In this 2007 file photo, Bert Baker, an amateur artist, had recently finished a 7-foot-tall sculpture of Christ at Red Bank Baptist Church. Credit: Gerry Melendez/The State Newspaper, Columbia, SC
Posted on 05/30/2018 4:56:29 PM PDT by marshmallow
In this 2007 file photo, Bert Baker, an amateur artist, had recently finished a 7-foot-tall sculpture of Christ at Red Bank Baptist Church. Credit: Gerry Melendez/The State Newspaper, Columbia, SC
Charleston, S.C., May 30, 2018 / 04:01 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Jesus is being evicted from a South Carolina church, and he must be out by the end of the month.
Red Bank Baptist Church in Lexington, about 120 miles northeast of Charleston, has voted to remove a statue of Christ and its accompanying reliefs after 11 years, because they are believed to be too “Catholic in nature”.
The white, hand-carved statue in question shows Christ with his outstretched and stepping out of the wall, while the reliefs depict images from Christ's life, death and resurrection.
Red Bank Baptist Church leaders sent a letter to the artist, Bert Baker Jr., earlier this month, informing him that the congregation had voted to remove the statue because it was being perceived as a Catholic icon and was causing confusion among churchgoers.
“We understand that this is not a Catholic icon, however, people perceive it in these terms. As a result, it is bringing into question the theology and core values of Red Bank Baptist Church," church leaders Jeff Wright and Mike Dennis said in the letter.
Baker, a former member of the church’s congregation himself, was commissioned to make the statue for Red Bank in 2007.
In a response letter, Baker told the church leaders that he wanted the Christ statue to appear to be stepping out in a symbol of the Lord’s commission, and that the other images in the reliefs were based on basic facts about Christ's life which can be found in the Bible.
“Under each arm the reliefs depict scriptural and historical events that we as Christians........
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That’s just bizarre. I think this congregation obviously has some deeper issue with Catholics. It’s unfortunate.
At least I’m not the only one who struggles with assumptions. They say the devil’s in the details, but I think he owns us with our assumptions.
Here we have so many smart, motivated people very much in an earnest pursuit of Truth, and who are utterly sure of their understanding, yet they are in unbending opposition with each other.
Clearly, we humans will feud about anything, but especially about God!
As a “for what it’s worth”, this is an excerpt from today’s TLIG emailed message I The Lord Have Crowned My Mother As Queen Of Heaven; February 10, 1988:
I, who am God, grew in My Mother's Womb; She nourished your God, creation! I fed from Her; I, who am the Word, love Her and honour Her; Vassula, in the very beginning I had given you an account of My Crucifixion; 1 remember when I said, "My gaze fell on My Mother, I looked upon Her and Our Hearts spoke: 2 I am giving you My beloved children to be Your children too, You are to be their Mother,"I think it’s hard for physical world beings to understand things of the spiritual world.Yes, Lord, but our brothers the Protestants say that what You uttered from the Cross was meant literally to John. Your Mother becoming a 'widow', being taken care of by John when You were not around. They also say that St. Mary is not 'God's Mother'.
yet, My Vassula, Scripture never lies; Scripture says those words, "Mother of my Lord"; Elizabeth, who was inspired by the Holy Spirit, spoke these words; write: "Of all women You are the most Blessed, and Blessed is the Fruit of Your Womb; why should I be honoured with a visit from the Mother of My Lord?"
the words I have said from My Cross are much deeper than many of you seem to understand; honour My Mother, who is your Holy Mother too;
As near as I can tell, religious statues appear to function sort like a telephone for the physical world believer and the spiritual world.
Rather than the objects themselves being idols or that the statues are being worshipped, they’re being used like focal points for our thoughts and intentions that help facilitate communication with Jesus and Mother Mary,
That’s just my observation, of course, but that’s how it looks to me.
Interesting info, thanks to you both!
“You Catholics are wrong because you believe X.”
“We don’t believe X.”
“Wrong again. Yes you do.”
* Aggressiveness: 100%
* Rigidity: 100%
* Openness: 0%
* Empathy: 0%
That congregation certainly does have every right to vote to remove the statue, and to make any other changes to their church they desire.
