HOMELESS JESUS SCULPTURE CONTROVERSY - "SOMEBODY CALLED THE COPS ON JESUS!"

HUFFPOST RELIGION - HOMELESS JESUS SCULPTURE CONTROVERSY

The statue, a work by Canadian sculptor Timothy Schmalz, places Jesus on a park bench, sleeping in a thin shawl. The man is unidentifiable as Christ save for crucifixion wounds on his feet.

In a previous interview with The Huffington Post, Schmalz said he was inspired to craft the statue after seeing a homeless man n the ground before Christmas in 2011. "My instinctive thought was, that is Jesus Christ. I saw Jesus," he said.

The statue is so lifelike, DavidsonNews.net Editor David Boraks told NPR, that people have called police after mistaking it for an actual person.

"That's right," NPR observes, "Somebody called the cops on Jesus.