Darth Vader Sculpture on Washington National Cathedral

Michael Breeden writes "Star Wars has apparently taken another step in becoming part of our national history. The Washington National Cathedral, during its expansion, has placed a sculpture of Darth Vader's head into the carvings around one of the exterior arches. This space is normally reserved for grotesques (gargoyles), and ol' Darth seems to have fit the bill. "

Comments

I'm speechless

[KiahZero]

Why? Why?

I've been to the National Cathedral... it's a beautiful place, even for pagans such as myself. Why would they carve a Darth Vader into the arches?

I'm sorry, but I just find this amazingly stupid. Maybe someone could enlighten me as to why this was done? The page seems to be /.ed already.

Re:I'm speechless

[User 956]

I've been to the National Cathedral... it's a beautiful place, even for pagans such as myself. Why would they carve a Darth Vader into the arches?

"To Find Darth Vader you have to leave the building through the ramp entrance. This is located at the northwest corner of the nave, through the double wooden doors of Lincoln Bay. Go down the ramp, and step into the parking lot. Then, turn around and look back up at the tower closest to you. He is almost impossible to see ithout the assistance of binoculars."

Something tells me the "addition" isn't exactly an eyesore.

Re:I'm speechless

[Anonymous Coward]

so where can I see the paperwork showing the release and authorization of Lucas's Intellectual Property?

They are making Lucas insanely poor with this obvious theivery of his extremely valuable property!

As we all know unauthorized duplication will put the copyright owner into economic dispair instantly and causes billions of loss every hour.

Re: I'm speechless

[dnoyeb]

Yes, but gargoyles were meant to protect the church and were not representations of evil.

Gargoyles and Vader are NOT at all alike!

[Blymie]

Very weird.

Gargolyes are protectors, Darth Vader certainly is not. Why would someone sculpt such an artifact of evil?

Re:This violates the separation of church and stat

[Dutchmaan]

Actually.. It was meant as a joke about a head of state having his head literally connected to a cathederal.

Hey.. it's hard to get a legitimately funny post up as first post too! ;)

Get real...

[Anonymous Coward]

There has been a gargoyle of Vader on the cathedral for years, saw it back in '88. I found it cute and a good thing that they had it, showed that they were keeping with the times.

Re:This violates the separation of church and stat

[Anonymous Coward]

Seperation of church and state is a pinko liberal myth.

Right on! Ditto for freedom of speech and habeus corpus. Just ask anyone in the Bush administration.

--Fighting trolls with trolls since 1999.

Does George Lucas know about this?

[Jerk City Troll]

I imagine if he did, there'd be some sort of huge lawsuit for copyright infringement or intellectual property theft or something along those lines. Pretty soon there'll be royalty fees and you're not allowed to look at it without paying admission... this is a bad idea. :)

Re:an appropriate message of the day

[reiggin]

Just for those who aren't aware, Thomas Jefferson was a Deist. His objections to Christianity most likely weren't along the same lines as those objections many people today might have. The quote, out of context, may seem to be something it is not.

Dear God not news: usenet post from 1994

[Finni]

Click.

Come on - this was a post from 1994, and the poster doesn't even say THEN that this was new.

Re:This violates the separation of church and stat

[Jeremy Erwin]

Actually, it's the cathedral church of the Episcopal Bishop of Washington. Although the cathedral is somewhat ecumenical, the National Cathedral is no more associated with the Federal government than say, The National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception (a largish, non-parish Catholic basilica in DC.)