Grilled Cheese Madonna?

Now, Religion in the News: a report and comment on religious trends and events being covered by the media. This week’s item is from the South Florida Sun Sentinel, November 24^th, 2004, with the headline: “Grilled Cheese Idol—It’s an unlikely marriage of the sacred and the profane: a decade-old grilled cheese sandwich bearing the purported image of the Virgin Mary, sold to a gambling house that wants to tour the petrified snack around the country for charity. For Diana Duyser, a Dania Beach woman who peddled the sandwich half with a bite missing for $28,000 in an EBay auction, the partially consumed breakfast meant a miraculous windfall. For goldenpalace.com, the online gambling concern based in Antigua that purchased the sandwich, it’s a heaven sent promotional opportunity.

“For believers, expected to view the crusty relic as it crosses the country under guard, it’s a chance to brush up against the divine. But things may not be so cut and dry. The sandwich’s Virgin, experts say, could simply represent a common human phenomenon of perception called pareidolia, the capacity for people to recognize familiar patterns in random images such as sailing ships in the clouds. ‘People see what they want to see,’ said Sylvia Grider, an anthropologist at Texas A&M University. ‘It’s a manifestation of human creativity.’

Duyser, 52, says she skillet-fried the white bread and American cheese sandwich for breakfast ten years ago. After taking a bite, she noticed the small face on its charred surface that she identified as the Virgin Mary. Though not particularly religious, Duyser kept the curiosity nestled in cotton balls in a plastic box on a shelf. ‘It did not mold or decompose,’ she said.

“Earlier this month, the jewelry designer offered the sandwich for sale on EBay, an internet auction site. After being temporarily removed by EBay officials, she was allowed to post it again. Goldenpalace.com, a company that has seen its name displayed by streakers at various sporting events, as well as tattooed on the backs of overweight boxers, bought it for $28,000. ‘We’re the toast of the town,’ company spokesman Drew Black said from his office outside Montreal. ‘It’s just going crazy, crazy, crazy.’ Black said the company will hand Duyser a check and display the sandwich this afternoon at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino.

“Goldenpalace.com will also announce plans for a national tour, complete in a bus painted like the grilled cheese sandwich. Duyser and her sandwich will go to Las Vegas, Hollywood, California, New York, and Atlantic City, stopping at malls, and radio, and TV stations, in small towns along the way.”

Tom: Dave, I know you were a little bit concerned that I wouldn’t be able to top last week’s item which had to do with…folks, if you missed it…an Australian brewing company offering six cases of beer to anyone that could help find the baby Jesus from their manger scene that somebody walked off with.

Dave: (sighing) Yeah.

Tom: But, I think this is right there.

Dave: (chuckling) Tom, I’m not sure of the value of this kind of stuff on this program. But…it’s human interest, I guess.

Tom: Well, let me explain myself—and actually, I’ve had to explain myself a number of times for this.

Dave: I hope so.

Tom: Dave, this is spirituality in the world. Why are people being drawn and attracted to things that are so absurd? We know from the Scripture, that when the Antichrist—this is biblical, folks; this is scriptural—when the Antichrist presents himself, it’s going to be with lying signs and wonders.

Dave, if a half-eaten grilled cheese sandwich can attract crowds, how is a lying sign and wonder going to affect the masses when that takes place?

Dave: Well, it’s about the Virgin Mary, and, of course, images of the Virgin Mary have supposedly appeared many places. I remember on a bank in Tampa, Florida….

Tom: Right.

Dave: …on the window, and crowds came.

Tom: I think I have a picture of you standing there, gazing at it. Is that true?

Dave: (Chuckling) it might be.

Tom: (Chuckling) you did go over to check it out.

Dave: I can’t remember all the pictures that have been taken of me, Tom…

Tom: Mm-hmm.

Dave: …around the world. I know that Tommy Ice even took one of me in Israel in front of the hotel called The Golden Tulip, and he took that as meaning I was being converted to T.U.L.I.P. of Calvinism.

Tom: Mm-hmm.

Dave: Anyway, the Virgin Mary, so-called—she is not a virgin, because the Scripture is very clear. Her husband did not know her until she brought forth her firstborn child. There were brothers and sisters of Jesus; half-brothers and sisters, born to Mary and Joseph.

But, she plays a big role. And this is the day of women’s lib. As the dame of the Catholic Church can say, “We’ve got a real woman,” you know, “the most honored woman leading this church,” and even Muhammad, you know, said that the Virgin Mary was the greatest. He said, “Thou, O Fatima (that was his favorite daughter), art the highest woman in heaven, next to our lady, the Virgin.”

So, it has a powerful appeal Tom, I don’t understand why.

Tom: Mm-hmm.

Dave: Why would an image, so-called image of the Virgin Mary that happened by chance on a grilled cheese sandwich…

Tom: Or on the side of a building.

Dave: …why is that going to have any spiritual value? What it does is it turns people away from the truth. The truth is that we’re sinners. That Christ died for our sins on the cross. He paid the penalty. He paid the full debt that we owe to God for our rebellion and wickedness. He rose from the dead.

Now, what does that have to do with a grilled cheese sandwich or any other image? Or some appearance of the Virgin Mary at Fatima, or Lourdes, or you know, there are almost 1,000 shrines to the Virgin Mary, in France alone.

Tom: Which attract millions and millions and millions. Our Lady of Guadalupe, for example, in Mexico…unbelievable the amount of people who flock to an apparition.

Dave: Yeah. And, Tom, I have checked it out around the world. I haven’t been everywhere, by any means, but I’ve only been able to find two shrines to Jesus. I found one in Portugal and one in Canada. They’re very small, run down, and hardly anyone visits them. And yet, there are thousands, probably tens of thousands, of shrines to Mary all over the world. Is the world being led astray? Does the world love the lie? Do they turn from the truth by the millions? Well, this is just another evidence of that sad fact.

Tom: Mm-hmm.