I found it bizarre because there is nothing about that statue that appears particularly Catholic to me. Some churches object to graven images in any form, but to my knowledge Baptists were not one of them. The fact that they didn’t just remove it but tagged it as being “too Catholic” tells me that at least some in that congregation have an issue with Catholics.
IMO some Protestant churches suffer from having too much democracy. I have friends whose son is a Baptist Minister. He was voted out of his prior church in a pretty callous political maneuver (some high-contributing members had a nephew who had just been ordained and who wanted the job).
GBA,
You made a good point in your post: “Rather than the objects themselves being idols or that the statues are being worshipped, they’re being used like focal points for our thoughts and intentions that help facilitate communication with Jesus....”
Along the lines of remembering a favorite hymn when preparing to pray. One is using the hymn as a tool for prayer and is not worshiping it.
Not pointing at any particular religious affiliation discussed in this thread, only that here is an important place, the place where Jacob was named Israel, because:
Genesis 32:30 And Jacob called the name of the place Peniel: for I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved.
Peniel is the "face of God". No matter what angle/ perspective (mercy, compassion, justice, love, et al) every one of God's faces is the face of truth. God has no other face but truth. WYSIWYG.
There's the expression out there about people not wanting to face the truth. Yet it's the truth that sets the people free.
And here is a thread about what Jesus looks like. Nobody knows!
Who can face the truth and live?
he that hath seen me hath seen the Father...
Somewhere up-thread was a remark about DaVinci painting Jesus as a blue-eyed European-looking fellow eating French bread at the Last Supper.
Oh come on now, everybody knows that it was 'Passover challah' on the table. ;)
Sorry; but THEIR words speak a LOT louder than yours do.
They ARE??
And just HOW do YOU know this?
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"One indeed is the universal Church of the faithful, outside which no one at all is saved, in which the priest himself is the sacrifice, Jesus Christ, whose body and blood are truly contained in the sacrament of the altar under the species of bread and wine; the bread (changed) into His body by the divine power of transubstantiation, and the wine into the blood, so that to accomplish the mystery of unity we ourselves receive from His (nature) what He Himself received from ours."
--Pope Innocent III and Lateran Council IV (A.D. 1215)
Really NOT the same thing as displaying a crucified Christ still hanging there. You get that, right?
Is this (Paul's testimony) the reason why Catholic churches often have crucifixes rather than an empty and resurrection-affirming cross?
It's like:
"I made this pie. I know what went into it. Look here: cherries. It's a cherry pie."
"It's not blueberry?"
"No."
"How rigid!"
"I made this pie. I know what went into it. It's a cherry pie."
"But look. These are blueberries."
"No."
"Look!!
"No!!
"How rigid."
"2 + 2 = 4. 2 + 2 is ALWAYS 4."
"Not 6?"
"No. I'm entitled to be quite rigid about that."
The mistake comes in when somebody imputes motives which are not there.
"You put Christ's body on the crucifix because you think He's still hanging there!"
(False)
"You display a bare cross because you think the instrument of torture is more important than the person!"
(False)
So, I ask again - not to be cantankerous - why display a crucifix?
To meditate on the passion and death of Jesus Christ.
There's the problem. You are making -- as I think you realize --- an unwarranted assumption there.
When I was a little girl, my parish had a large carved black wood crucifix in one corner of the church. Of course it was not realistic, because I'm quite sure Christ's cross was not made of polished ebony, and even surer that His flesh and his minimal garment were not both ebony-black. But this crucifix impressed me (the moreso, I'm sure, because I was very little, and this crucifix --- probably less than life-size -- looked huge to me.)
What it did for me, is fix in my mind and heart the Lord's sorrowful Passion for my sake. It made me sad for human sins which made Him suffer so. It made me want to console Him.
I think the same is true for any depiction of His suffering which includes moving details, very much including the written depictions in the four Gospels, and the hymns associated with these sorrowful events:
I'm sure you can think of other examples. These words display as much, or more, than the crucifix. They are as graphic as any ebony carving on a wall.
Why all this detail about thorn-crowned head, and wounds, and agony, and blood: fountains of blood, rivers of blood?
To convert our hearts, I think. To fix in our mind's eye the Lord's sorrowful Passion for our sake. To make us sad for human sins which made Him suffer so. To remind us that we owe Him everything. To make us want to live for Him.
You’ve nailed it.
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