foreign to the Maya culture.” And there’s “a human right for . . . Maya culture to be preserved.” The legal complaint said the statue offended the beliefs of local Maya indigenous groups, who prefer their own water god, Chaac. (Actually a rain god, according to my research, but who’s quibbling.)
Anyhow, social media posts crowed, “Chaac 1, Poseidon 0.” While Mexico’s Poseidon worshippers are enraged.
But let me get this straight. Preserving Maya culture requires that no other gets a look in.
And of course, Maya is Mexico’s predominant culture, so they do have the right to pre-empt all others.
Oh, wait. No, Mexicans are actually overwhelmingly Christians. Is all their imagery offensive to Maya culture? Thus not allowed? I think Mexican authorities have a lot of work ahead.
What if Christians deem Maya stuff offensive to their faith? After all, Christians too have a god of water — Jesus — who walked on it.
But the AP story drily ends by saying, “Battles between the gods just aren’t what they used to be.”